<div dir="ltr">A few thoughts on our school "system". I preface all of this with the observation that anything like a US public school system is tremendously complex. The major flaw in all of the so-called reform efforts we see and hear about is their thirst for easy answers. One-size-fits-all. We have not one but three systems - district, state, and federal, each with its own laws, regulations and authority, and funding sources and distribution systems. And then there's the school, with its neighborhood, culture and traditions... Most of all, we're talking about human beings, then overlay that with various layers of political systems. We are producing knowledge, and the skills to create and acquire it. We are producing and cultivating aspirations. We are not producing widgets. It's complicated.<div>
<br></div><div style>Personally, I believe we are not served well here in Maryland by our system of 1 county = 1 school district. This creates many very large districts in the areas around DC and Baltimore. Decades ago there was a big push to consolidate systems into larger ones, and consolidate schools into larger ones for cost savings and the ability to offer a wider curriculum. Those points are valid, but I believe there's a lot of evidence indicating that there is a point on the size scale beyond which we are not well-served - nor does it continue to always be less expensive as size increases - but I digress. Upper Marlboro can seem a long, long way from Riverdale Elementary, I'm sure, to anyone (teacher, administrator, parent) who is trying to make things better in our local school. In any case, this is the system we have, and it's hard to imagine in today's world where the political will would come from to assert and pull off a successful campaign to break up our county districts into smaller ones. But I can wish.</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Meanwhile, let's move on. Our schools are funded from three main sources: local (county), state, and federal. Federal funding is largely "compensatory", intended to provide needed, greater resources for the kids who need them most - those who live in areas of concentrated poverty, those who live in homes where English is not the first language, and those with special needs. (PG schools get 6% of their funding from the feds, Montgomery about 4%). Every state handles the state - local balance differently, but in general the state provides funding in an effort to equalize the inequalities that exist between districts. If we relied 100% on local tax sources then the Montgomery Counties of the world would be schooled in castles while the Hancock County, Tennessees (poorest school district last I checked) of the world would be schooled in quonset huts or crumbling old buildings. State funding helps to smooth out those differences. The guiding principle is that the level of funding your school gets should not be correlated with your zip code. The courts consistently uphold the rule, but in practice per pupil expenditures still vary widely both within states (Worcester County MD schools spend more than $21,000 per student while Caroline County schools spend about $13,000) and across states (US minimum and maximum figures would blow your mind, probably about $3500 and $100,000+). </div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Anyway, our county is nowhere near the bottom of anybody's list for the revenues it gets for its schools, so what's my point? In many respects, absolute numbers are less important than relative numbers. We the residents of Prince George's County are all too used to hearing and seeing ways in which we compare unfavorably with our neighbor, Montgomery. So it should be no surprise to find that the revenues dedicated to your child's education here in PG County is only about 80% of what is spent on our neighbors' kids in Montgomery. Because of the vast differences in the tax base of our two counties, local revenues fund 72% of Montgomery's schools but only 38% of ours here in PG; in an effort to partially offset that gap, the state funds 55% of PG's school budgets but only 24% of Montgomery's. But it's only a partial solution - the Montgomery's local revenues per student exceed ours by well over $7000 and the state makes up only about $4000 of that. Federal revenues make up another $200-$300 per student, but that still leaves our kids $3000 worse off than their peers in Montgomery. <i>Does that sound like 'equal opportunity' to you? </i></div>
<div style><br></div><div style>So in total, our kids get less than $15,000 spent on their educations while over in Montgomery kids in the same cohorts have more than $18,000 spent on theirs. One crucial and obvious impact of that that we all suffer from is that this creates two separate and unequal labor markets for teachers in the two districts. If you were a young aspiring teacher, where would you want to teach? Starting salaries for someone with a bachelor's degree aren't all that different - the minimum in PG is 97% of the minimum in Montgomery ($44,800 vs $46,400). But as you gain in credential and experience, the gap widens significantly. The top end for teachers with a master's degree is $14,000 less in PG than in Montgomery ($82,900 vs $97,000). So what happens is that PG is always battling against a serious "brain drain" in its teaching force. Young teachers who do well and show promise are very likely to be hired away to Montgomery County and receive a good boost in their salary when they make the jump. If everything else about the two counties was more or less the same this might not be such a powerful factor, but given the history of dysfunction here, it just exacerbates the problem. The good teachers are pulled by the significantly higher salaries next door while at the same time they are pushed out by whatever dysfunction they experience here in their school or district. </div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Fixing all of the problems here is a huge challenge - I think everyone recognizes that. And nobody - despite the simplistic arguments we see flung about - would seriously argue that simply boosting revenues for the schools would solve all the problems. On the other hand, all evidence would indicate that the kids who get the least at home need the most from schools (and other public services, health care being prominent among them) if they are indeed to have equal opportunity to succeed in school, or life. And right now they are not getting that. Not even close.</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>The quick-fix reformers would have us believe what? That charter schools will fix our problems (despite the lack of any evidence supporting that)? That busting teacher unions will fix that? That getting stricter with testing programs and making teachers (and students) more "accountable" will fix that? Or some combination thereof will fix everything? They criticize US schools for poor test performance but fail to notice that the countries who do well have, many of them, lower poverty rates, 100% unionization of their teachers, and that they give much more authority and responsibility to the teachers. Nor do they obsess over annual tests that do much to extinguish the students' desire to learn and little to help them reach their life or career goals. Countries where the teaching profession is respected and treated as a profession, and where poverty, hunger and ill-health are not tolerated by the society seem to do well by their students, setting the standards in education that we claim to aspire to, but somehow unable to inspire us to emulate the kind of action that would actually bring any of that about. </div>
<div style><br></div><div style>The quick-fix reformers rail against teacher tenure, claiming that it's a job for life. And they blame the unions. While doctors and other professionals govern their own professional associations, setting credential and licensing requirements, teachers are given no such power. Administrators have the right of hiring, and of firing, and of evaluating teachers prior to their receiving "tenure". All tenure does is require that due process be followed when dismissing a teacher. Neither teachers nor their unions (where they are allowed to exist) have any of those powers, and yet somehow it is all their fault. As was, apparently, the crash of Wall Street and collapse of the housing market. (Am I leaving anything out?)</div>
<div style><br></div><div style>Unfortunately, the track record for mayoral takeovers of metro area school districts isn't very promising. One can argue that Baker is faced with having no better alternative. Perhaps the candidates willing to apply for the superintendents job as it is now constructed simply aren't of the caliber that would be required to begin to turn things around (I have no knowledge or information about the process - this is pure conjecture on my part). It is tempting to want to consolidate power in the executive when one is the executor, and managing the system and the people who work in it proves difficult or even hopeless. I understand that. But none of us should believe this would be any better as a quick-fix than any of the other reform ideas being slung about. </div>
<div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div><div style><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 6:07 PM, Lou King <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:lking@knob.com" target="_blank">lking@knob.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">And here in lies part of the problem.<br>
Nation wide view of "elected officials" is low, except each of us feel differently about our own official.<br>
<br>
Dwight your remarks reminded me of a Marine Captain in a inter-service communication class. His answer to Identification of aircraft as friend or foe (IFF) was "shoot them all down and sort it out on the ground" From his point of view as a ground pounder, I can see the simplicity/effectiveness of his solution. The flyers in the class took exception.<br>
<br>
I have no clue about the County Executive's qualifications as an educator. Hopefully he has the executive skills to hire the correct School Superintendent, one most of us can support. Something has to break the logjam, create the inertia, to change things for the better. The current structure hasn't produce an answer.<div class="im">
<br>
<br>
Lou<br>
O< ascii ribbon campaign - stop HTML mail - <a href="http://www.asciiribbon.org" target="_blank">www.asciiribbon.org</a><br>
<br></div>
Dwight Holmes wrote, On 3/18/2013 5:11 PM:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="im">
And I would like to say that I would NOT want Michelle Rhee, or anyone<br>
selling what she has to sell, given the reins of our school board. Which<br>
is not to say that we don't need some serious changes; we do.<br>
<br>
<br>
On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 5:03 PM, Sarah Wayland <<a href="mailto:sarah.wayland@gmail.com" target="_blank">sarah.wayland@gmail.com</a><br></div><div class="im">
<mailto:<a href="mailto:sarah.wayland@gmail.com" target="_blank">sarah.wayland@gmail.<u></u>com</a>>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> You must have some education even to ask "do you want<br>
> fries with that?" and cash a paycheck.<br>
<br>
Or to determine how to vote for competent Board of Education members.<br>
<br>
I would like to say that I do NOT paint all the BOE members with the<br>
same brush. I have found our board member, Peggy Higgins, to be<br>
responsive, open-minded and thoughtful.<br>
<br>
-Sarah<br>
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