Public education is the cornerstone of what has made America great. By making a quality education available to all, America created a huge middle class that has fueled the greatest economy the world has ever known. Public education is currently in a horrible state of disrepair; our children are now far behind world standards among developed nations.
The general public is rapidly growing tired of the decline in the quality of public education. Radical political and religious forces are poised to exploit this failure if it is not rectified quickly. These groups are more interested in destroying public education than fixing it so that they can seize public funding to further their beliefs.
It”s easy to identify problems but the trick is to find solutions. Having been elected to my local school board three times, I was able to see firsthand the strengths and weaknesses of our current system.
Space here is limited, but I will point out a couple of the most obvious places to start, The reality is that our taxpayers and government cannot provide unlimited amounts of money, especially given the poor rate of return we are currently seeing. Public education must learn to provide a much better outcome with the same funding, or maybe even less.
We must reduce administrative expenses so that more can be focused on the classroom. How can we do this?
There is much low hanging fruit. Take for instance, the absurd fact that in Lake County with a relatively small, rural population we have seven different school districts, each with a Superintendent and Board of Trustees, plus a county wide Superintendent and School Board.
Not only is each school board trustee entitled to a salary they are not volunteers but elected officials but they are also entitled to ever more expensive health benefits. Trustees must be educated to understand their responsibilities and so they attend expensive conventions far from home that involve registration fees, travel, hotel and meal expenses.
Each district has two unions that represent classified and certificated employees, which require seemingly endless contract negotiations. These negotiations involve school board trustees, representatives of the union membership and lawyers for both sides.
Contracts call for the employees representing union membership to be paid for their time while negotiating, and the school district must then also hire substitutes to cover their positions while they are off the job.
The lawyers get paid as well, and the ultimate source of all the money is, of course, the district”s budget. Instead of negotiating one contract for the certificated and one for the classified countywide, our districts now negotiate 14 different contracts.
There is no way this makes any sense. The amount of money wasted is obscene. Lake County all counties should consolidate down to one district with a school board member elected from each supervisory district.
Another major problem with pubic education is that the students are no longer grouped by ability. This means that the class can only move as fast as the slowest members, which deprives the “sprinters” of their right to achieve their full potential. The teacher is forced to spend a larger percentage of precious class time dealing with the bad behavior or low ability level of a few students, to the detriment of many.
During the past 40 years or so the focus has been weighted towards promoting “self esteem” for the low achievers at the expense of the high achievers. We must realize that our nation”s future is in the hands of the high achievers and that we need to shift the focus their way.
We can no longer allow the “touchy feely” nonsense to dominate policy. The high achievers need intense academic courses that feature science, higher math, art and music. The low achievers need vocational training so that they can become all they can be. The unruly kids need to be separated from those who appreciate the opportunity our society is generously providing.
This may appall many of my left leaning friends as well as those on the right. The fact is that both sides make good points and both sides are wrong about many things. We can”t allow ideology to interfere with public education. Both sides will have to give in to the obvious if we are to save public education, which is a must. It”s not a cliche to say that our future as a nation depends upon it.
Lowell Grant is a resident of Lakeport. Opinions expressed in all Guest Commentaries are solely those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views or endorsement of the Clear Lake Observer*American or its staff.
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