Times are tough.
Money is tight. Teachers
are losing jobs. Programs such as
music, PE, art, and library are being eliminated. Class sizes are ballooning.
Suddenly, you have six million dollars!
What would you spend it on? Smaller class sizes? A music, library teacher, or counselor for your school of
500? No, that would be too
obvious. Let’s think outside of
the box and away from the classroom….miles away.
Instead, you think what could be better than a room full of
adults who dream up new policies, programs, and job duties that will cost just
about six million dollars…for starters?
What? That
doesn’t sound like pure genius?
Well, that is exactly as one of their corporate education reforms. In June 2011, the state got rid of an elected position of
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and Then a new state
bureaucracy, the , was built which has done little to provide immediate benefits for
our students and teachers in the classroom.
At a time when budgets are hard to pass and , how can
this be allowed to happen? Who is
minding the store?
If six million isn’t enough to make you irked, then realize
it won’t stop there. The Governor,
, and the OEIB have proposed the
following:
- Longitudinal Data System price tag: $50 million
- Strategic Investments to include Network for Quality Teaching and Learning: $100 million
- Common Core to include Smarter Balanced testing:
So when groups like , the , the ,
and the office of ask for PERS reforms and education reforms, you
have to wonder--why isn’t their primary question this:
“How can I make
sure every possible dollar goes into the classroom to directly benefit the students
of our state?”
Sadly, have lost sight of what is best for kids
and our public schools, but instead have their sights aimed on promoting the corporate education reform model. Teachers have been shut out of the discussion. Parents have been shut out of the discussion. Students have been shut out of the discussion. Now it will be up to our legislators to listen to those shut out voices as well as their own values to get back to a more democratic public education system with local control. We wish them luck. Their voices may be shut out too.