The first thing I must say is that the following blog is my personal opinion. I am in no way a representative of the School District of Menomonee Falls, nor do my comments represent the general body of any PTA organization.
Over the last 18 months, public education has certainly been thrown under a microscope. Some would say it has been thrown under a bus, but I disagree. I believe, in general, that it has been good for the public to be looking at public education so closely.
I received my Bachelor of Science Degree in Special Education from Ball State University in 1996. I came away with some lofty ideals of what education should be. I believe very strongly in public education. I have witnessed cases where it is far from the ideal and cases where it’s really on a good track.
After getting my degree, I worked as an aide in a middle school in an Emotionally/Behaviorally Disabled classroom. One of my responsibilities was maintaining the behavioral data. The system they used was a debit system where we marked things like off task behavior and swearing. There were a lot of both. The problem was that the students never really had any incentive to change that behavior. I also worked one on one with students. I had one student that I was working with in math. This student had a dual classification as EBD and LD, which is Emotional/Behavioral Disability and Learning Disability. He was a 7th grader functioning at a 3rd to 4th grade math level. He began to have success with the math I was teaching, but after only a few weeks the teacher I worked with told me I had to stop doing the 4th grade math and teach him 7th grade math, because her boss had seen what I was doing and said he had to be prepared for his 7th grade ISTEP test (similar to the WKCE). I can tell you he was not ever going to be prepared for that 7th grade test.
As frustrating as that was for the student and myself, there were other things happening that made me eventually quit after the first semester. The teacher I worked with was very lax in discipline and let me take the lead most of the time. Then at my review she told me she was worried about my rapport with the students. She didn’t really enforce the discipline structure and didn’t back me up when I did. Parents even told the students they didn’t have to listen to me, because I was “just the stupid aide”. I eventually quit after nearly getting punched by a student.
I never did get back into teaching after this. I went on to have my own three kids and was a stay at home Mom. So coming to Menomonee Falls and starting out with my twins in Kindergarten, I found a much different environment. Having twins has meant having two different teachers every year and now with my daughter just finishing first grade we have repeated 3 of the teachers the boys had. I have felt like my input was valued by all of them and they have all welcomed me as a volunteer.
Our first two years in Menomonee Falls we rented and I will admit that I didn’t join the PTA. I helped out at school, but just didn’t get too involved. We bought a house just as the boys were starting second grade and my daughter was in 4K, so I volunteered in one of their classrooms twice a week, joined PTA and served on a committee. But I still never went to a PTA meeting. Then the next year they were looking for a PTA president and I ended up volunteering. No one fought me for the position.
I began going to one school board meeting a month, because I wanted an overall feel for what was happening in the district as a whole, and not just at Valley View. I realized that I wanted to make my role as PTA president to truly be about advocating for the student and public education. Even with its’ flaws, I believe public education is still the only way that our society can move forward together. Even being a fairly middle class family, my husband and I could never afford to educate our children in private school. I would have to home school if it came to that. We have decided, as a society, that education has to be publically funded and “freely” available to everyone. Without this system, the elite class would always have access to education and the rest of us would be left to fend for ourselves. We all know this is not acceptable.
That being said, the passing of Act 10 and the cap on revenue limits is a way to reset the cost structure in public education. It may be something we value, but not at any cost. Confidence in the system has been severely shaken and will need to be rebuilt one community at a time. I believe that in order for this to happen the public has to take an active role in the public education system, whether you have children in school or not. The public needs to see what is working well and what is not. You may not come to every school board meeting with me, and I certainly don’t expect you at my child’s parent-teacher conference, but find some opportunity to become as involved as you are able. It isn’t the village that raises my children. That is my job, but I appreciate a little back up and our public schools are a crucial aspect of raising all of our children to be productive adults.
I sympathize with your experience in education, since my wife is a special-ed teacher in public education. The hurdles of educating such children can seem insurmountable. But while it would be easy to give up on these children and all the others that are disadvantaged, that is exactly why we have public schools. The upper class will always be able to afford a good education for their children. Dedicated parents will always find a way to get their kids through school. That leaves all the rest of the children. Siphoning money away from the public school system towards charter and private schools will hurt the ones who need the money the most. Problem children (and problem parents) will be turned away from private schools. We will re-create the sub-class of poorly educated citizens that existed before the advent of public schools. This will drag down society as a whole at a time when we should be using all our human resources to maximize our global competitiveness. I believe public schools could use a lot of changes, but I won't give up on them.
Our public school system and even secondary school system need a massive overhaul in the large urban areas. That overhaul will not occur unless we stop fighting each other and work together to figure out what works best. We're not China, we cannot afford to just educate the bright ones. Our population isn't large enough; China can afford to throw away 3/4s of it's citizens and still have enough to be productive. So we need a thriving public education system. It's working in most of the suburban and rural areas. It's completely broken in the large urban areas.
This was the case when I was in elementary school, and that was before the days of mainstreaming special-ed students, never mind those with behavioral problems. In my student days, disruptive behavior was simply not tolerated. Swithin is right -- siphoning off money in the form of vouchers will just make things worse. Already, in some school districts, we're seeing the public schools turn out a poorly educated underclass. I'm sure a few of the brighter students do all right, but not compared to what they might have accomplished in a system that fostered their learning better. Maybe we need to re-think how we do things?
Ya think? With the current thinking of "everyone must go down with the ship", things will never get better. Saving some and giving them an education is still the best option while you are sitting around re-thinking.
I think that one of the big issues is the teacher unions. Protecting the jobs of ineffective teachers is in conflict with getting the most effective teachers in the classrooms. We also need a way to engage parents so that they become more involved and play their role in their child's education. We might also see some benefit from getting certain children away from their parents and putting them in a boarding school atmosphere.
The original idea is that the gifted students 'float' the ship and raise the level for the most challenged, but I'm not sure it works that way.
You are perpetuating the misconception that private and parochial schools are not affordable. Private schools have grants for low income families and parochial schools can be pretty generous to those with real need.
Second, for now there is still a union. I can't say how the MFEA numbers are doing, but they do still exist and the school board and administration do still have to deal with them. The administration is still working on the handbook creation and until teachers see what conditions they'll be working under, I don't believe numbers will drop extremely fast in the union. Third, I reject the idea of taking kids away from their parents as a way to solve the problems of the urban school system. I believe the answer is to build the family and not to tear it further apart. That is really where the problems started. The urban communities have to be the ones to want to do this. There may be some external motivators coming in the form of cuts to government programs, but there has to be an internal desire to fix their own families/communities. Of those who have commented thus far, when was the last time you were involved in a public school? To what level are you willing to participate?
I also know something about how other people pay for their children's private school, as I administer our PTA Scrip program. We use it for PTA programming, but private schools sell Scrip gift cards to their families and allow the families to accrue credits toward tuition from the rebates earned. When I was paying my Kohl's bill using a Scrip card, the cashier said her son had her buying Scrip to help pay her granddaughter's tuition at a parochial school. She told me the granddaughter was only 4 and hadn't started school yet, but that they could earn rebates for future tuition. Plus, I'm already paying taxes to fund the public schools. The tuition for a parochial/private elementary school is less than the average per pupil spending for public school, but the cost of a private high school is much higher. There are more student in public schools and the costs are therefore share over the greater number.
Level willing to participate? Zero. I will not willingly be part of a government system that teaches children things I believe are wrong. Unfortunately, I am unable to pull my financial support because we are all forced to pay taxes to perpetuate the current system.
Alfred seemed to miss the statement I made about being a stay at home Mom. That is my chosen vocation. I just happen to have an education degree with a little bit of experience in the classroom. To me this just means I can put things in better perspective.
What facts do you think need to be corrected?
If true, I have a problem with private schools taking MPS money and not giving the attention to the students that they deserve and that their home district is paying thousands of dollars to provide.
It's interesting you ask me about the New Deal and FDR. I was taught nothing of it in the public schools and something quite different in the private college prep school I attended for my last two years of high school. All that is important are facts. A good education leaves the interpretation of those facts to the individual. And, Michele, the planet has been warming for several centuries. That is a fact. The causes of it are up to interpretation. Whatever they may be, we might want to be prepared for it.
There are dark chapters in America's history. If we don't accept and learn from them, how can we progress as an enlightened society?
Politics aside, the question is still to what extent are you willing to participate? Is paying taxes enough? Do we expand the senior volunteer program? How do we get private businesses even more involved with things like Junior Achievement? Do we expand internship/co-op opportunities for high school students? What constructive ideas are out there in the public to build on what is working well and make the changes that are needed?
Their union: yes
As far as curriculum that doesn't match personal family perspective and values, it has always been the responsibility of the family to take the lead. What disturbs me is the avoidance of teaching some subjects because of a public perception espoused by special interests. But, that is for another discussion. A little free advice, ignore Alfred as much as you can. He comments under Alfred and Alfred Kell. He specializes in ad hominem attacks, red herrings and straw man arguments. Sometimes all you can do is flag him.
I'll probably be doing either home-schooling or supplementing with the education of my grandchildren.
While I agree that building families is best, I see that as more idealistic than realistic when it comes to many families in the inner city. To clarify my thought about 'taking kids away form their parents', it isn't intended to be a permanent removal from the parents. The idea is that an unstable home life has a huge and negative effect on a child's ability to perform in school. The unfortunate reality of the inner city is that many families are struggling to feed their kids. Some parents don't have time (or sometimes the desire) to read to their kids or help them with their homework. Some parents seem to care more about drugs or alcohol than their children. A public boarding school can provide a stable, safe and positive environment for those that need one.