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| FEBRUARY, 2009 | THE MONEY ISSUE |
KOG
EDITORIAL OPINION
Does
it work?
"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works...In his inaugural speech, President Obama asked the correct question, "does it work?" This is the same question The KOG has been asking and addressing since its inception. The KOG thanks and commends our new president for asking the correct question, but that's the easy part. It is relatively easy to ask and even to determine what programs are and aren't working -- the hard part is to actually end the program if/when it isn't working. The vast majority of the public are already highly aware which programs are and aren't working, yet the big failing programs just somehow keep on existing year after year, apparently forever. The KOG asks you, Mr. President, to follow through with your promise... if programs aren't working please end them. It is time for dramatic and revolutionary change now because these programs and entities have proven over a long period of time they will never change from within and will not evolve in a manner that will, uh, ever work... and they are breaking the bank. "Revolution is an extension of evolution...Over the past five to ten years The KOG has forwarded hundreds of utilitarian and pragmatic (not to mention humane, ethical, scientifically pure, educationally sound, ranging from research-based to the theoretical and philosophical;) ideas and recommendations related to what works (or could work) and what doesn't work in education. Now that the ground has shifted, the time Actually, this revolution isn't really a choice for any of us any more. The only real choice is whether we (nurture) will end the programs or if they will crumble and fall on their own (nature), a process that has already begun. Bailouts can only put off the inevitable for a few months. "Revolution always has and always will be controlled by nature."In this article, The KOG is addressing educational programs that aren't working and need to end (there is not time or space here to adequately address the hundreds of other governmental agencies and programs in need of similar significant changes). Here are the KOG's top seventeen priorities toward positive educational reform (i.e., the 17 top educational programs that don't work): "If everything in education was working fine, you wouldn't hear a peep from me."Top 17: State & Federal Educational Programs That Need To Go... Programs -- Not People 1. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Let us begin with the most urgent priority. Is there anyone outside of Texas and Washington D.C. who thinks NCLB has worked? As far as I can tell, all it has accomplished is failing thousands of schools and millions of children. It's driven who knows how many hundreds of thousands of outstanding professional educators from the field and prevented who knows how many others from entering the field. We must come to realize that children and all humans are much more than a test score. I understand there has to be some big federal educational bill by whoever our current educational president is (because that's the way we've always done it), but Mr. President, if you would like some ideas on how we can change it from an ineffective punishing model into an empowering positive model that works, please feel free to consult with me any time. "And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.
Special education was a noble experiment, but it has been broken for a long period of time. If a child has a true disability then his or her needs could be met through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 just like everywhere else except in the world of education. I'm a taxpayer and I ask why we have to have not one, but two, huge federal programs to protect and serve students, many who have been misdiagnosed with invented disabilities. For further detailed
information review my past award winning work:
It's not just me... ask the next hundred people you see walking down the street. Ask parents how well special education is working for their child. Ask general education teachers. Here's what principals have to say: "Student outcomes... Regardless of state or federal mandates, schools need to change the way they address academic problems. More than 25 years of special education legislation and funding have failed to demonstrate either the cost effectiveness or the validity of aligning instruction to diagnostic classifications. Placement in special education programs has not guaranteed significant academic gains or better life outcomes for students with disabilities. Time consuming assessments that are intended to differentiate students with disabilities from those with low achievement have not resulted in better instruction for struggling students." (1)Special education, like so many other programs, will not willingly change from within. There have been various attempts at developing alternative models; All except one (RWOL) always ending in still another ineffective model to identify, diagnose, and sort children. Children should go to school to receive an education -- not to get a diagnosis. "Time to drop psychological diagnosis in the schools?" If you don't believe principals, parents, teachers, or me, how about the Past NASP President, Kevin P. Dwyer? "Rights Without Labels:" Words or Actions?...Please Mr. President, drop special education now. It is the right thing to do. No one would have to lose their jobs... children will still need someone to teach them reading... children will still need someone to help them with real life difficulties... 3. English As A Second Language/English Language Development It seems like a nice thing to do to teach English to non-English speaking children. We want to help, right? But such services often become available only to Spanish-speaking children -- not those who may speak any number of other languages. Much research has suggested that English immersion is just as effective, if not more so, than any other method of acculturation, learning, and socialization... and millions or billions of dollars cheaper for the taxpayer. We could all just speak English in the schools. Research from the Center on Instruction at the University of Houston states that ESL children who struggle with reading struggle with reading for the same reasons that any other child who is struggling with reading is struggling with reading -- not because of a second language. In other words, ESL children need effective reading instruction, just like every other child -- not a high-priced federal program to teach them English. "ELLs need early, explicit, and intensive instruction in phonological awareness and phonics in order to build decoding skills. Having English as a second language does not necessarily result in difficulty acquiring word-reading skills. In fact, the great majority of ELLs in the primary grades develop word-reading skills that are commensurate to those of their native English-speaking peers... [at risk ELLs] are learners who -- like their native English speaking peers with early difficulties -- have trouble 'cracking the code'."
Americans could still
be polite hosts to visitors in our country for free, couldn't we?
5. Compulsory Attendance Schools get funding (ADA) when students show up to school. It is also assumed, correctly or incorrectly, that children will learn more when they attend. Thus, there are compulsory attendance laws. However, the $67 or so the school gets paid for the angry, unwilling, unmotivated student is often offset by the myriad of costs to the school when s/he actually shows up. Security, discipline, safety, and other costs often increase. And not much learning occurs when the student shows up angry or not ready or willing to learn for a myriad of reasons. And s/he often adversely affects the learning of other students when they are drug in to school in handcuffs kicking and screaming, made to sit down, and, um, "learn," apparently so they're not left behind. Why not let the student and his or her parents make an informed choice and just let that student take a take a day or two off. If a student gets an F because s/he has missed too much school, well, if they are that uninvested, then they probably would have got the F even had they attended. Apparently some or many teachers fail 30-50% of the students who do show up... We can make a student show up to school every day in handcuffs, but we can't make him or her learn. "I may make you feel, but I can't make you think."Read "Time to drop mandatory attendance?" 6. School Sports Under the present budget crunch, some schools are already (i.e., finally) starting to look at cutting some sports programs. The KOG, always way ahead of it's time, suggested this consideration/possibility years ago. Had some of those recommendations been implemented then, schools might not be now having to weather such a storm. Second place: Stockton Unified considers freshman sportsRead "Time to drop school sports?" 7. Publicly Funded Meals Schools advertise "free" or "reduced" breakfasts and lunches for needy students. These meals may be free for students, but, um, not for us taxpayers. Why do I have to pay for your kid's breakfast and lunch? One Kern County high
school gets $162 per meal served -- an extra $14,000 per year per student
-- 12.5 million dollars per year from you, the taxpayer!!! The KOG
Editor is completing the investigation and working on this expose in preparation
for publication in the March KOG. Be sure to check back next month
for the full outrageous story.
8. School Transportation I know there are laws regarding transportation, but then again, there are laws related to every other topic listed on this page. Just because something is a law, does that mean it has to be a law forever? Even if it's not a good law? Even if it's not working? How much does that
fleet of shiny new district buses cost? How much for gas? How
much for the drivers and mechanics? By the time the district has
driven the student to school and fed him or her breakfast and lunch, there's
not much money left to address education. I'm not saying stop transportation,
but is there a way to maybe save a few million bucks here and there per
district? Maybe the buses, instead of sitting empty during the school
day, could be providing public transportation from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Check out how much LAUSD
pays in transportation... then compare that figure with their deficit.
Gather information from your district.
9. Alliances with Mental Health & Other Outside Agencies Many or most districts and/or county offices contract with outside mental health agencies to provide "services." I would never deny services to anyone -- if a child has a DSM disorder (which is of course, highly questionable to begin with), then his or her parents should take the child to the local mental health center and obtain services as appropriate. If the services are effective, then the child will return to school the next day ready to learn. But the districts and/or counties pay for the alliance with the agency and if/when the student is referred, the parent still has to pay for the therapy! I have a lot more to say regarding this issue (just read every issue of every past KOG), but I'll keep it relatively brief here. If mental health
services for students were working, I'd be all for it, but the end result
is we have found ourselves in a new therapeutic state at the mercy of big
pharmaceutical companies... and you, the taxpayer, are paying for it.
Let me repeat that -- YOU are paying the schools to refer students to get
on drugs. Think about it. Happy Valentines Day.
10. [Certain Aspects of] Technology Students need to advance in modern computer technology for them and the U.S. to compete and survive in the world. I'm all for current, state-of-the-art computer access and training for students. But many districts pay for a district webmaster. Why not have just one webmaster run one site for all the districts in each county? Why does each school district have to have it's own cool website run by one webmaster, especially since it's hardly ever developed by students. School webmaster, usually called the technology department, is a pretty cool position. I wouldn't mind having it. You'd get to sit at the computer all day and develop cool web pages with neat gifs and jpegs -- often at a full-time salary! Wow! If there was ever a problem with a staff members' computer, you'd send one of your techies to check it out. Additionally, other school staff sometimes need computers to perform their jobs too, but almost always their needs could be met by having one or two centrally located computers rather than each and every staff member having a shiny computer always there on the desk. With fewer, centrally located computers, staff members would check their e-mail once a day and they would probably spend, uh, less time surfing the internet and more time working with students. And millions could be saved for the taxpayers. I use a computer a lot in my role as a professional educator, but when you boil it all down to the essentials, the only thing I really have to have a computer for is to write mandated reports (that no one will ever read), and maybe check my e-mail once a day. It wouldn't be that horrible if psychologists didn't write these reports and instead spent their time working with real students on real-life difficulties. If so, you the taxpayer, wouldn't have to buy me a shiny new computer. Read "Time
to stop writing psychological reports?"
11. Drug & Alcohol Resistance Education (DARE) Is there any research
that shows DARE works? If it worked, drug use in America would, um,
reduced, right? How much do the taxpayers pay for the police to come
into your child's school to 12. High Stakes Testing It is a given that some form of assessment is a fundamental and necessary component of education. A student's self-assessment is often the most important type and the purpose of assessment should always be to determine what needs to occur next in the positive lifelong process of learning. Assessment should always relate to the student's individual choices and actions toward his or her pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness (and grade in math). On the other hand, modern high-stakes assessment costs the taxpayers billions, makes big corporations rich, results in lost jobs, failing schools, reduces the student to a mere test score, and takes time away from students that could have instead been spent learning and growing. Modern high stakes testing under NCLB is a punishing model resulting in districts being sorted and professionals losing their jobs. The only apparent positive to receiving high scores is that you don't get punished. Because assessment can potentially help students, I'm willing to compromise. Take three days a year and test all students nationwide on the same test. Use the information to compare America's progress with other nations so we can make positive decisions on a national level. Share the results with local districts so they can use the information to make positive decisions on a local level. Share the results with the student so s/he can make positive decisions. Then get on with the rest of education. Ultimately, I guess
I'm saying three days, rather than three weeks, should be adequate for
all involved to "Our schools fail too many."
How many drug-sniffing dogs, security guards, probation officers, disciplinarians, surveillance cameras, walls, fences, gates, bullet-proof windows, in-school suspension rooms, solitary confinement cells (time-out rooms), involuntary drug tests, searches, etc., should the taxpayers have to pay for? Schools aren't prisons (at least they didn't use to be).
As a parent, I received the above letter notifying me that drug-sniffing dogs will now be utilized in the Kern High School District. I was going to call and ask how much this would decision would cost the taxpayers during these tight economic times but I was too depressed. Apparently teachers are being replaced by drug-sniffing dogs? "Did you trade your heroes for ghosts?"It's sad and ironic to me how many California prisons are run like schools and schools are run like prisons. [Those who work in] prisons seem to think the prisoner wouldn't be there if they just would have received a better education; [those who work in] schools seem to think the student who continues to chew gum should be in prison? The KOG feels there needs to be a huge paradigm shift in both institutions, and, um, many other American institutions. See "Boy With A Gun:
Part
I Part
II
14. Superintendents & Other Duplicated Services Some states have one superintendent per county. My county (Kern) has approximately 52 school districts; thus, approximately 52 superintendents. Let's [very] conservatively estimate their salaries at $100,000 (probably more like $200,000) per year. If we had one instead of fifty-two, Kern county would save somewhere between $5,200,000 and $10,400,000! All we really need is one centrally located office in the county with one superintendent. Take my word for it Under The KOG's plan, no one would need to be fired. Whenever a superintendent retires or is released by the board due to a, a variety of reasons, just turn those duties over to the county office. It's that simple. The district just saved $200,000 per year. Within a few years the change will be complete throughout the county. There are many other
instances of such replication of services and roles throughout counties.
For example, there are [approximately] 52 business offices, 52 lead secretaries,
52 human services directors, 52 directors of special programs, etc.
Think about that. Most of those positions named don't work directly
with students. Every cent counts.
15. Free Tutoring Free tutoring really isn't, um, free. It may be free for the student but free tutoring costs the taxpayer billions. And there is little if any research to support that it helps. Why not just provide a quality education to begin with? Read "Free
Tutoring."
16. Outside Consulting Agencies Districts (I meant to say, you, the taxpayer) pay outside consulting agencies [very] big bucks in hopes of finding some magic cure to bring their failing schools (as identified by the failing NCLB) back into compliance (i.e., improve test scores). Their methods and message are always the same: "if you were a better teacher, your test scores would improve... if you pay me a lot of money, I'll show you how to be a better teacher -- then you might not get fired. Listen to me, I'm the expert. That will be $25,000" I've seen this game played many times but so far I've never seen it work. Districts so often forget they have the professionals right there on staff who could've solved the problem... Districts so often
forget that students are the experts.
17. Paperwork Reduction Task Force Here's a fun one. I admit I don't know how much this one cost the taxpayers -- I bet it was more than $1.00 though. It is a program that may still be going on or in fact may be over now... it was a 3, 4, or 5 year program with 10, 12, 13, 14, or 15 involved states or something like that. The recommendation of this paperwork reduction task force is/was... you guessed it, to reduce paperwork! Read "Straight
from the Department of Education"
There you have
it... the top 17! There are many more of course (like millions of
grant dollars that sometimes don't help), but these 17 may be a good start
to The KOG's peaceful, nonviolent educational revolution. For more
ideas on what might work best for students and how to save money for the
taxpayer, read every word of over eight years of The KOG -- don't just
skim.
This Might Help...
"The selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours...I may be the only one (I hope not), but I'll step forth and offer to sacrifice 5 to 15 of my 195 work days (in hopes that everyone else in education, including the unions, will too) so that we all may remain to serve students through these dark hours. So many others are suffering and sacrificing -- we in education, as leaders in the community, should too, don't you think? Which individuals will also step forth? Which teachers union shall be the first in the state to voluntarily step forth and do the right thing? How To Tell If It Works...
With so many revolutionary changes, the KOG reader may be wondering how we will know if any of the above changes are working or not. You don't need to bring in an outside consulting firm at great expense to the taxpayer... Here's how to tell: "Education works when a student and a professional educator are working cooperatively toward an educational goal."There, it's pretty much that easy... this ain't rocket science you know. "You say you want a revolution?"
THE KOG HIGHLY RECOMMENDS THE FOLLOWING TERRIFIC LINKS
It's great to see the White
House hopping on board with The KOG's revolution!
The
Bonkers Institute
Be Sure to Visit
The Bonkers Shopper's Guide:
...and The KOG considers
Bonkers
an official Affiliate of The KOG!
The
Parental Intelligence Newsletter, Australia
Just like The KOG,
The PI Newsletter asks readers to think... outstanding site, highly
recommended. Be sure to check back every month. The KOG is
proud to be linked at the PI Newsletter.
The
KOG Chronicles
In order to understand the KOG's revolution,
you must understand the KOG's evolution.
TechnoPSYCH!
When/if the KOG ever up and disappears,
the peaceful, nonviolent educational revolution will continue where it
started... at technopsych.com! Be sure to bookmark this site
now.
KASP Membership Information NOTES:
NOTICE:
NOTES
& DISCLAIMERS:
February KOG Published Saturday, January 31st, 2009 www.kernschoolpsych.org/febkog28.htm
"It won't
be easy, not when there is so much money to be made."
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President Barack Obama, January 20th, 2009 |
