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 part of the plan put forth by the state 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 instead made the Governor in charge. Then a new state
bureaucracy, the Oregon Education Investment Board, 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 teachers’pension reforms are being used as a scapegoat for our budget shortfall, 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,
Dr. Rudy Crew, 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: other states show it will cost millions or billions depending on which study you read or agree with
So when groups like Stand for Children, the Oregon School Board Association, the Oregon Business Association,
and the office of the Governor 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, these groups 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.
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ReplyDeleteI just don't understand our supposedly "Democratic" Governor!! I am disappointed and saddened by his lack of judgment and foresight regarding our crucial state of education. What is he thinking? I wish we could sit down with him one-on-one to help us understand. Liz
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