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 | SAVE OUR SCHOOLS! April 14, 1997 |
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Other questions asked
in this forum:
Would equal funding for all schools solve the problems in low-income area public schools? A prospective teacher asks about strategies to improve teacher quality. Are vouchers or school choice the answer? Is it time to rethink the traditional classroom structure? How do education labor unions effect the reform process? What role does parental participation play? How can communities foster constructive public dialogue on education issues? Additional questions and comments.
Return to the top page. Dorothy Tomezsko of Allentown, Pennsylvania
To have such uneven funding of education between urban and suburban schools is a betrayal of democracy. I am sure ther are no parents in America who would vote for a lesser education for their children. We the people want the same standard for all students, because all students represent our future as a nation. This should not be left to the individual schools, the local school districts to struggle with on their own, this is an issue of national importance and is therefore a federal matter. It's time we as a nation voted for fair and adequate funding for all public schools.
Frederick H. Bartlett of Mercerville, NJ
During disasters, medical staffs practice triage -- targeting care to those who might benefit from it and denying it to those likely to die anyway.
The problems in urban schools (near me are Philadelphia, New York, Trenton, and Newark -- none of them doing terribly well, though Philly's schools are worse than most) are so great that triage is absolutely necessary.
We must give up two cornerstones of modern educationist dogma: That all children can learn and that all children have a constitutional right to "an appropriate education".
Chat Sue of Pensacola, FL
I am concerned that Christian Coalition-types have focused on schools as their object, wanting to offer their simplistic solutions to education's shortcomings that in effect do not solve the many needs of schools-inattentive, unchallenged and bored students, staff unable to effect change, too much bureaucracy too many "instant solutions" like vouchers and support for parochial schools, lack of national goals and standards in a decentralized, weakened system of schools.
Falling into their trap are school administrators who rearrange deck chairs on the Titantic, as well as a public which is not supportive of the focus needed on improving schoools in a "Marshall Plan" approach that Clinton has not the stomach to propose.
Furthermore, what has existed is a "winner-take-all" system of public schools where the educated and their children will always have the advantage, and the disadvantaged will continue to stay that way.
This is the moral failure of our culture in the 90's.
Ozzie Banicki of Houston, Texas
Is it not true that class size is the most important factor in quality education?
You can't control who is in the neighborhood, and burned out teachers have the political clout to remain, regardless of tenure legislation.
Dave Bloxham of Huntington Beach, CA
The whole system should be privatized via vouchers and tax credits. As long as government has a monopoly on education tax dollars the schools will continue to underperform and be costly. Where there is no competition there is no excellence. The Federal government should stop meddling in Education altogether as per the 10th ammendment. In short, I'm pro choice for school choice.
Tom Akashi of Fountain Valley, CA
One service that many private school offer is extended child care, both before and after school. Students, in all grades, would benefit from additional assistance with homework, time to play sports or games, or time to edutain in a computer lab. Even though it would be offered at a public school, I think that parents should be charged a reasonable amount, because it is an additional service beyond what is required by the state, and parents will be more concerned when their money is involved. Surely, any additional liability factors can be dealt with also.
Serrin Turner of Cambridge, MA
I teach at Mother Caroline Academy, a tiny Catholic school for girls serving underpriveleged families in Dorchester, MA. We have cramped, inadequate facilities. Our students are not selected because they are particularly gifted, academically. Yet our school works wonders. Almost all of our graduates end up at prestigious boarding or day schools for high school.
Two of the main reasons our school performs so well are its size and the length of the school day. The school spans four grades, with only fifteen students in each grade. Keeping our size so small allows us to build a tightly knit community where bonds of trust and respect can easily form between student and student and student and teacher. As a result, we don't have gang problems; we don't have problems with fighting; we don't have students feeling anonymous, or unloved. The problem with so many inner city schools, I believe, is their size. Inner city students often come to school with so much baggage from social problems at home. Compared to students from other areas, they are most at risk of falling through the cracks. By sending these students to behemoth schools, we compound these problems tremendously. Inner city students are most in need of individual attention and of belonging to a caring community; yet the size of inner city schools makes it very difficult to give adequate individual attention to each student and to grow the bonds of trust and respect necessary for a caring community. In my mind, this is the most pressing reform needed in urban schools. Their size needs to be drastically reduced.
Also, at Mother Caroline Academy, the school day is very long. Classes run from 8 to 3, mandatory afternoon activities run from 3 to 5, and students may return to school from 7 to 9 to study with help from teachers and tutors. I fail to understand why, in the cities, in this era, where so many children have only one parent in the family, or have two parents who both work, the school day still ends at 3 o'clock, while the work day ends at 5; for the result is that children leave school only to be unsupervised for 5 afternoons a week. The school day in inner city schools needs to be prolonged, then. This could be done largely with the help of volunteers, who could sponsor afternoon activities for children.
Sharon Lukach of Arlington, Texas
Why is it that middle/junior high schools assume that the students and their parents are communicating? I joined the PTA at my 7th grader's school and have never received any newsletters or communication about meetings or minutes. Why] Why can't another $1.00 or $2.00 be added to the dues (from $3.00 to $5.00 so that they can MAIL the information to us. The kids just don't bring it home.
Sometimes I think the Middle/Junior High Administrators try to fulfill a prophecy that the parents are not concerned or involved by simply not involving the parents and then complaining about it.
School teachers and administrators like to complain and gossip a lot but I think they certainly try their hardest to create something to gossip about. In my daughter's particular school a male teacher was accused of sexual harassment. The teachers actually answered and forumed questions in the classroom about the subject. What about an open forum about the specific subject being taught. That NEVER happens, in my opinion.
John Nash of Cambridge, MA
I have a question on the issue of school choice. What I find most appealing about school choice proposals, like vouchers, is the notion that it would encourage the development of new schools run by people with a direct interest in the success of their schools. Local communities and educators and entrepreneurs with a common interest in building schools that work. This seems particularly needed in our inner cities.
Would this happen, in your opinion, as a result of a school choice program? Is a high school serving 1,900 students generally the best way to go? Would the community be better off if parents had a choice of many smaller schools to choose from?
Lee Ann Young of Dallas, TX
From my own experience in two colleges of education in two major university systems here in Texas, I think that so much of the problem is teacher education. The education classes that I took were taken for 2 separate degress 10 years apart. Little had changed. The courses were "elementary," no pun intended. While the schools do need equipment, especially computers and Internet access, it will not do much good if the teachers are poorly trained.
Teaching is a profession with passion, not just a job. "Dumbing down" the courses is not beneficial. It should be a real accomplishment to graduate as a teacher. Dr. Alvarez is on the right track when she emphasizes teacher continuing education. However, we need to start in the colleges BEFORE they get to the classroom. Teachers need to know more about normal child development and know why they are teaching the way the are for each grade level. They also need more subject knowledge, not just the minimum hours for a teaching degree. It would make more sense to have teachers major and get degrees in their subject matter from that department and the education courses are minors.
The colleges of education should not be giving bachelor's degrees since at that level it would make more sense for the future teacher to have a solid grounding in their teaching subject.
Gerard M. Mooney of Los Gatos, CA
A comment: change should come from the schools and individuals who run them, but this change can often only come about with an increasing in funding. So the answer is "both;" the federal government, and the schools, must be partners for change.
In an ideal world, of course, the states and local communities would provide the necessary funding and support. Their historical unwillingness to do so however, has necessitated a federal government intervention. Perhaps state governors and city mayors should carefully consider their attacks upon an interventionist federal government as voters begin to focus upon the inadequate support offered to the educational system by local government.
A question: given the tendency of governments to fund schools by way of local income tax (i.e. suburban schools, with high tax income, receive greater income than poorer inner-city schools with their lower tax bracket and income), would the panel consider a redistribution of the money taken in from taxes (given the tendency of parents to expect that their tax money funds the school in which their child is a student)?
Heidi Slatkin of New York City, NY
What do you think of the proposal to ban all private primary and secondary schools? I realize it would probably be unconstitutional, but if it were, imagine the following scenario: Wealthy fold would no longer be able to merely ignore the despair and rage of the underclass because their children would have to deal with them every day in school. Wealthy parents would suddenly become very very interested in the welfare and education of other people's children. Wealthy and influential parents would make damn sure that class size was kept under 25, and that teachers were competant, and that schools were safe. Poor parents may not have the strength after their 12 hour work day to raise hell, or may not have the political savy to push political buttons for their own kids, but if wealthy parents had some motivation to do this for them, U.S. education might be more efficient and effective both.
Dennis M. Doody, M.D. of Columbus, OH
A recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling found that Ohio's method of funding public schools is unconstitutional. Some schoool districts are poor and have lower property values thereby causing reduced revenue if schools are funded primarily via the property tax as is currently the case. However, some school districts are low on revenue because the local voters have consistently refused to levy taxes on their property. Is it fair to take funds away from districts which have made education a priority and divert these funds to districts which have consistently refused to fund themselves even when their taxpayers have the financial resources to do so?
If a new formula of funding is enacted what compensation will the so-called affluent school districts receive when their money is diverted to those districts which have allowed their schools to decline throughout the years?
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