Time to Prioritize: Educational Values Compared to Unlimited Texting and 57 TV Channels

In an age of questionable priorities should anyone be amazed that Colorado school districts excessing 20% of its teaching staff does not result in public outrage?  Massachusetts experienced similar cuts in teaching staffs during the 1990-91 economic recession.  Given such layoffs, would anyone question the exacerbation of the opportunity gap created by school budgets reliant on property taxes?

Related to educational values, should there be more outrage over what is happening in your district?  If you are satisfied with the level of layoffs in teaching and support staff, does the outrage then need to center on having too many staff for too long?  By contrast, do layoffs to teaching and support staff cause you to question how your school district will implement effective instruction?  In either case, should there by outrage focused upon forcing children's education to be victimized by politics?  Perception in the debate means a great deal.  This is why core educational values need to be reinforced and held accountable by measurable goals.  

It is a fact that we live in an age in which Consumer Reports identifies the average family paying $1800 annually for cell phone service and CNN reports many families spending $1200 per year for cable television.  Yet, people complain about property taxes being too high despite property taxes being the most common source of revenue for public education.  Is it ethical for local political leaders to focus constituent outrage on property taxes without focusing on how school funding is reliant upon this revenue stream?

We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars nationally to assess student progress, or lack thereof.  Given the wide disparity in average state expenditure per pupil, there is room for accountability in the debate referenced above.  For instance, in the 2003-04 school year, state's per-student expenditures ranged from a high of $13,338 in New Jersey to a low of $4,991 in Utah.  If New Jersey students were rated in the middle of the pack on NAEP testing would New Jersey residents have a legitimate complaint about the use of their taxes for school revenues?  By contrast, if Utah residents saw their students' NAEP scores merely average compared to other states on the NAEP list of scores, would anyone be surprised?  Unfortunately, the latter is more consistently true than the former, which should be supportive data for proponents of increasing public revenues for public education. 

Where does accountability fit into the funding debate considering ethical public education is evidenced by equity in quality (Ravitch, 2011)?  Lips (2006) suggests "we won't see widespread improvements in American education until we as taxpayers begin to recognize the costs of the current American education system and demand something better" (para. 12).  Do you believe it is important for all educational institutions to have measurable systemic and educational goals that are based on a "learning for all" mission grounded in a clear vision illiminated by solid ethics?  Will explication of the seven correlates for Effective Schools help all Americans become more willing to pay for a world-class public education?  Is this the next level of communication necessary to hold each other accountable for educational results beyond AYP test scores?    

Long Live the Prince: a sign of things to come as an outcome of the Supreme Court’s rejection of corporate spending limits

In a February 2 editorial, the NY Post noted, “Gov. Cuomo yesterday challenged the Albany establishment to accept "change" and pass a $133 billion budget -- the first in 15 years meant to actually shrink and not grow.” The same day, Rochester’s Democrat and Chronicle editorialized that, “Cuomo is proposing radical change. It's political heavy lifting that threatens to turn the Albany establishment upside down." With the passage of the state’s budget before the April 1 deadline, New York made tremendous progress toward achieving the goals of putting the state’s fiscal house in order and getting New York’s economy running again. The budget includes historic reforms that eliminate a $10 billion deficit with no new taxes or borrowing, redesign government to cut waste and inefficiency, and deliver real results for hard-working families across New York State. As noted in the January post to this blog, undoubtedly difficult decisions needed to be made in the current budget and during future budget debates-both at the federal, state, and local levels. However, education and research must be encouraged and supported rather than cut simply for the sake of reducing a deficit. Education and research are both aimed for improving the future thereby support for both are an investment. On January 7, Charles Bagli for the NY Times reported, “powerful real estate moguls, bankers and business executives behind the Committee to Save New York are moving ahead and expect to run their first television commercial early next week supporting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s campaign to oppose tax increases, reduce the size of government and reform Medicaid and public employee pensions. The governor has already called for a one-year salary freeze for state workers.” Although “corporations” have been given carte blanche over our government due to the January 2011 Supreme Court decision, our elected officials need to vote with their minds not with any single organization’s wallet. The problem will be in actually deciphering the truth among the deceptive and misleading statements and materials that can now bombard the average citizen and politician as a result of this unwise Supreme Court decision and the control of media markets allowed since 2003, when the Bush Administration changed the FCC ownership rules, (see the August post) Last week I received a mailer paid by the Committee to Save New York, Inc. The pamphlet exhibited politics of the worst sort: using hyperbole to make one group the enemy to forward a group's covert agenda. The aforementioned pamphlet noted: “Behind closed doors superintendents and administrators are taking money out of classrooms-but putting hundreds of thousands of dollars in their own pockets.” Let's ignore the intended message- that the proposed layoffs of school teachers are being caused by superintendents' bloated salaries and instead examine the reality that the Committee to Save New York seems intent on implementing a lobbying and marketing approach whereby their own preferences, behaviors, and advocacy, should not be seen as a source of blame for pain inflicted upon others when a suitable scapegoat can be identified. Alas, Machiavellian philosophy is being exhibited with insidious perfection. Mr. Cuomo, has previously exhibited collaboration with union officials representing health care workers in his effort to overhaul the state Medicaid program. Everyone is encouraged to help him maintain a desire for collaboration and reject, as suspicious and deceptive, the marketing and lobbying plan being utilized by groups such as the Committee to Save New York, which no longer need to identify their political agenda or affiliation. Education is the only protection against a system that is being stacked to allow misinformation to manipulate, distract, and confuse the masses. Stay informed, act locally, think globally, and remain life-long learners! Otherwise, soon all can be lost!

A Pending Economic Crisis or an Opportunity for Solutions?

Recently 60 Minutes aired a segment on the economic problems facing state and local governments-NJ was emphasized but the problem is paramount for nearly every state. Unfunded public pensions will be stressing a lot of state budgets and, as a result, taxpayers need to wake up!
Given the current political climate, I don't know how the US can avoid hyper inflation from printing too much money while the real estate markets continue to crash. Elected officials pander rather than lead, so, although taxes need to rise, taxes will not go up but instead services will go down. Crime rates will then steadily increase as services are cut and the suffering, hopeless, poor start to use criminal options to offset poverty conditions. Urban cities that have been fighting urban decay for decades will once again become at-risk.
"At-risk" urban cities such as Perth Amboy, NJ; Yonkers, NY, Scranton, PA, and hundreds more like them, may be the first to suffer due to this perfect economic storm. Do residents of these at-risk urban cities, heavily reliant upon federal and state revenues, think they're immune from the economic disaster that previously destroyed Detroit, Buffalo, and Baltimore ? Their residents need to become actively involved in local governance to accurately judge the viability of the status quo compared to moving to towns that have a better economy and zero-tolerance toward crime. Residents of urban areas: do you have the ability to weather a two-decade economic recovery? No, I am not advocating urban flight from forthcoming urban blight. By contrast, I am encouraging proactive involvement in your local governance to prevent urban decay: demand political bi-partisanship, good schools, high public safety, fiscal accountability, and zero tolerance for corruption. Social progressivism grounded in fiscal responsibility should be the hallmark of every citizen and the requirements for every trustworthy leader!
The Obama Administration wants citizens to recognize the progress made since January 2009. By contrast, Republicans were rewarded for simply saying, "no" for two years and then demanding continuation of Bush-era tax cuts as a quid quo pro for extending unemployment benefits, recognizing civil rights, or passing an Arms Control Treaty. Even David Stockman, the architect of Reagan's "trickle-down economics plan" now recognizes as delusional the expectation that tax cuts will spur economic prosperity during times of extreme budgetary deficits.
I encourage everyone to become fiscally accountable and demand likewise of the government. We cannot "travel" ourselves out of these difficult economic times. It is time to finally recognize we are in a costly war, pay our bills, and then reap the prosperity from living for solutions rather than dwelling in problems.