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Banned
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Originally Posted by Ustwo
Ummm really. Support of the teachers union has nothing to do with wanting children to have a better education, not in the least. Which party is for vouchers again so that students from failing inner city school get a chance to escape the crappy education system?  |
The issue of vouchers does not seem to me to be the "clear cut" positive that you are projecting. I would find it suspect if a group of well educated teaching professionals did not organize themselves into a body that takes advantage of their legal right to form a union to negotiate salary and benefits from a position of better co-ordinated and financed strength than any of them could, individually. Teachers who belong to unions seem to be the rarer group today who do not "vote against their own best interests", as so many other wage and salary earners seem to be doing lately.
Success of vouchers for private schools seems mixed, at best, in Florida.
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/c...dbiz_0731.html
By Nirvi Shah
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Accountability. Pay for performance. Bonuses. Return on investment.
Think we're talking business?,,,,,,,,,,,
.......... The marketplace opens right on the schoolhouse steps: School choice, in the form of private-school vouchers, allows parents of many public school children to shop for schools. CATO has applauded Florida's three school voucher programs and suggests it would be ideal to give every parent the option of using public money at private schools.
"If you only give a few kids an option to leave, you're not going to see a lot of change," Salisbury said. "You want as many consumers as possible."
About 27,000 children use one of the state's three types of vouchers to attend private or religious schools. Parents whose children's public schools are labeled as failing are eligible. Any student with a disability or who is poor has the option of getting public or corporate money to attend a private school. Although the vouchers have been abused, the state legislature failed two years in a row to pass laws that would better monitor the programs.
Besides vouchers, a subsystem of public schools is flourishing in Florida. Since the creation of the first five charter schools in 1996, another 296 have opened statewide, and 50 more are expected to open this school year. And though they are hailed by parents, some of these schools are plagued by financial problems as a result of inexperienced owners. Others are simply corrupt. The alternative education some are providing is falling short of state standards.
Although groups such as Salisbury's believe the more competition the better, others are not convinced that the corporate culture is delivering better public schools.
"If you look at corporate culture, they talk about students as customers and consumers," said Damien Filer, spokesman for Citizens for Quality Education, which advocates for public schools. "But businesses don't do what's best for their customers. They do the least necessary to make as much money as possible for stockholders. That's not what's helpful for our students — to be treated like widgets."
Backgrounds in business
The man who chairs the state Board of Education, which oversees public schools; the woman who heads the state board that oversees state universities and colleges; and the former education commissioner are all businesspeople. All were appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, who has had an integral role in making Florida's public education landscape look more like a marketplace.
"In our business, if you don't produce, you aren't paid," said Carolyn Roberts, who chairs the state Board of Governors that's over universities. Many of the members of that board are businesspeople. Roberts heads her own real estate firm in Ocala. "I want measurement. Accountability is important. We understand business procedure."
The most visible example of the shift in public education comes in the form of the FCAT, the test that rewards and punishes, gives and takes away. Though it was created before Bush took office, Bush turned the FCAT into a way of passing judgment on public schools — and as a vehicle for spending public money at private, in some cases religious, schools that aren't subject to the same kind of scrutiny. The tests are unparalleled in providing motivation to invest more money in teaching kids to read and do math, but opponents say the tests could be used more effectively if they didn't punish.
School districts already give bonuses to outstanding teachers, but the extra dollars aren't always tied to how well their students do in class. State education officials want to take the bonuses one step further, by pushing districts to tie a portion of every teacher's salary to student performance, including FCAT scores.
Yet another business-world manifestation in schools: Two years ago, the state debuted a return-on-investment index for every public school.
Predictably, schools with many students with wealthy parents are rated as being more efficient than schools with many poor students. The latter schools receive more money to provide extra services for their students, attention and assistance some don't get from their parents.
At the same time that schools have adopted a businesslike persona, they are putting aside a college-is-the-only-goal way of thinking. Although vocational and technical schools are a mainstay of public school systems, they recently have become a part of regular, comprehensive high schools.
Palm Beach County will have 25 new career academies in its high schools this year.
Most don't go to college
"Not every child is going to college, but every child is going to work," said Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, a former teacher whose family owns a construction business. Developing a better workforce has been her cause since she was first elected to the state Senate 25 years ago.
"If you take 10 ninth-graders in the state of Florida, three will drop out, three will not go beyond high school. That's six who will never go on to college."
Of the remaining four who do, just two will graduate, she said.
"Our focus is on preparing young people for college," Jennings said. "Our focus needs to be on those six."
In response, many public schools statewide have created career academies. They teach students about everything from farming to biotechnology. In many programs, students end high school with certification in their fields that can open the door to jobs without any more schooling.
Because the programs are at regular high schools, more students are likely to enroll because they won't be isolated at schools that often have reputations as schools for underachievers.
"The best economic development incentive you could offer (a prospective business) is a well-trained workforce," Jennings said. "This needs to be the wave of the education of the future."
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