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Question of the day

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Obama

What specific education reforms do you support and why?

While you’re mulling that over, I thought I’d ressurect part of a pre-election subscribers-only post for you today…

A+ Illinois, which has advocated for an SB750-type solution to education funding and property tax woes, has been active in this year’s election. They’re not giving money to candidates, but they are sending out a lot of direct mail and doing robocalls. Here’s an e-mail from an A+ Illinois spokesperson:

We’ve dropped somewhere around $200K worth of mail and robocalls to targeted voters in over 4,000 precincts across roughly ten days.

Our outreach is targeted with far more sophistication than most legislative races. For example, we’ve been able to cross-reference voter registration lists with marketing data to focus our message on registered voters who are parents with children under the age of 18 in the home. […]

In addition to the direct mail and robocalls, we’ve obtained the e-mail addresses for roughly 1/4 of the voters we’re targeting, and they’ll be getting 2-3 emails from us in coming days

I’m told we can expect this group to spend a ton of money next spring. Here’s pretty much their entire mail program:

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 4:26 am

Comments

Reform the ISBE into a true standards body; i.e. stop playing with its tests not only for students but also for teacher (certifications).

Comment by Truthful James Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 8:51 am
A HB/SB750-style, multifaceted approach is the way to go. Nearly everyone can point to one or two things they don’t like in that behemoth bill. But there’s never going to be such a comprehensive piece of legislation (to improve not only education funding but state finances in general) that’ll make everyone 100% happy. It’s all about finding the most common ground possible. And elected officials finding the guts to say just that: “This is the most common ground possible, it will fix a lot of problems, and it’s time to quit talking and start acting. So I’m voting ‘aye.’”

Comment by Anani Mouse Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:05 am
Vouchers is the only means to affect real educational change and ultimately competition for the public school tax cash sink-hole.

Comment by Pat Hickey Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:10 am
The Rodster would likely line item veto the revenue gusher and let the swap stand with the extension of sales taxes to services. and whatever change in the corporate income tax was necessary.

BTW does A+ have to declare their sources of funding or does that remain a Mystery?

Comment by Truthful James Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:16 am
Take tenure away from the Teacher’s Unions. What other job can you work for 4 years and then never be fired except in the case you physically abuse a student or are grossly incompetent?

Comment by grh45 Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:23 am
I went to a horrific city school. Instead of dropping out, which I wanted to do, I was encouraged to skip a grade and graduate earlier.

The problem wasn’t money. My school qualified for lots of money since it was full of low income students with lots of special needs.

The problem wasn’t teachers. I saw great teachers physically assaulted and abused. I watched my history teacher get stabbed during one of the weekly gang riots. I witnessed my science teacher get punched when he tried to stop kids from vandalizing his classroom.

The problem seems to be what cannot be fixed by government. I saw fatherless, drug-addled school friends drag their miserable lives down hallways, ready to explode. They wore new trendy clothes, watched all the right movies, had sex with whomever they wanted, and repeatedly told how victimized they were by society. My school had a 37% drop out rate and more truant officers than counselors.

I carried a knife until they put in metal detectors and guards. My bus was attacked by a gang which dragged all the guys off the bus and beat them. I was able to run away, but my brother ended up in the hospital and has facial scars today.

When I think of the hell hole that I survived, and know that the situation continues today, I am very cynical about anyone claiming they have a fix. Our school system don’t need a “fix” - it needs to be blown up.

I favor freedom. I favor choice. Parents and children should not be forced to endure a hell hole simply because of an archaic idea that your home address dictates your school. The idea that there is ONE school you must attend should have died with the Soviet Union. The idea that everyone must attend the same school contradicts any belief in individuality. The idea that you must attend a school because of your skin color is racist.

I look forward to the day that citizens are free to choose their children’s education, regardless of where they live. Every child deserves a chance, right?

Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:24 am
In summary, sunshine on what public school teachers and administrators are doing and a substantive increase in monies mandated for the classroom with a commensurate reduction in the percentage allowed for administration.

Short-term (one or two year) teacher, principal
and administrator employment contracts with renewal and or raises linked to achieveent of specific national goals of students (or school systems) in their classroom or, in the case of administrators, school or school district. No more lifetime job security unrelated to performance.

Publish the names of each public school teacher in the local newspaper and in a state database showing test scores for the year, salary, number of days taken off (teacher absenteeism is inadequately tracked)taken and other relevant statistics. Show this data in relation to teachers in similar positions in schools across the state. Make this available on demand to parents of incoming students. Also list the ones who don’t teach in a regular classroom and describe what they ARE doing.

There are a lot of really, really bad teachers out there in our expensive school systems and few parents have the time and energy to ferret them out and get rid of them. Making this type of information available to all parents would make
the task of parent/consumers much easier.

Increase the percentage of school monies required to go directly to the classroom statewide. Reduce the administrative allotment statewide. Penalize schools who don’t comply by granting fewer state education monies to those schools.

If we sent our kids to private schools, we would have access to information and accountability. The same should be true of public school consumers.

Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:32 am
VM,
That was probably the most insightful,truthful, revealing post that you have ever written. The problem for many schools of the type you describe is not related to money.
Don’t expect the schools to solve society’s problems. They should not be used as medical clinics, social centers, food distribution centers,juvenile detention centers, etc..
A school will only be as good as the families that use them. That is why choice is not the answer.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:36 am
I would like to see the students tested at the start of the school year and then retested at the end and for schools & teachers to be judged based on how much the students learned, not just raw scores. A teacher who gets a classroom of children who are reading 3 years behind grade level and gets them up to where they are only a year behind grade level should be rewarded not punished.

I’d like to see the limit on charter schools lifted. It’s largely a fig leaf anyway in Chicago (campuses & extensions indeed) and I see no reason to put an artificial limit on a concept that parents like.

I’m not a fan of HB750. I don’t think lack of money is the root problem and last time I ran the numbers I saw people in modest suburbs & Chicago neighborhoods seeing substantial tax increases.

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 10:32 am
Bill –

What you are seeing (and VM saw) is the unnatural results of the “War on Poverty” which removed families as a protected species and kept people in place in the urban plantations. Three generations later…you want to keep the good, the bad and the ugly in the public school prison.

Is it the families, or is it the union system which sends underqualified and inexperienced teachers into the worst schools? And by the way, what an elitist remark about the families.

Charter schools and choice are the only ways out of the morass. Their existence will force the public school systems to organize themselves and to get better. They offer a lower cost per student alternative, which means that the Blackboard jungles should have more money for reform.

Comment by Truthful James Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 10:35 am
Cassandra, did you get paddled by your fourth grade teacher, by any chance?

I thought your rants about State workers were over the top until I read today’s post.

Your premise of increasing money to the classroom and reducing overhead is reasonable, as is the notion that lifetime tenure may not always be consistent with job performance.

However, your remedies are ill-conceived and would not help achieve the stated goals.

Apart from causing a serious problem at the bargaining table, the idea of publicly printing teachers’ annual absences is unlikely to reduce the rate of absenteeism to any significant extent. (The primary cause of extended absence for most teachers is maternity leave or disability, not a sick day here or there.) Teachers’ salaries are currently required by the School Code to be published annually in a newspaper circulating in or near the district, as are annual test score results.

Moreover, it is not the responsibility of parents to “ferret out” bad teachers, it is the district administration and School Board. If the parents don’t like the results, they can ferret out their concerns at the ballot box.

Finally, you are very misinformed about the level of “information and accountability” provided by private schools. If anything, they tend to operate in a more secretive fashion than a public school, never publishing more than very basic budgetary and personnel data-unless a fund drive is about to commence.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 10:41 am
Vouchers and more charter schools. If parents will be active in their kids lives, let them palce them in a school that will help get the job done. DOn’t hamstring families by keeping them in dangerous schools.

I also support school breakfst/lunches as many kids don’t get a healthy decent meal (not including McDonald’s)

Group kids by ability. If a kid should be in honors, don’t keep him/her in a classroom with a remedial level learning child. I am not sure how much this is done in reality, but don’t dumb down anyone.

Same sex schools is fine. It should reduce some of the distractions as kids are becoming more interested in the opposite sex at an earlier and earlier age.

Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 10:42 am
I want to be sure that charters and vouchers are kept separate in this discussion. Charters are PUBLIC institutions that provide free education to the students-the money follows the child, but stays in a public system (unlike a voucher system which bleeds money from public schools without putting anything back). I also agree that the charter cap should be lifted and am a charter advocate not because of the idea of “choice” which I think is the weakest argument for the existence of charter schools, but rather because charter schools have the autonomy to serve their students better. Examples: Charters are generally smaller, hence providing more personalized learning opportunities and more opportunities for parents to be involved; They are able to create a curriculum tailored to their students and community needs (often created around a particular theme instead of whatever the district mandates); They are able to demand more from their teachers (longer hours), but as a result pay them more (thanks to extra fundraising efforts). I have been in many charters and traditional public schools around Chicago and the differences are amazing.

Comment by Educator Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 11:58 am
Discipline in the classroom needs to be addressed in the problem schools.

We need to expect more from our schools.

Teacher burn-out needs to be addressed.

We need some sort of system to make sure students arrive prepared to learn.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 12:26 pm
Rather than testing students already in school, test them when they first start school and publish the results. Rather than blaming schools for not preparing students and failing to meet standards, perhaps that might show that many parents aren’t doing enough to get their children ready for school. Those parents who fail to meet incoming student standards would have their taxes increased to make up for being a drag on the rest of society. Perhaps that would make them care about their children’s education.

As long as we’re talking impossible ideas, let’s add an abolishment of tenure onto HB/SB 750 and see if the unions and activists are still so in favor of it. Perhaps then we’d know if it’s about the kids or the cash.

As for discipline int he classrooms, don’t forget, Chopper Jim favored a return of paddling in public schools and he got no love in the GOP primary.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 1:01 pm
Bill - “A school will only be as good as the families that use them. That is why choice is not the answer.”

Not sure I get your point. Are you saying that “good” families must suffer because if they leave a school, only the “bad” families will make the school even ‘worse’? If a “good” family chooses to take their business elsewhere, why should choosing a school be any different than choosing any other consumer service? Private schools, especially colleges, have known this for a long time, and compete with each other, thereby improving the level of service provided.

Comment by Team America, World Police Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 1:06 pm
First, we need to address the “collective bargaining” issue and repeal the Education Labor Relations Act, signed into law around 1983 by alleged Republican Governor Jimmy T.

Schools should be able to set salary and benefit schedules based on the best interest of the children and community and available resources, not the bullying of a teacher’s union.

This would entail making all teachers “free to choose” where they wish to work. If they are good enough to negotiate a higher salary on their own behalf, they should be able to do so instead of being forced to be “represented” by the single bargaining agent required by the law.

Next, get rid of tenure protection. If teachers or adminstrators are being paid more than their value to the children and district, they should be given the choice between “right sizing” their salaries or finding another district that’s willing to subsidize them.

Far too many teachers, from overspending Burbs to featherbedded city, are at the top of the salary scale yet are less effective than teachers with a couple years experience. It’s not that they CAN’T be effective, it’s that they just schlep by using old tests and use that old bromide “I get paid whether you learn or not” to describe their attitude.

“Merit” compensation should be based on team success, not individual success. Demming showed us that everyone on a team should have a stake in the team, and “weak links” should receive help and peer pressure to pick up their game.

If a few bad teachers are costing the quality majority their performance bonuses for the school, they should be able to “weed them out”.

Home work should all be done in school. and the school year should be much longer for elementary school, and “fun electives” should be reserved for summer work in high school.

When I taught honors physics in a private high school, I never saw much sense in having a student struggle at home, or rely on a parent to do my teaching for me. Besides, how many parents are going to be able to respond to questions like, “Mom, I’m having trouble reconciling Einstein and Newton’s laws of space curvature vs linearity and the space-time continuum effects on time dilation. Can you give me a hand here?”

Bottom line: More teacher and District accountability in paychecks, not just paper reports, power to the people rather than the unions, more class time and less “dumping” school responsibilities on parents for student performance.

Any questions, Bill?

PS: Luxury Yacht, I’ll be looking for the appropriate reference for you tonight.

Comment by PalosParkBob Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 1:15 pm
Homework is more than about learning off school time. It’s about practising the methods (in Math which I’m most familiar with) so that you learn application and about teaching children to be responsible–if they are to turn in a paper or assignment they’d better do so on time.

Plus when I was in school I was bored as tears about the amount of review that went on already, I can’t imagine having to sit through doing of homework with kids who haven’t got the concept and likely won’t get the concept.

I don’t think the union is the problem here either. Do some teachers just slide through? Yes. But their bodies are still needed. There simply aren’t enough high quality teachers interested in teaching difficult to reach children who’ve had poor preparation from their parents and frequently have poor attitudes.

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 1:25 pm
Arthur–

If I ask my private school for information and they won’t provide it, I have a choice…I can move the kids to another school. Public school parents have far fewer choices that don’t involve major disruption like pulling up stakes and moving someplace else.

As to absenteeism…it’s a problem, whatever the reason. I suppose an alternative would be to publish certain type of absenteeim, such as certain patterns of intermitten absences, but the fact is, if the teacher isn’t there, the quality of the education suffers. Schools are not welfare for teachers. We have a right to know if the teachers are there or not.

And, sorry, I don’t care about the teacher’s union. They are responsible for a major chunk of public education’s problems. When I send little Susie off to school in September, I want to know exactly what her teacher’s record is–absenteeism, test scores of previous classes,
salary, and I want it on a grid comparing the teacher with other teachers locally and statewide. What makes you think that in many cases this information might not reflect positively teachers, by the way. And if it doesn’t, I should have some choices.

Again, public education has been welfare for teachers and education bureaucrats for way too long.

If I were Rev Meeks making these demands, would you feel better? If I recall, he has expressed major concerns about an overabundance of less qualified teachers in the inner city. And he’s right.

Comment by Cassandra Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 1:28 pm
Charter schools are a scam and an attempt to privatize what is mandated by the constitution to be a public function. Charter schools, absolved from state regulations regarding teacher and administrator certification, are the schools which are hiring less qualified and in many cases, unqualified teachers.
As far as quality is concerned, research shows that charter schools fare no better than regular neighborhood schools where enrollment restrictions are similar. A neighborhood public school must accept any student who lives within school boundaries. A charter school can skim off the best students leaving “what’s left” for the neighborhood public school.
Teacher unions provide some protection for teachers who would otherwise be at the mercy of people like Bob.
Everyone has school choice. There are is a wide variety of private schools to choose from. There is also home schooling. Just don’t ask taxpayers to pay for them.
Truthful,
The truth is not elitist.

Comment by Bill Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 2:44 pm
I think I could support some sort of tax swap property/sales/income to reduce the reliance on property taxes.

I do not think we should continue to fund failing schools. Our kids deserve a good education. Throwing good money after bad while the children are failing to learn must cease.

I have tried to follow the Gates Foundation’s http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/Education/ efforts in which they have altered the traditional school format of regular schedule & text books to an irregular format utilizing laptop computers for all students.

Comment by Larry Mullholland Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 2:48 pm
Bill,

Charters don’t have the right to skim off students. They must accept those who apply independent of test scores (yes, they do limit enrollment but not by test scores). They do however have the right to disenroll students who don’t fit in with their curriculum and style. I suppose that could lead to some sort of ability sorting but the numbers of those disenrolled don’t appear to be significant enough.

Charters are popular with parents, maybe not so much for the academics as for the feeling of safety they engender by keeping their children away from truly disturbed children who would at the least disrupt their learning time (in some schools, teachers must spend 50% of their time just in classroom management!) and at the most victimize them.

Until the public school system figures out how to remove discipline cases and gang-bangers from the public school system, I will continue to see a need for charters.

Comment by cermak_rd Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 3:03 pm
SB/HB 750 is supposed to do three things:

1) Reduce reliance on property taxes to fund schools by swapping some of them for income tax.

2) Provide a mechanism for equitable distribution of funding of all school districts

3) Raise the percentage of school funding coming from the state from its current 37-38% closer to the 50% that Illinois is supposed to be paying.

1) and 2) are good ideas but I worry about 3). My district rep. says there’s no guarantee that the money will be used they way they say it will. Flashbacks to the lottery bailing out the system, anyone?

Comment by yinn Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 3:14 pm
Yinn raises an interesting point in regards to the third thing SB/HB 750 is supposed to do — raise the state funding of education closer to 50 percent.

Here’s the question: What schools get the lowest percentage of state assistance per pupil?
Answer: Wealth suburban schools.
This is why the 50 percent state funding argument is mostly a sham. It’s advocates are using wealth school districts to help argue their case. The districts that get only 10 or 15 percent of their funding from the state are the wealthy suburban ones where homes are incredibly expensive and tax bills huge. In comparrison, many of the rural or poor schools that most people would say are most in need of greater financial help already get 50 percent or more of their money from the state in the form of general state aid bumping them up to the foundation level because local property values and taxes don’t produce enough.
Then there are those that want to require the state fund 50 percent of education.
Think about it. If the state were legally or constitutionally required to provide at least half of the education budget in every public school, it would cost billions of dollars with the largest share going to already wealthy suburban schools that currently small percentages from the state.

Comment by Michelle Flaherty Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 4:07 pm
HB750 is a sham. Advertising this as a “tax swap” is dishonest. A swap implies there is some equity… This is all about trying to get raises for teachers. Call it what it is and stop using the children. Check out their salaries and compute their hourly wages after their time-off for holidays, Christmas break, spring break, and the summer. What percentage of the $$$ from HB750 will end up in higher salaries for teachers and administrators? That’s the question I would like to see answered.

Comment by Holdingontomywallet Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 7:22 pm
“HOLDING” IS THE TYPICAL CRICTIC OF 750…COMPLAIN BUT PUT NOTHING DOWN ON PAPER. SO THE TAX SWAP IS BAD? GOT A BETTER IDEAL TO DECREASE THE DISPARITY? IF ACCOUNTABILTY IS NEEDED TO ENSURE THAT MONEY GOES TO THE CHILD, I AGREE. ARE THERE BAD TEACHERS..YEP. BUT THE GOAL OF 750 IS TO LEVEL UP THE BOTTOM FUNDED SCHOOL DISTRICTS ACROSS THE STATE.

IF YOU CUT ALL THE TEACHERS SALERIES(BY THE WAY, TEACHERS FROM AFFLUENT AREAS ARE PAID MORE) , HOLIDAYS AND SUCH, AND A DISPARITY STILL WOULD EXIST.

Comment by WWDMD Wednesday, Jan 3, 07 @ 9:50 pm
my 2 cents:

Teachers are almost universally underpaid, period. Much of the time the salary figures don’t take into account the unpaid summers. In survey after survey, the folks who shape your kid’s mind and future are getting paid less than ditch diggers. How can that be right?

The process of textbook selection and purchase is horribly broken in this and many more states. Laptops are not the answer to bad books IMO, they can only somewhat supplement weak textbooks and their technical andmmanitaneance requirements and costs offset most of any “savings” they give from making the texts electronically updateable or interactive. Laptops are best used for rote drills and testing as well as internet access for research. But back to books: My kid was having math trouble. During a teacher conference, she suggested we supplement the kid at home with a different math book from that which our school uses. The differences and improvements were clear and immediate. Later, we asked the teacher why, if this Saxon series of math books was so much better, didn’t the schools themselves use them? We knew the answer before we asked the question, as we paid retail for the books. I’ve harped on this before: my kid brings home a new social studies/history/civics book. It contains an illustrated list of famous Americans thru history. I flip thru it and look at the “A” section: Armstrong, Bess. Okay.
Armstrong, Louis, okay.

Armstrong, Neil? NOT THERE AT ALL.
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot!
The books have problems!

I do put a lot of the “education problem” on the shoulders of inferior parenting and alack of involvement, where parents do not know their teacher’s names or the principal’s name, unless the kid is in trouble. We keep in close contact with our teachers and administrators, hence, they are responsive to us, and we to them.

The schools, especially public ones, are also tasked with an ever-growing list of secondary and tertiary health and welfare tasks taken on in great part because parents and other local institutions have failed their kids. There are only a set number of minutes in the day and the extra requirements of NCLB and other social programs keep bleeding minutes of classroom time and hours of prep time away from fundamentals as well as electives that develop the Whole Child. Something has to give, I personally think you might as well take school to five o clock if you’re making a daycare and parental replacement out of it, at least that would open up some more available time and money for arts, music, CIVICS, geography, history, SCIENCE, languages, speech. As well as athletics or if not more team sports, access to a gym, pool, and workout equipment to keep the kids in better physical shape. Or remedial work and special tutoring for those falling behind. You’d be taking the money spent on 3-5PMPM daycare places and putting it back into school programs. I’d be glad to pay more for these things.

Comment by Gregor Thursday, Jan 4, 07 @ 12:55 am
It is proven there is no correlation between increases in education funding and better education for the kids. Education should be allowed to be privatized and get government out of it. Government ran programs are never the best ran programs, that again, proven time after time.
Tenure should have never been allowed to protect those people who should not and cannot teach. We need to get back to core freedoms here, freedom of choice - parents should be able to get their kids in the best schools possible. How can we have under-performing schools with the government running them? Again, another reason for privatization of the system to improve it. Government should set the standards for education, and leave the job to those better qualified to do it, with no hidden agendas behind them. Kids should be going to school at least 11 months per year and if they don’t meet minimum requirements, they don’t pass and graduate. This environment of trying to protect feelings and not traumatize someone because they didn’t put forth the effort to learn is rapidly causing this country to lose its standing in the world community. How do you justify granting the same high school diploma to a kid who can barely read and whose handwriting is almost illegible as you give the class valedictorian? I can’t. The answer to that is not more money either. If we’re short on funds, then educate the kids and forget the weekly football game. They’re supposed to be there to learn, to be educated, not to be entertained or baby-sat.

Comment by Sahims2 Thursday, Jan 4, 07 @ 7:15 am
Private schools seldom expel students and aren’t in a position to be financially choosy. That is a lie. When I went to Catholic school, there were some kids there who I thought should be expelled, looking back. But Bill and his ilk are full of it.

Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jan 4, 07 @ 10:21 am
Almost everybody seems to get it. Education is a threelegged stool on which the student sits. The legs are, variously, the family, the teachers and the guv’mint. The problem is that in mnay cases the parent leg for the individual student is foreshortened. In addition to the usual family dysfunctions, we have parents whose schooling has convinced them that education is neither an economic or a social good.

So the problem is wider than education. Solving this problem requires welfare reforms, including, for all those undereducated parents who either left school early or graduated by smoke and mirrors, education of the parent must be a condition of welfare payments.

It also requires that on behalf of the family which has been rendered by welfare regulations, that we reconsider the underuse of the schoolhouses. Public schoolhouses need to be centers of activity (paid from various sources) for the entire day from very early morning to evening. They also need to be the center points for public transportation moving to places of employment.

Consider the use in the early morning as adults and children are delivered by the school bus system from homes. Breakfast, day care, training and education for the adults (retested at the GED level) and regular school for the children. Movement onward for the adults to jobs on a dedicated public transportation system. Return in the late afternoon to the schoolhouse where school children and day care kids are put on the school bus home. Flesh out that idea.

Next, the teachers. There has been much talk in this thread about what I call the teacher protection system. They are not underpaid. When you can start at 30K plus all the benefits with, when you have perfect job protection and constant raises winding up at 90K plus. When competitive entry into the system is barred by gatekeepers, when education degrees and one time certification in the subject matter area are all that is needed, when you are rewarded with raises for taking additional education courses but can’t qualify for graduate coursework in the subject matter you teach, you are not underpaid.

The union is organized like a blue collar industrial union of the 1930s. The difference is that the managers — the administrators are also cut from the same mold, graduated from the same education schools — and the ISBE, the standard writing entity, as well. Their tests have been dumbed down and results normed up. They have lowered the certification requirements in subject matter areas.

The fear is that competition (charter schools, vouchers) will throw teachers out of work. Nonsense, the more qualified schools, the more available jobs. The fear may be is that it will cost more. Nonsense, costs can be limited for vouchers. The fear may be that not only good students but also good teachers will go to voucher driven schools. Then it is up to the teachers to cleanse themselves and why not. Class sizes will be smaller. Done properly, the savings from a voucher system will accrue to the local District. More money for teachers and aides and related disciplinary people.

Remember what happened when the import cars started to sell huge. They built plants in the United States because their product had quality. In the old days, the American people expected defects. Now, the big three have made quality changes as well. The country, and the consumers of automobiles have been the better for it.

Why? Competition.

The third leg is the levels of government that support schools. Abstracting from the laughable ISBE, let’s talk responsibility. The federal government sees the nation fighting to see its economy competitive with the 21st Century world economy. Comparative studies show that an American education ranks at he bottom in the basics of math and science when compared with Europe and the five Asian tigers. remedial education of high school graduates is a fact of life on all college campuses, costing the student and his family time and money. Education Quality (sorry, Henry Ford) should be Job One.

Throughout these discussions there has been wishful misstatements regarding State responsibility in the education financing. Nowhere in the Act does it say that the State must fund 50% (or more). That is a leap of faith outside the language but what the ‘always want more money’ folk like to hear. The ‘primary responsibility for funding education’ language may be easily interpreted as ‘making laws to permit District latitude’

So the State has both revenue (of some sort) and education quality standards responsibilities. At present they have flunked the latter.

Local governments, the school boards, are a mixed bag. Some are supported by citizen caucus type organizations. Some are dominated by the administrators and by the PTA which claims to have elected them. They are blinded by the aforementioned test results which are carved to order by the ISBE.

All of this makes competitive choice, managed District by District if they are even handed, the only solution to get quality into the classroms.

Comment by Truthful James Thursday, Jan 4, 07 @ 12:02 pm