There’s no question that America’s public school system is not doing justice for our children. A good deal of the imagery and points contained in Stupid in America were disturbing.
More money is not the answer. School Board members and administrators who consider themselves experts really have no clue. Most don't know it was already tried in Kansas City and resulted in the worst school system in the country. I saw something similar when the former Superintendent attempted to have the Board raise taxes by three quarters of a billion dollars in what would have been an ill considered money grab.
It was my vote that put a stop to it.
As stated, more money is just not the solution, but neither is shredding the budget.
The real answer begins with more effective use of every dollar.
Construction in many school districts is by no means “lowest bid.” Design-build and CM-At-Risk contracts guarantee that higher prices are the rule rather than the exception seeing that each contractor submits a completely different design. There is no basis for comparison, not even the dollar per square foot model.
After 40+ years of “experts” adding program after program to improve teaching, none of that garbage has worked. SIA says test scores over those years are flat and indeed they are. But we continue to hire expert after expert adopting program after program throwing good money after bad, and still we don’t get it.
School Boards and Administrators need to take some curricula lessons from some of the more successful private schools instead, perhaps even hiring knowedgeable administrators away from those schools.
That’s exactly what private industry does in order to compete.
But they need to listen, learn and adapt, not just sequester those new administrators in some forgotten office.
The Federal Government and State Legislatures need to get into the act by removing 40+ years of stifling rules that don’t apply to private schools. That’s a demand that must come from the voters.
Teacher unions need to belly up to the bar as well. Give and take usually means that School Boards and taxpayers give while the unions take.
Pay teachers what they’re worth. That’s a double edged sword and it cuts both ways. Teacher unions need to get out of the way of teacher salaries. Bargain for the raise percentage and forget steps.
Teacher unions also need to become proactive in policing their own.
Benefits are killing budgets. While we can’t in good conscience take benefits away from today’s employees, we can do what Congress did with Federal hiring in the mid-1980’s. Switch retirement to Social Security along with savings plans for new employees.
We also need to halt the seemingly endless accumulation of sick and vacation days.
Double dipping needs to end, too. No rehire after retirement.
Costs of between half a million and two million dollars to terminate an incompetent employee need to end. The taxpayers deserve a speedy trial as well.
Not one of these items will matter a flip if School Board Members don’t examine expenditures with a fine toothed comb.
Make Board members full time with appropriate salaries. Send them not only to “Board member” school, but to management school as well. Give them the resources to effectively manage multi-million and billion dollar budgets.
If we can’t do that, then split the management responsibilities between the Superintendent and a CEO, each reporting to the School Board. And send the Board members to the management school anyway.
Learn another lesson from private schools; smaller schools are better.
Once these items are in place, go ahead and open public school choice, attaching the dollars to the students.
It won’t happen over night. But it must happen.
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