McLawyer = 56%
Bush = 42%
What a load of horsesh!t.
Posted on 09/27/2002 6:35:15 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
McBride’s Education “Plan” Would Not Only Rob Schools of All Accountability, It Would Also Deny Them $2.5 Billion in Federal Title I Money
“Bill Should Have Done His Homework,” Bush Says—
JACKSONVILLE - Corporate Lawyer Bill McBride was in such a rush to adopt the teachers union’s education “plan” as his own, he apparently forget to actually do his homework. McBride’s proposal would not only rob public schools of much-needed accountability, it would also deny them at least $2.5 billion in Title I funds over 5 years.
McBride’s plan calls for eliminating the use of the FCAT to assess the performance of individual schools. According to the Miami Herald, McBride called Gov. Jeb Bush’s grading plan “An absurd testing system.” Instead, McBride said he would “retain the FCAT, but only to measure the progress of individual students...McBride said he wanted to end the practice of grading schools because it ‘creates more harm than good’ and stigmatizes schools, communities and school staffs in failing to recognize other elements that contribute to school quality.” (7/25/02)
Before announcing his plan, McBride apparently failed to read the new federal education laws that require schools to use student testing as the “primary means” of determining school performance. According to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, in order to be eligible for federal Title I funds, “Each state plan shall demonstrate that the state, in consultation with local educational agencies, has implemented a set of high-quality, yearly student academic assessments that include at a minimum academic assessments in mathematics, reading or language arts and science, that will be used as a primary means of determining the yearly performance of the state, and of each local educational agency and school in the state.”
The federal government has already this year threatened to withhold Title I money to a state that refused to assess schools using student testing. Perhaps McBride was unaware that another liberal Democrat has already tried to ignore the federal government’s tough new testing requirements. According to the 4/18/02 Associated Press, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean earlier this year refused to implement the required tests. The federal government’s response was to tell his state that doing so would forfeit their Title I money.
The AP wrote, “Rebelling against new school-testing demands, Vermont’s governor says he wants his state to consider rejecting $26 million in federal education money to escape the [testing] requirements attached to it...’We’re pretty surprised to see that any state would be willing to walk away from its neediest children,’ U.S. Department of Education Spokesman Dan Langan said, referring to the Title I money.” On 7/11/02 the AP continued by pointing out that President “Bush’s education law specifies that states accepting Title I money must implement comprehensive testing systems. It also places sanctions against schools that don’t raise scores on state tests over several years, allowing students to transfer to another public school.”
“Bill should have done his homework before he rushed to embrace the union’s plan,” stated Bush. “Had he done his math he would have known that by abandoning standards and student testing, McBride is not only robbing our schools of accountability, he is robbing them of at least $2.5 billion in federal money.”
By the way Thats the Major vote in FLorida Not Students between K-3 Grade
What would that harm be exactly? Exposing that one of his biggest campaign contributors are a bunch of corrupt and incompetent sleazebags?
and stigmatizes schools, communities and school staffs in failing to recognize other elements that contribute to school quality.”
Translation: "and stigmatizes my contributors in failing to recognize that what's important is their salaries.”
McLawyer = 56%
Bush = 42%
What a load of horsesh!t.
Is there anything quite so loathsome as a teacher's union? "Other elements that contribute to school quality"?
"Well, uh, we can't seem to teach Johnny how to read, or do math, or very much of anything, but, well, the social scene is hard to beat. This contributes to school quality."
The simple fact is, schools should be judged on one thing only: Do they educate their students? The FCAT is a fine way of measuring this IMO.
I will reiterate here that I was recently told by the principal of the high school I was working at, and I quote, "It doesn't matter what is right and what is wrong, it matters that you follow the lesson plan." That's the principal, the head of that whole school.
Know what will really improve public education? Listen close, I'll list three quick things:
1.REMOVE ALL EMPHASIS ON PURCHASED CREDENTIALS IN THE BOGUS PSEUDO-DISCIPLINE OF "EDUCATION". It is absolutely ridiculous that people who hold multiple degrees can be rejected for a public school teaching position because they haven't paid the appropriate fee to the "Education" department of their nearest university. I personally would not be upset at all with a law mandating a public school teacher must hold a degree in the subject they wish to teach. I've seen far, far too many "English" or "World History" classes that were "taught" by the golf coach.
2. STOP POURING MONEY INTO EXCESS ADMINISTRATION. Many of these "vice principals" and "assistant disciplinarians" are political patronage jobs. One place I have worked at has nine vice principals. One of them spends all day walking around putting parking tickets on misparked cars. He literally does nothing but that for about four hours a day. For this he is making a reasonably high five-figure salary. I have to teach 150+ kids a day and am making a reasonably low five-figure salary. Hmmmm, what smells funny...
3. Related to number 2, RAISE FIRST-YEAR TEACHER SALARIES CONSIDERABLY. The money being poured down the rathole of needless bureaucratic layers could much better be spent attracting talented people to the profession by offering a halfway decent wage. While most teachers who have been at the job ten years in my county make okay money, it is only just okay, and the pay for a first-year teacher is atrocious. No one goes into education planning to get rich, but it would be nice not to have to reuse toilet paper.
After that brush with the extremely unethical principal I'm out of a job. But guess what? If you say there's no right or wrong, I'm not going to work for you. I am in near-tenuous financial straits and hoping that I can find a school somewhere in America, public or private, that actually cares about challenging and educating their students and not just filling desks to get the money. Anyone who happens to be reading this who owns or works for such a school, do please FReepmail me :)
JS
Who has great respect for the longshot
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