While driving this morning I heard sheriff John Rutherford on the radio program first coast connect. He was talking about how crime had gone down dramatically and when asked by the host Melissa Ross why, he emphatically said, the most important reason why crime is down is the hiring of 138 new police officers. Well friends that’s the class size amendment in law enforcement terms. Have you noticed how the powers-that-be haven’t called for fewer police as a way to decrease the crime rate? It’s because they know that is absurd. Yet at the same time they expect you to believe class size doesn’t matter.
The reason the class size amendment/smaller classes have suddenly become the enemy of certain education reformers is because they don’t want to pay for it. They say they want a first class education system but that’s just lip service, as they want to pay for education with the change they find in their couches. Don’t worry though, those in charge of education have a few scapegoats lined up when their education policies continue to fail and that’s the teachers and the unions that make sure they are given due process.
The real question isn’t whether the class size amendment works or not, it is when will the citizens of Florida wake up and realize that unless they are in a certain income bracket, many of their elected leaders, including the new governor, don’t care about them, their children or the schools they attend. Instead they just want to appear to do so, so they can maintain power and provide for their friends.
Sadly big classes, welfare for the well off (vouchers for all) and demonizing teachers are the only solutions they are offering.
First off, my son goes to a private parochial school that has never had less than 30 students in a class. Sometimes he has had as many as 34. And let me tell you, his education has been first rate. Why you may ask, strict, swift discipline or the threat thereof.
ReplyDeleteCheck with any failing classroom and I guarantee you there is a discipline problem that is the fault of the parents. Also you will probably find a severe lack of appreciation for their education. This is also fostered by the parents.
Couple this situation with the lack of quality teachers. Would you teach for what they get paid? Me neither, so they get a lot of rejects who are fearsome of "making it" in the private sector - which they probably are correct about. Add that up and you have yourself a failing system.
As for vouchers, of course I'd like for my hard earned taxes to go for MY child's education. As it is now, myself and a lot of other people pay into a system that doesn't even have to spend resources on our kids. I read it costs about $10K/yr a kid at public school, which is more than three times what I pay for a private education. Anyway, that's anywhere from $250,000 to $300,000 for a single classroom. You can bet the teacher makes about $35K - $40K, so where is the rest of the money? Not buying enough school supplies, as you constantly read about teachers going into their own pockets for such luxuries as paper and pencils. The money actually feeds a ridiculous, bureaucratic administration.
You have excellent points though I would disgree with your teachers become so because they fear the privte sector. I hate to say it but our classroooms are sometimes just staffed by the willing and not just the best and brightest, but they are willing when so many others are not.
ReplyDeleteA couple quick facts, childless couples or individuals likewise pay into eucation and here in Duval County about 45% of the staff and i know that includes clerks, paras etc but also a lot of certifyed employees too don't work as classroom teachers.