Why Public Education is more important than Wall St.

9 thoughts on “Why Public Education is more important than Wall St.”

1. Love listening to that guy. I disagree with him most of the time, but it’s always worth the time to hear him out.

   The federal government (since NCLB) has been funding public education at a rate higher than ever before in history. The idea that we should just dump more money on the problem is like pounding your head into a brick wall. We spend more per student than any other country in the world. The real problems are systemic – the infrastructure and management of the educational system.

   My kids’ public school is outstanding. Great test scores & measurables, every teacher and other staff member I’ve met has been great – they go above & beyond. My daughter was diagnosed with Asperger’s. We met with a panel of about 10 people – district psychologist, guidance counselor, occupational therapist, gifted & talented coordinator, etc. I think the initial meeting ran over 2 hours – in the evening, after school hours. Every single person behaved as if they really cared – that they were there to help provide the best environment they could to support her. We’ve met with other teachers after hours a handful of times as well.

   The school where my brother is an assistant principal – not so great. A number of his teachers are out the door at precisely 3:14. He had a meeting with a student, his (alcoholic) father and the guidance counselor. The student stole the family car. The counselor got up and left in the middle of the meeting because, it was 3:14. Shocked, I asked him how the heck that could happen & how he handled it. He said that there is absolutely nothing he can do – the contract says they can’t require the teachers to stay later than the specified time and that’s that.

   Oh and did I mention, my kids’ school spends about $2000 less per student (despite higher transportation costs).

   A system that allows that is quite simply, broken. With due respect to Mr. Reich, a school “bailout” and all the money in the world isn’t going to fix that problem.

   1. Locke…that type of behavior by educators wasn’t what I observed during my campaign for school board either…all of those I met were involved and concerned about their students, their schools, and the overall success of the system.

      I hate to say this but if educators are working to contract and there isn’t an apparent systemwide work stoppage or working to contract…there may be a toxic environment in that particular school…like those ‘bad’ schools we keep hearing about here in MPS, maybe it needs to be shut down and reorganized.

      1. I dunno. I’ve gotten the impression that generally speaking, things are working well enough there. It’s not know as a “bad district” and the problems are with a small minority of individuals. But there is a group of teachers who know exactly what they can and can’t do, and manipulate the system – get away with as much as they can. He’s mentioned some of the things they’ve filed grievances over with the union – and trite simply does not adequately do it justice.

         My brother is generally fairly liberal – I’d actually venture to say he’s probably pretty close to you politically, Ed. We go back & forth on things, but probably haven’t raised voices or gotten angry about disagreements since he was still in college a decade ago. That said, I value his opinion on this more that just about anyone else – since he taught for about 10 years before getting hired as AP – 7-8 years out of state in a non-unionized system and then back here in Wisconsin for a couple. When I hear teachers who’ve spent their entire career in Wisconsin talking about “the end of public education as we know it” or similar, I can’t help but have a bit of contempt compared to the opinion of someone who’s actually worked in both.

         Overall, he’s not thrilled about what Walker is doing – but he’s also said that one of the silver linings is that a number of the older, inflexible teachers – the problems he has to work around – will be seeking early retirement. His words, “I’ll gladly trade the lack of experience for people I can work with.” While he spends most of his time dealing with problem kids & bad family situations, he seems to really enjoy “teaching the teachers.”

   2. And I agree that throwing more money at it isn’t the answer…but neither is starving it to death ala Gov. Walker.

2. So, Jeff, what’s up with coming by my blog, and leaving the comment “Your website sucks dick”?

   #1: That’s not a high quality comment. I can find a 5 year old willing to offer more enlightening verbiage.

   #2: My website is awesome.

   Please explain. Thanks.

3. It wasnt me im a big fan carol. Some coward keeps posting things all over using my name. he posts at Cindys site often also(fairly conservative). I guess he thinks he is being funny.

4. Well locke i have to disagree with that because that is not what I see. Unless they are ‘working to contract” to protest the attack on them(which i fully support). My wife is a school social worker and during the protests had to actually go in to work because she had a scheduled meeting with a parent that she could not change. She desperately wanted to be at the capitol with her coworkers but put the kids first. That is the standard theme at the school she works at and the school system I am in also.

   Yes we do pay a disproportionate amount of money to education BUT you have to look at it fairly. As has been pointed out numerous times, their healthcare costs are around $25k that’s ridiculous. I dont mean ridiculous in terms of I cant believe we give our teachers healthcare, but ridiculous in that companies would charge that much. Every other industrialized country in the world has healthcare so the schools are not burdened with that cost. Lets also not forget that the building costs/copiers/heat, etc… are all included in the costs. Why should a school system get burdened with doing minimal maintenance on their schools at the expense of ACTUAL education. You and I will pay plenty for the zoo interchange in Milwaukee, yet we cant share the burden of making schools safe and minimally sound?

5. OK. Glad I asked you directly. Geez. That’s such a weird thing to do. *sigh* People.

6. You have my email, you can email or FB me anytime

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