Two Americas, Two Educations

Talk of shortening the school year by
five days, firing teachers and slashing teacher benefits, increasing
class sizes, freezing monies for field trips, supplies, and arts programs
in the wealthiest state in one of the wealthiest countries in the world
should madden anyone who is concerned about the well-being of children
and the future standard of living of California and the nation.

I can
hear the naysayers now: Oh, but we can't do anything about it, they'll
say. Budgeting for schools predominantly relies on the tax base
of local communities, and if the community is poor...well, there is
nothing to be done, they'll say. Plus, it's not really the
money that can make a difference anyway, they'll say; it's the parents,
the student's work ethic, and bad teachers.

Senator McCain, during one of the presidential
debates with now-President Obama, whined that "you don't just throw
money at" education. But if the former headmaster of Crossroads School
(Crossroads is a prestigious private school in Santa Monica, CA) is
correct when he reports in his latest book, "Two Americas, Two Educations:
funding quality schools for all students" by Mr. Paul Cummins,
that Los Angeles County private schools afford, on the average, $26,000
per student, whereas public schools in LA County budget around $6,000
per pupil, it would seem that the rich do have it right and that you
do just throw money at your child's education.

However, Senator McCain is subtly making
one correct determination regarding school spending: when he says,
"throw money", in part, he is really saying that there is an immense
amount of wasteful spending in education. With this I cannot disagree.
The LAUSD school board last year approved a per diem stipend of $2,000
to have consultants spend ten days at some of the lowest performing
schools in the district analyzing their performance. Not long after
this allocation did a professor of education from a prominent university
join us for over a week and become a sounding board for teachers at
lunch.

Teachers sat around this professor at her laptop and complained
with the best of them as she sympathized with us and took notes.
At the end of her consultation, she gave us a presentation of her findings,
and basically told us that we have too many "things" going on all
at once, and that in order for our school to become more effective we
would need to hone in on two or three best practices and make them a
part of the entire school culture.

That's it? A vague, jargon-filled
report for $20,000? It was unbelievable. To be fair, I'm sure she
wrote a more substantive report and gave it to the administration with
more helpful remarks and analysis, but how it has helped teachers in
the classroom is beyond me.

According to the teacher's union-the
UTLA-non-school expenditures at the LAUSD headquarters have been swelling
for years (16% increase over the last three years), while student population
has dropped, and a lot of that spending is going towards, yes, you guessed
it, consultants. In fact, just a couple of months ago, we had a representative
from the district come out to give us a presentation on a new program
that we are being required to implement. The firm the district has contracted
is Pearson, Inc. According to Pearson's website, "The first
year of the agreement between Pearson and LAUSD began July 1, 2007 and
runs through June 30, 2008, at a cost of $2,888,103, with options to
extend the agreement up to four additional one-year terms." The "Achievement
Solutions" program, in effect and simply, has the teachers assemble
together in teams in a collaborative effort to design and implement
larger project-based lessons.

Pearson's website touts this program
by saying that "Based on 15 years of research, the Learning Teams
model starts with the implementation of well-defined student instruction
units, and includes teacher team meetings for periodic review and assessment
of student performance."

What an absolute waste; it's an incredible
loss when you hear of money being wasted like this, particularly when
you substitute teach and you go from school to school in the district
and you experience the desperate need at some school sites for more
vibrant, state-of-the-art school environments, healthier meals, smaller
student-to-staff ratios, and more opportunities for the students to
create and experience the world outside the school. (Just imagine
the differences in the school life of a student from Harvard-Westlake-another
prestigious private school with a 16 student-to-teacher ratio-and
LA Academy-a public school in the LAUSD with probably a 32 student-to-teacher
ratio.)

Pearson goes on, "Data from the Learning Teams pilot program
in 15 LAUSD middle and high schools last year show high school student
failure rates were reduced by as much as 19 percent." You've
got ocean-front property in Arizona to sell? Head down to the
LAUSD Beaudry building, immediately. I've got 37 students crammed
into a rodent-infested "bungalow" (c. WWII era), and yet Brewer,
our former superintendent, is going to relax during his time of unemployment
with a $500,000 bonus? For good measure, let us throw in the recent
finding that the district purchased a $13,000 sushi-making robot several
years back; it sat on a school shelf, unused, for years.

Matt Miller, an editor, author and a
public radio program host, wrote about some of these issues recently
in his latest book "The Tyranny of Dead Ideas" and in an op-ed to
the NY Times, and he comes to the conclusion that we need to
nationalize the funding of our schools. He directly states that:

"local
control of schooling-which means local financing of schools-is an
injustice, masked as a virtue, so deeply ingrained in the American mind
that no politician in either party dare challenge it. Drive around Chicago,
Detroit or most other big cities and you'll see dilapidated schools
staffed largely by rookie teachers. The districts spend, say, $10,000
a child. Twenty minutes up the road you'll find suburban schools that
sport Olympic-quality pools, Broadway-style (or maybe Off Broadway)
theaters and the best teachers in the state. Those schools spend more
like $17,000 per pupil. No other advanced nation tolerates such inequities."

Two endless wars and a trillion dollar
defense budget (Higgs, R., Independent Institute, 2007), including
700 military bases around the world, and we are seriously contemplating
the cutting of five days during the year?

The NY Times columnist Bob Herbert
concludes his article "The War on Schools" from March, 2003, with
words worth repeating and remembering: "It's an insane society that
can contemplate devastating and then rebuilding Iraq, but can't bring
itself to provide schooling for all of its young people here at home."

Instead of "throwing" money at education,
how about just offering it.