Posted on 11/08/2013 4:55:47 AM PST by Kaslin
Voters in Colorado overwhelmingly rejected a proposed school finance reform measure on Tuesday, one which would have raised nearly a billion dollars for Colorado public schools. Described by local media as "a major overhaul of education financing that would have provided nearly $1 billion in additional revenue for Colorado schools," the measure was rejected by a nearly 2-1 margin, with almost 66% of voters saying no.
That isn't just a defeat. It is a repudiation, and an ominous one. Set aside the specifics of the measure for a moment and reflect on the message sent by a 2-1 defeat for a measure touted as pro-public education, no matter its merits.
That kind of a whooping --especially when the losing side had the full support of a popular governor, huge out-of-state hitters (and donors) like Mayor Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Education Secretary Arne Duncan and many business elites-- is a huge signal that perhaps a rupture has occurred, a rupture of the long American tradition of support for public schools across party lines and across all demographic categories. What happened Tuesday night in Colorado was obscured by other high profile elections in New Jersey, Virginia,and New York City, but the national news media should quickly get around to asking what is happening with schools that have made controversies surrounding them into such hot button issue in so many ways and in such a short period of time?
How, exactly, could a measure which such big name and deep-pocketed support lose so badly, so overwhelmingly?
Earlier this summer I spent a broadcast week interviewing various voices from the debate over the "Common Core." I did so when scores of listeners to the radio show and visitors to my various public events began to bring up the subject, and I wanted to get smart about it. So I dug in, on the air, in front of everyone. I am no expert on "Common Core," but was willing to hear from all sides on the issue.
Here is the transcript of my long interview with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a "Common Core" supporter. Here is the interview with "Common Core" opponent Emmett McGroarty, here the conversation with another supporter Patricia Levesque, Finally, here is the interview with former Education Secretary William J. Bennett and here is the long talk with the Washington Post's Jay Mathews, one of the country's leading reporters/writers on education reform --both of whom have mixed feelings on "Common Core."
My conclusion: There is no consensus position on "Common Core," but boy is there enormous energy and a lot of growing anger. "Common Core" could turn out to be a terrific thing, a floor on which to build lasting education reform under the guidance of local school boards and free of federal control, or it could become a politicized exercise in top-down ideologically-driven dictates that first drives parents crazy and then drives them and their children out of the public schools. Much depends on the local school boards and how they act over the next two years.
The "Common Core" debate is just one of many swirling around public education right now. Another is the question of financing and technology --do the schools have enough money and technology or do they need more and if so, where should it come from and who should pay for it? What sort of technology does the average classroom need? The Los Angeles Unified School District just experienced a very bumpy roll-out of iPads-for-all, and skeptics of technology-as-the-soliution are growing in number just as districts across the country get set to try technology driven innovation.
And of course in the background loom the always present issues of school violence, from bullying to the worst sort of horror that we see recur across the country with an almost clockwork regularity.
The point is the ground began moving on education issues years ago, accelerated in recent months and in Colorado on Tuesday reached a new level of polarization, and not in the traditional sense of a stand-off of teacher-union-versus-school-board over pay and benefits, and not in the way of a time honored local debate over this-or-that new 5.9 mill levy for this or that district, or whether this school needs torn down or this new school needs building. Debates over the specifics of school management have long been a feature of American local politics, but rarely --maybe never-- have schools taken center stage as issues driving entire state or even national campaigns.
The future of public education is becoming deeply politicized, and that is a very bad thing, as polarization over public education will do very little good and much harm to millions of students who just need good or great teachers in good or great classrooms getting them ready for a rapidly changing world.
Though I am the product of 12 years of Catholic schooling, both my parents, my wife and all of my children spent every day of their education lives K-12 in public schools, and to great and good effect. The public schools of America are its glory, and their governance a true expression of local control and local values. What happened in Colorado should send a shudder down the spines of everyone who cares about schools --not because the measure lost, but because public schools themselves --as a category-- became a lightning rod, a political cause, and the verdict on them ultimately a huge rebuke to the political elites of Colorado, a rebuke that could be misinterpreted as lack of support for public education on the center-right.
What in fact seems to be happening is a great awakening about the centrality of education in America, and the need to embrace effective, locally-controlled reform. I have been on the board of a public charter school system in Arizona for the past many years --Great Hearts Academies of Arizona-- which now operates 16 amazing schools with more on the way and a waiting list of thousands of students eager to enroll. These are public schools, and all across the country reform is flourishing within the public school system through amazing organizations like KIPP and many others. (Here is the long interview I did with Jay Mathews on his book about KIPP from early 2009, a quick overview to real reform and its promise in many urban settings.)
Great things could happen in the next few years in education --amazing things, rapidly spreading, effective reform and new, energized partnerships between parents, students, teachers, administrators and communities, but that cannot happen if every school district becomes another front in the national battle between left-and-right. The message from Colorado ought to be: Keep education politics local. As they have always been. As they ought to remain.
Can somebody boil this down to what happened and why?
Government wants more money, taxpayers have no more money.
“Government wants more money, taxpayers have no more money.”
It costs between $10,000-28,000 per pupil per year in public school. Most of that goes for administration and to unions. If individuals had that much to spend each child would have an awesome education. As it is now it’s being spent for babysitting.
Statists want total control of the population and the easiest way is complete indoctrination of the young, a formula followed by every totalitarian in history.
Indoctrination camps should be provided free by the Communist Party.
But only to those who want it.
My take on this was that the forces of darkness desperately want a national school curriculum, and one that is heavily leftist doctrinaire.
In past, such schemes, like Noam Chomsky’s “whole language English” have been catastrophic disasters, especially for black students, effectively ending their education at the pre-literate elementary school level. Having failed horribly everywhere it has been tried, forcing millions into generational poverty, Chomsky’s followers, in utter denial, still insist it works. As such, Noam Chomsky has done more to “keep the black man down” than anyone other than Mohammed.
So yes, the defeat of this monstrosity in Colorado is a big win for the real education of children.
Precisely. :)
P.S. I was right about Boehner. But I wish I had been wrong.
Comments?
What in fact seems to be happening is a great awakening about the centrality of education in America, and the need to embrace effective, locally-controlled reform.
When his kids turned high school age, he was not about to put them into that drug and gang culture. He sent them to boarding school in Ghana. It was $800 each for tuition, room and board and a similar amount for the airline ticket there and back. He told me it was the best money he ever spent. While their peers were either joining or getting victimized by the gang and drug culture, his kids not only got a fine education but came home with a genuine appreciation of what we have in America.
What does Boehner have to do with this? You need to get over your BDS
Smart man
Ammendment 66 was a Billion dollar/yr tax.....as a State Constitutional Ammendment.
It was claimed to be “for the children”, but NOTHING in the bill ensured that focus.
In fact, it was a back door bailout for pension and retirement funds, and would have funded the unions, NOT the students.
It undercut the current limit on raising taxes and opened the door to a “progressive” state tax, to be abused forever.
This is a stupid article. I doubt if more than a dozen people in Colorado know what Common Core even is.
We just didn’t want the biggest tax increase in the history of Colorado. We just didn’t want to introduce the first graduated income tax in the history of Colorado. We just didn’t want to give the teachers’ unions another billion dollars to piss away. We finally got sick of liberal politicians trying to raise taxes at every election for “good” causes. We finally said no. And a resounding “NO” at that!
And we accomplished all of this despite being outspend by out-of-staters by 200=1.
As I homeschooler I would love to get a stipend of just a tenth of what the school system would spend on “schooling” my child. I can’t even imagine what I would do with the full amount.
My family is full of retired/former public school teachers, including myself. The way the schools waste money is INCREDIBLE.
Things have really changed in the last ten years in my local area. My parents and I are all former teachers and none of us could believe how bad things have gotten. People always have that general feeling that "things used to be better" but we always wrote it off. We saw the changes and kept thinking, "It can't be that bad...it just can't be that bad..." Now we realize...it is really that bad.
I used to think local reform could work, but the school districts have become more effective at marginalizing the parents they deem to be "troublemakers."
At this point, the solution in my area is to homeschool. Private schools are not good in my area, but they might be an option for someone else. Homeschooling is the only thing I can do.
“This is a stupid article. I doubt if more than a dozen people in Colorado know what Common Core even is.”
Thank you for your response. I also wondered about the common core as nobody I’ve talked to knows anything about it except my retired teacher buddy. (Boy, is he upset by it!)
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