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Closing & Consolidating Schools
In his proposed budget, Governor John Kitzhaber suggested, among other things, consolidating schools and possibly districts. Well, some of that is already happening. Eugene is closing four elementary schools. In Clackamas County parents gave passionate testimony about a proposal to combine a magnet school with another elementary program, and potentially close two other schools.
Parents at the magnet school, Sojourner, are worried that the program will be diluted or fade away. Sojourner focuses on teaching to the multiple intelligences of children. We talked a bit about the school a couple years back on a show about innovation in education. PTA president Alicia Hamilton told me what she values in particular about the school:
The culture that is grown from the second you walk in the door in kindergarten. You stay with the same people for seven years. You all have to learn how to work together because people all learn in different ways. You have to learn as a community to accept people the way they are and figure out how to co-exist, and you do this through music, violin, Spanish...
Joe Krumm, the director of community relations for the North Clackamas School District says the Sojourner decision is:
a little slice of a giant pie of change. The bigger pie is how many other school districts in the state are closing schools. Districts are looking at massive reductions.
But then there's Governor Kitzhaber saying schools will get more money this coming year than last. On Thursday's show from Salem we heard lawmakers want to get the schools budget done early.
Is consolidating schools a good idea? What impact will consolidation have on education — and the education budget — now and in the future? What do you think of the decisions being made about K-12 schools this year?
Tagged as: education · high school · school
Photo credit: Drew Wertheimer / Creative Commons
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Why stop with just virtual schools? We know that Conservatives want to get rid of public schools because they consider them "socialism", so why not stop public education totally and just send computer virtual "Sims" children to your "virtual schools" and get human kids and human teachers out of the way completely?
If "God' wanted children to be educated they would have been born that way, right? Er, far right?
Snerk.
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I read a column on education by George Wills in a recent issue of the Eugene Register Guard. He notes a very interesting fact about countries enjoying greater success than the USA in educating their kids; he mentions Korea and, I think, Singapore among others.
While we yammer all the time about the Number One importance of a good education for our kids (our future) the Asians actually do somehing to insure this outcome. Only the top 10% or so of graduates may become teachers in these nations!!! In the US most teachers fall into the lower half of scholastic rankings in their colleges.
If we are sincere about our desire to catch up with our Asian competition ought we not be making sure that only our brightest graduates become teachers? Putting people in front of a class that are NOT the best and brightest grads surely must have something to do with our dismal performance vis-a-vis our emerging Asian competition?
If we think this isn't an important issue (as we appear to do) then I suppose we will continue to allow PC and quotas to dictate school hiring practices and suffer the economic consequences dependant on our ability to turn out a well educated and competitive work force.
Ignoring this factor would be one more example of our misguided belief in American exceptionalism.
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Singapore also gives tax incentives for college graduates (most intelligent in society) to have children thus making the population more intelligent. We (America) really need to have some progressive thinking in population management, but I am afraid the pandering political correctness will mire us in a sea of vapid, obese, government dependent ballast that will eventually sink this ship of state.
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Schools are "social" not socialistic. It is where we learn to play well in the sand box. Look how well we play in the "virtual" world of flames and sniping. So face-to-face still has its place over a virtual school. The conservatives of this world were the ones behind the acts that gave the 16th section of every township to education funds. (That is at least 1/36th of what land sold for to schools. Not shabby as a percentage.) Conservatives pointed out that a Baby Boom was in place and some districts heard them and didn't overbuild in the 50s and 60s. (Portland was clueless then.) What we have had over the last 40 years is the salami game of thousands of cuts and the locals holding only the string of an old building not able to meet current demands. So we are strapped both on construction and operational budgets.
I thought I had a "poor" (based on the lowest bidder routine and looking at "Big City" schools) education in a very rural Oregon school in the 50s and 60s, but looking back, it was a holiday compared to today. PE with showers, a good library, bands galore, sports with even intramural teams, and food in the cafeteria that one could be proud to serve at home. Plus science labs to blow up things in. Teachers active as leaders of all sorts of clubs. Shop and auto classes. What happened?
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"Virtual Schools"
Or just sit the kids down in front of a TV and have that great Professor Glenn Beck "educate" them into Conservatism for five hours a day.
That Ranting Rasputin is really creative in history revisionism and the best part is that he doesn't do Logic and Rationality, and has no Critical Thinking Skills.
Voila! You get cheap dumb labor living in fear and easily manipulated in submissive compliance, just right for the Conservative Corporate State.
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I suggest that each of the closed schools be renamed a Ronald Reagan school, because his massive wealth redistribution scheme from the middle and working classes to the very wealthy top two percent through tax cuts for the wealthy has had the result that we can no longer afford to properly fund the education of our children.
We gave massive "Income" raises to the wealthy, on the backs of our children.
Ronald Reagan and Grover Norquist and their wealthy Conservative backers have won!
Grr!
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For Defund,
Instead of investing in our brightest students and most productive indivduals we SUBSIDIZE the least productive through all the Great Society programs begun by LBJ and continue until this day.
We have two choices: We can continue to pursue PC and subsiize the least productive segment of our diverse population and make sure they breed as many kids as they/we wish to carry in the safetynet or we can choose instead to reward the best and brightest and subsidize THEIR educations instead. They will not require welfare if they are given the education opportunities needed for success.
It is impossible to subsidize a large segment of the population and simultaneously yoke the brightest to the dead weight of a poor education system designed to comfort the lowest common denominator.
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gereng
Actually, the "least productive" of our nation are the children with inherited wealth. They did no work to acquire that wealth, they make no product like a car or skateboard and they sell no service like car repair or skateboard repair.
We unwisely "subsidize" them with tax cuts for the wealthy and the repeal of the Estate tax.
They do not earn their way in life, they are more like parasites like tapeworms on the people who actually do work and actually create wealth.
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Our children are the future. They should be rated number 1. They need education to develop skills to be leaders of the future. There will be no future with out children. North Clackamas school district purchased a property for over 3 million dollars. This property is rumored to be the new district office. I think the school should sale the property and use the money for the budget shortfall. Students go to schools that are old and over crowd in this district. Ask North Clackamas residents if they think the new property should be sold. The district could also use one of the schools they plan on closing for office space. Please don't consolidate or close schools. Make cuts elsewhere!
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If that is the case, how come our teachers are recruited from the lower half of college scholastic ranks rather than the upper 10 or 20% of graduates as the more successful countries are doing? If scholastic achievement is related to success in every other sector of the economy why do we act as if the teaching profession is exempted? This is especially critical as everything else depends on an educated workforce.
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To Tom above,
I agree with your comments and recommendations. But try and convince a wholly corrupt Congress to reinstate inheritence laws! Ha! Fat chance. In any case I think we would be shocked at how few people we would be affecting, if it is true that the numbers of this particular class of parasites have drastically declined as a function of wealth concentration in fewer and fewer hands. However, the amount of money would be staggering.
But that other third and forth generation class of freeloaders are definitely here and their percentage in the population may be growing. Maintaining them in fine breeding condition as more deserving folks lose everything and start competing for that shrinking pie with the perennial freeloaders, well, therein lies the rub.
It is an incredibly harsh and cruel world, Tom, and several decades of unwise policies have led to an unexpected invitation for America to join and partcipate.
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gereng
If you want to get better teachers you can change the tax laws and rules of compensation so that the best and brightest are incentivized to become teachers rather than employees in industry.
And get Conservatives off of the school boards and administrations. I have seen so many great and dedicated teachers quit teaching because of the Conservatives that are installed in school administrations and crush the creative initiatives of great teachers.
Remember, Conservatives are against "Change" and the primary and essential function of education is to "Change" students into well educated adults.
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A major constraint are teachers' unions which have fought tooth and nail any and all changes in the way teachers are hired, evaluated and fired. No doubt conservatives are fixtures on many school boards. What are your specific complaints about existing school boards? It appears to me that they are required to work within Federal guidlines and these may be the major constraint on fixing the system at the local level.
I'm not convinced more change is needed. Our public school system has been in a constant state of being "fixed" as long as I can remember. The constant fiddling may itself be a major impedement to obtain a better result. Teachers I know have complained that the never ending changes and imposition of new rules is their biggest headache.
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Can this be part of the problem, Tom?
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Over the last 20 years, the American Federation of Teachers has given more than $28 million in campaign contributions; the National Education Association has given almost $31 million. That’s almost $60 million in campaign contributions — but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t include uncoordinated expenditures like television ads or get out the vote efforts.
- There is no question, but what this is one of the top most powerful lobbying groups in Washington. If you think they are using that clout to improve student performance and graduation rates...you are sadly mistaken.
- I am 100% certain their input into every Federal education program is aimed at protecting their prerogatives and jobs. Anything proposed by the Dept of Educ must first pass that litmus test. If it has a negative impact on the way teachers are doing business, including a drive to remove poorly performing teachers and recruit from the higher scholastic levels of graduates would be resisted mightily.
the mediocrities that presently dominate the profession would be immediately threatened by raising the entry bar to a higher level. But a higher level of quality in the teaching profession is the key ingredient necessary to bring us to parity with the Asians with whom we now compete economcally. Really bright teachers can overcome amost any obstacle placed in the way of improving student performance by a lame brained bureaucracy. The run-of-the-mill plodders, never!
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I live in Milwaukie and have a student that has been on the waiting list at the Sojourner School for the last year.
I attended the meeting last week, where the district announced the proposed consolidation of the Sojourner and Concord schools.
Unfortunately, the meeting was very uninformative and showed me that the process thus far by the district has been poorly thought through.The information presented should been much further developed in how the proposed changes to the 2 schools would look once completed, and how the changes will affect the programs at each school. In reality, there were few, if any answers given about specifics.
From what I have observed, the waiting list at the Sojourner school is huge due to the amazing curriculum. It is by far the best quality curriculum I have seen over the last 18 months in my looking at public, private, and charter schools for my child. I am currently paying to send my child to a private school because the other options that I looked at within the North Clackamas School district did not meet my goals or expectations for my child's educational experience, and even the private school we are attending does not come close to the Sojourner School in terms of offering a quality, well rounded education.
My suggestion to the school board via email this last week was to take the following steps:
1. Look at the number of students on the waiting list who want into the Sojourner School.2. Find a larger facility to house the Sojourner School within the district.
3. Allow those on the waiting list the ability to enroll at the Sojourner School.
4. Allow the Sojourner School to retain the 6th grade, and then add 7th and 8th grades over the next 2 years. Possibly adding 9-12 later.
5. Then, look at the remaining small or under-performing schools within the district, and begin making the tough decisions of consolidation with those schools.
By taking these actions, N. Clackamas School Dist. could preserve a model of what all other schools in the region should aspire to become, and I think that they would find that the size of the school will grow to a point that it is more viable from an economical viewpoint as well.OPB- Thanks airing great local topics like this!
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I agree with your very brilliant idea! It is also another ways to enhance your knowledge and different fields and to learn more about credit report letter.
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Schools have been centralizing for decades. Districts have huge territories in the name of economy of scale. But if you look at the cost of transportation, the hidden elephant in school funding as one of the single largest overall system costs, one could have a very good system decentralizing for the same money.
Funny, when one reads Ivan Doig for other western writers, one finds wonderful stories of one room, one teacher schools. They taught all levels and did what "modern" school philosphy is aiming for in facilitating learning. Parents have been calling for "local" education for years. Maybe it is time to rethink that transportation fleet cost. And putting that money back into classrooms, not up some tail pipe in smoke.
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From what I've seen, the modern equivalent of the one room school house is either direct (one family) or cooperative (multi-family) home schooling.
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After reading these posts, I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest some long-term solutions that we can throw stones at...
1) Better teachers... we can either take an incentive approach to get the best and brightest or take a national service approach... all college grads can either do 2yrs in the military or 6yrs of civilian service (teaching). Incentivise early retiree's from industry to teach. Meritocracy.
2) More funding... phase out all federal and state income tax credits/deductions/dependencies for children over a period of 10yrs... link the added income for schools. One exception: Adopted children.
3) How education is delivered... parents choice subject to a 2yr probationary period... if the child isn't meeting standardized norms, then they're returned to a public classroom.
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Absolutely unworkable to phase out all federal and state income tax credits/deductions/dependencies.
On a federal level, we are already operating on a deficit basis, so it would be bordering on gross negligence to simply freeze a revenue/spending scheme. Additionally, sending dollars up to the feds, to be returned for local spending in schools isn't a very efficient process to begin with.
On a state level, my concern (based upon repeated demonstrations of this), is that the pols in Salem will simply play shell games, which they have anytime revenue streams are identified as designated for any given purpose.
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My apologies if #2 was too succinct... I wasn't talking about freezing a revenue/spending stream... I was talking about increasing one by removing the credits many now take for their children (as dependents, etc... myself included) from state and federal income taxes.
I acknowledge the inefficiencies of government, but until we change the funding model, public school funding will continue to come through government hands.
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Children must also be prepared by their parents to be the best and brightest. One commenter listed schools as social places where kids learn how to play in a social sandbox rather than how to pay attention and think.
In addition to better teachers, schools need better students. Parents need to make tough-love decisions like insuring their children read, calculate and think.
Children thrive when exposed to a breadth of ideas and opportunities. If parents are too busy with their careers to participate in educating their children then they should reorder their priorities.
Schools can't provide all the education and support children need. I realize we're talking closing and consolidating schools but let's not lose sight of the big picture. Fewer video games and less wasted time surfing the Internet are in order.
(Don't get me wrong: I rely heavily on the Internet, but I primarily use web surfing time to improve skills, make money, and leave steamy nuggets of wisdom on TOL's lawn.)
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I am writing in to you as a proud parent of a Sojourner child. The district proposal to combine Sojourner with Concord is very distressing. Sojourner is an award winning school. In 2008, it received the Intel School of Distinction/Star Innovator Award. This award included $25,000 in grants as well as over $100,000 in technology upgrades. There are many unique aspects to our school. There is music (children learn to play violin, recorder and can participate in the marimba band), daily physical exercise, Spanish, and electives. Twice a year (from kindergarten on), our children research a topic of their choice and make a presentation to their classmates. Further, a culture of acceptance and support is cultivated. Children are matched with older buddies who help teach them the rules.
Our students do not receive any additional money from the district for their programs. Instead, our teachers wear "multiple hats" (our principal is our PE teacher) and our parents put in a lot of volunteer hours (approximately 54 hours last year for each child). Plus, we have the burden to raise much needed staff funding through activities such as our annual auction (we raised $30,000 last year- not bad for a school of 182 students). Most parents at our school are not rich. We have the same percentage of free and reduced lunches as the district average.
Sojourner is a magnet school. This means that children from all over the district are eligible to apply and admission is by lottery. Before applying, parents have to go to an informational meeting and fill out an application. This way, parents understand the level of commitment needed. This is important as Sojourner is not a good fit for everyone.
At this point, all we have been told is that we are to blend with Concord, a neighborhood school. It is unclear what this means as I have heard from district officials both that the programs are to blend, as well as that we are simply sharing space with Concord. Indeed, one of the North Clackamas School District’s own reports states that the two schools will have separate tax ID’s so that the Concord kids will not lose their title 1 funding (the percentage of qualified kids goes below the minimum if the two schools truly blend). The document also states that these funds may not be used for Sojourner kids. No details have been shared about whether Sojourner will remain a magnet school and open to ALL families in the district, whether parents from Concord will be forced into the Sojourner model, or where the money and space requirements to deliver Sojourner programs to several hundred additional children will come from. It isn’t even clear if this many children will fit in the building. Based on the district’s own numbers, the school will be at 109% capacity. Sojourner should be grown but it must be slow growth so that we can retain the wonderful programs we have.
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One building, one campus, one school closing will not cure an ailing school system---nor will it break it. It is simply to balance a budget. It is the PEOPLE that make an education system successful or a failure.
The Problems of the Education System are Complex and Multifactorial. EVERYONE has a role in making a functional system:
-Diligent students that are motivated and disciplined. They must set time for learning, and not spend 5 hours a day on the internet, gaming, facebooking and watching tv.
-Teachers who have high expectations of excellence.
-Parents who are engaged and prioritize education and make sure homework gets done.
-Supportive administration. Handling discipline and social problems of students, so teachers can teach.
-A universal standard of curricula. All students should have basic fundamental understandings of science, math, and history. Why can't there be universal curriculum and standard textbooks from Maine to Hawaii? Why is there a 'Texas Science' textbook which stresses Creationism and downplays Darwin?
-An adaptative program that learns from its mistakes, and sets about corrections--the basics of learning.
Physical plant, school campuses, and finance are important but ancillary issues to a functional system. Any one step simple solution is delusional. Blaming the teachers is a bit of scapegoating. The problems are deeper and wider.
If our kids spent as much time doing math and science as they do on internet video gaming, we would be raising a new generation of world class leaders and thinkers. If children spent as much time reading books as they did facebooking, they would be college professors. IF they spent as much time learning languages as txtmsging, our children would be like Europeans--fluent in 4 languages by the time they are 18 yo. If people spent as much time learning statistics as they did watching pornography, we would be geniuses.
Processing involving people are complex and subject to individual choices.
When we are the DOMINANT WORLD SUPER-POWER, we could afford to waste time, make poor choices and be willfully ignorant. But the world turns and our poor choices and lack of discipline will cost us.
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I am a mom of two students who just found out that their school (Parker Elementary in Eugene) is closing. Our school fell victim to this closure because of several factors. Though we have been consistently rated as "outstanding" and many students choose to come to our school who live outside the boundary, our school is being mothballed.
Several years ago, our district redrew boundaries to put more low SES students into the "wealthy people's" schools. Our boundary was not redrawn. Subsequently, we have been drawing from a smaller pool of students. This resulted in our school having fewer students. The board made the decision to close schools with "low enrollment". But, they created the problem to begin with!
Our school was also slated to close because the board had wanted to move an alternative immersion program into it. The immersion program has been criticized because of it's location and the fact that if parents can't drive the kids to school, they're not going to go there. They wanted our building (only a few miles from their current site) to allow more access. This was really setting up a class warfare. Neighborhood school (caters to low SES) vs. alternative school (caters to higher SES).
The board ultimately decided NOT to move this school into ours. Instead, they are just mothballing our school - a perfectly good building that has lower operating costs. It is VERY expensive to simply mothball a school.
Shame on Eugene's school board!
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Education has changed since the model we have going now was established. The acquisition of knowledge/information is not sufficient anymore or even the most important thing. The internet puts more and better data/information at everyones fingertips.
What kids need to learn is reading, writing and math. They need to learn critical thinking, assess data and do something with it. No one learns these higher functions except in long term relationships.
Families, kids and parents need year round solutions in learning.
The dinosaur system we have needs to die.
And putting more kids on fewer campuses is a recipe for disaster.
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When we talk about budgets, we have to talk about the very low federal funding of IDEA - Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. In the mid 1970s when this Act was created, the Fed promised to fund this up to 40% of the cost of serving students with disabilities. For all these years the Federal funding has averaged about 11%. If the Feds would fully fund IDEA up to the promised 40%, our State School Fund would not be in the red.
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With parents eager for their kids to be labeled as 'special needs' so they get extra english or math (or one-on-one care) we heavily fund the lowest common denominator...imagine if parents were enticed by the idea of funds generated by their children scoring in the upper reaches of aptitude tests...let's go for re-enforcement of the positive and capable!
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I wonder if the costs of construction of school buildings can be addressed. If they can be made less fancy.
How about designing them in such a way that in the future when they are no longer needed, they can be easily converted into a business campus or shopping mall?
I went to one of my years of grade school (elementary) in a quonset hut on Eielson Air Force base in Alaska. That's about the simplest and least expensive you can get. And I've gone to really nice schools too, Like Western View Jr High in Corvallis, which had a huge welcoming hand tiled mural on the front.
So can schools be designed to be less expensive to build, yet function well over their lifespan of need, and then be readily converted to some other use?
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This made me remember the first time my relatives from Europe came to visit us on the south coast of Oregon and saw my high school (which sits atop a hill) from a distance... they asked if it was a prison... :-)
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Lake Oswego School board is voting tonight on whether to close 3 of the 9 elementary schools in our district. My daughter's school, Bryant Elementary, will be closed.
I understand, that with limited budgets, drastic cuts like this might be the only option. But none of these decisions are being made because they are the best choices educationally, they are ONLY being made to save money. It is shameful that we as a state don't fully fund our schools.
Our future as a nation is bleak if we can find trillions of dollars for war but can't offer our kids a world class education.
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Closing 3 of 9 schools allows the district to spend money more efficiently. Obviously 3 schools are underutilized. You can't always have the luxury of walking to your child's school. Considering the size of Lake Oswego I can't imagine the next nearest school is more than 5 minutes away. Lake Oswego provides some of the best public school education in the state, if not the Pacific Northwest.
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@ cfbednarak - No one in this argument is claiming these schools are being closed because they are underutilized. Everyone (from the superintendent to the school board) agrees that this is being done only to save money and that it is the "least bad option" among a list of bad options. These schools are only being closed so we don't have to increase class sizes or cut programs.
Yes, Lake Oswego schools provide perhaps the best public education in the state. And our state is below the national average and our nation is well below many other industrialized nations. We are going the wrong way!! We need to stop cutting now and invest more in education from early childhood through university in every state and every district in the country.
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I'm the parent of a first-grader whose school, Takena Elementary in Albany, is proposed for closure. I understand that the school district is in a critical financial situation, but I'm not sure that closing schools is the best way to alleviate the situation. Our district has mentioned possibly going to a 4-day school week in 2012-13 to deal with the expected additional shortfall; why not do that next year to give the community a chance to raise support for a possible local-option levy to support our schools at our current levels? Cuts to extra-curriculur activities and athletics are other proposals for 2012-13--why not do that this year, while saving the excellent educational programs that are in place at the elementary schools slated for closure?
What's more, Albany is not a district facing declining enrollment. Enrollment this year did not grow as fast as it has in past, but it is still expecting more growth in the future, and in fact refers to its plans as a "temporary" closure, because they expect to need to re-open the closed schools in two years. I think it is very difficult on kids and families to shut down the school community they've become a part of, send them to a different school long enough to get attached there, and then ship them back to the other school. Closing Takena is estimated to save $180,000--a drop in the bucket of the $7 million shortfall.
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Farmer Mike asks, "What happened?"
Less than 1% of the population hogs most of the wealth. That's what happened.
It is a trend that will only get worse unless we do something about it.
Sure, there will always be rich people, and in fact we need rich people. We need to encourage the rewards of initiative. But anything can go way, way, way too far. -
Yes. I agree completely. What do we do about it?
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Go back to progressive tax rates is one part of a solution.
I think that we ought to place limits on greed just like we do on other anti-social behaviors when they go so far as to pathological.
I have mused about changing 'The Great Game" so that when someone reaches a certain level of wealth, they are publicly declared a winner and have to leave the game and go do something else with their life and talents, like paint, play music, or twiddle their thumbs. I don't know what number that would be, $1 million, $10 million, $100 million, $500 million, or what, but at some point the person has more than he/she needs for the rest of their life. And that would leave room for some new person to play.
When one persons greed becomes so pathological that other people are reduced to poverty because of him, well, that is way too greedy.
We harshly regulate murder, rape, and other anti-social behaviors and I see no reason that we cannot also regulate greed.
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I think that schools ought to be diferentiated from other taxpayer funded things, because education ought to be recognized as an "investment", as opposed to the"cost" of prisons and unneeded wars with no bid service contracts given to Halliburton.
In a way, educating each child is like the NASA attempt to go to the moon, over and over. Some kids are only going to go up to space and come right back down, not contributing much but doing needed work, and some are going to go all the way to making that "great step for mankind".
Investment.
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Great comment. I think a change in language is essential.
We also can use less "administration" in education and more "leadership".
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Politically impossible to have public safety as a lower priority than education. Everyone is interested in public safety, the involvement with education is simply not as universal.
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"Always look on the bright side of life". Quote from the movie "Life of Brian".
On the bright side, look at the jobs being created by the Conservatives constant demand for tax cuts for the wealthy and ever more De-Regulation of their Corporations, well those jobs don't require much education.
"Welcome to Wal-Mart".
And "Would you like to Supersize that?"
And McDonalds and other fast "food" manufacturers put pictures over their cash register keys so that their employees don't have to actually use any math skills to calculate prices and change.
"The futures so bright, I have to wear shades!" Quote from a song.
"We don' need no steenkin' education!". Paraphrased from I forget what famous movie.
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"The futures so bright, I have to wear shades!" Quote from a song.
Also the title of the song, "The Future's so Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades," by Timbuk3.
"We don' need no steenkin' education!". Paraphrased from I forget what famous movie. Misquoted from "Blazing Saddles," which in turn ripped it off from another, older movie (Treasure of the Sierra Madre, I think).
Also, McDonalds is using Pictographic interfaces on the latest version of their cash register software to accomodate all the people who can't read, and/or can't read English. And, of course, no one teaches them to actually make change anymore, since they can depend on that pile of silicon chips to do the math for them!
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Thanks, Penny!
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A study recently completed in the UK strongly suggests that a diet of processed foods (junk food) lowers children's IQs. The study is very well designed and applied a protocol that filtered out other possible influences such as class, parental education, neighbrohood, etc.
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We have seen that throwing money at the problem doesn't resolve anything- nor does anger at the 'wealthy'. We need to look at this with our heads and a bit of heart- smaller classroom size makes a difference, but how long will we subsidize the one-on-one of the kids with special needs? Parents pay extra for their children to participate in athletics/arts...maybe they need to pay more for their special needs too? I think there should be an Americans WITH Abilities Act which requires equal funding for gifted and for those with special needs...we need to raise the bar on education and realize equal education is a misnomer since students don't all have the same capabilities and interests...parents need to invest more in their children- parenthood is a responsibility!
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There is no demonstrated relationship between class size and student performance. Many nations with average class sizes greater than our own do much better. Other things being equal the notion that the number of students in a classroom determines how well kids learn is a myth kept current by teachers and their unions. I will say though where kids are misbehaving and teachers have no control, then certainly 20 undisciplined kids are easier to deal with than 35 or 40.
I've read that the Feds allocate around $60 billion a yr for educating/training kids with disabilities. There is no like sum spent on academically gifted children by the Feds. If this isn't a massive misallocation of resources, how else does one describe it? This kind of irrational priorities are rife throughout the public school system. It is one way that rising costs are not producing better results.
In a guest viewpoint article I wrote a month ago for a local newspaper I suggested, among other ideas, that parents pay a certain percentage of school fees for their kids. I don't mean the greater portion of the tab but only an amount that will focus their attention on their kids' attendence, home work and perhaps even their grades.
As things are, people don't seem to realize any personal connection to the costs of educating their off spring. The expenditure of state revenues are so remote from the parents' own pocketbook that the relationship of costs and their child's efforts and their own attention to the process is never reconciled. If they plank down a portion of the cost in hard cash it may persuade them to focus on their kids's academic efforts.
It is foolish to continue to believe we can afford to run the current wasteful and inefficient public school system that spends more money on remedial education and training for kids with disabilities than we do on our best and brightest students. If we are struggling in a new and much rougher global economy we must decide whether or not we want to win badly enough to change the way we spend our education bucks.
Compassion for the less able (costly and minimum return) or investing in the brightest children? The public supported system can no longer afford both.
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There should be much more money and attention allocated to the very brightest and most capable kids. The countries taking our place at the top of the global food chain are doing just that. How we got ourselves into the situation of doing the exact opposite of what every successful country does with their education money is perplexing, but not a mystery.
It is the fault of the political class eternally catering to the common denominator. And, sad to say, that mass at the lower end of the curve is swelling in size and political clout. It is un PC to mention this, BUT changing demographics are finally having their acummulative impact through out the economy and culture.
Making silk purses out of pig's ears is time consuming, costly and and produces an unsightly product without much value.
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I live next door to Stephenson Grade School and the number of parents who drive their children to and from school is astonishing. These are SUV-driving, obviously-well off folks. The school buses only have about 10-15 kids on them. It's a regular traffic jam in our otherwise quiet neighborhood, and these folks are not polite about letting the residents into traffic. I have suggested car pools, walking to school, and riding the bus, but parents there have all kinds of excuses.
Basis this well-off contingent, isn't it time we thought about charging people (on a sliding scale based on income) for their children to attend school? Of course, charging elementary school parents to drop their kids off at school would net a hefty influx of cash to schools too.
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Aren't parents (to some degree) being charged for their children's schooling? Property tax, yes?
Now if you're proposing chopping the property tax funding for schools and charging parents directly for their children's attendance, it would be interesting to see what the per-child charge would be... anyone know?
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I live in NCSD and after reviewing my property tax bill, we are paying taxes towards our children's education. Not only do we have a line item for NCSD, but we also have one for the NCSD school bond passed a little while ago. I wonder where all that money goes?
Could it be that the school district expanded too much with the ever increasing size of Happy Valley? It's interesting to ponder that none of the schools on the chopping block or up for consolidation (Campbell, Clackamas, Sojourner & Concord) are located in the east side of NCSD. We are taxed all this money for the purpose of building schools in "newer" communities while existing schools suffer.
I believe that since everyone in the school district/county are taxed proportionally for the benefit of NCSD, school closures/consolidation should be equally distributed.
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Parents aren't the only ones paying property taxes. Everyone does. I propose if you choose to have children, you just pay a little more, that's all. Aren't they worth a couple of hundred dollars per child per year for a middle class family?
Oh, and what about that surcharge for NOT riding the bus...
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I live in Albany and my daughter's elementary school is one that is slated for closure. I am in the minority of people when I say this, but I am not upset about the school closing. The school where my daughter will transfer to is a good school, equal distant from our house as her current school. I would rather have the district consolidate schools and preserve smaller class sizes than cut teaching staff or move to a 4-day school week.
I am appalled by the state of our school system. I am also frustrated by the fact that we keep hearing "recession, recession, recession" yet any time I eat out or shop the restaurants are full, the stores are busy. We are not so poor as a state or as a country that we can't afford to do better for our children. Shame on us the taxpayers for our short-sightedness.
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Note that Albany is also cutting at least 17 teacher positions, and at least that many aide and support positions. It won't be consolidated schools instead of larger class sizes; it will be consolidated schools AND larger class sizes.
Also, there is one elementary school slated for closure that I agree makes sense, because the school they are moving into could handle all the students from both schools (K-5) if allowed to do so.
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My son goes to one of the schools proposed for closure. While it has acheived an 'outstanding' rating, this year, he is in a split grade level classroom, due to lack if funds for teachers... His scores are always among the highest and he's bored. He reads at a 7th grade level, yet is in class with 3rd graders. The school is crumbling, and while I would love to send him to a private school, the money isn't there. This particular school is under enrollment and located in a primarily industrial/light industrial area. I, for one, support the closure, as it will put these kids in newer, safer buildings and result in the consolidation of resources. I understand the Sojourner issue, and don't think that school should be touched.
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Have you considered home school? One on my grand daughters (now 12) is a ranked junior tennis player. She has been home schooled for the past 4 yrs. She tests two full years ahead of her peers in public schools.
In math and the sciences she is studying subjects most kids don't see until they are in high school!! The instruction duties are spilt between my daughter and son-in-law. Both have graduate degrees and work, but still find time to supervise the home schooled child and take care of two other younger children. It can be done but does require extra effort and time.
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I live in Albany, and my grade school children are split between schools: one that serves K-2, and the other 3-5. They want to close the K-2 school, a solution to which I am not entirely opposed, but the 3-5 school is too small in size to hold grades K-5. So, the plan is to ship the 5th graders to middle school. I currently have a sixth grader at that middle school, and she has really "grown up" this year, for better and for worse. I very much do not want to force this upon my future 5th grader a year early.
At other parents' suggestions, I have researched four-day school weeks and have been pleasantly surprised to find that there are many benefits to this schedule. I would prefer this option over some of the proposed consolidations (though I wouldn't choose it if I didn't feel it was necessary). I have also heard of a proposal to consolidate districts, and believe this idea may have some merit. If we do some cutting at the "top," we may be able to preserve the educational experience of our students, rather than cutting where it most directly hurts them.
The best case scenario would be to figure out how to stop the PERS bleeding, which seems to be the biggest budget problem, at least in Albany. Any ideas for that?
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It is diacouraging that schools such as Sojourner are beling slated to close/intregrated into other programs. I can only imagine how discouraging this must be to the children and families involved. Fortunately there are a few other, adjacent schools that can still carry the spirt of innovation in education such as Springwater Environmental Sciences School.
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Comments are now closed.
VIRTUAL SCHOOLS (instruction using a personal computer) is the way of the future. I wish the nonprogressive NEA teacher's union would allow it to happen, but they are only interested in their own power not the advancement of education.