Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Educational Game Changer

SEARCH BLOG: DETROIT and EDUCATION

This appeared in The Detroit News:
Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Lansing — Michigan has two weeks to finalize its application for about $400 million in federal “Race to the Top” cash, following Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s signing of education reform bills Monday aimed at qualifying for the aid.

The five-bill package will raise the state’s dropout age to 18, tie teacher pay and job security to stu­dent achievement and open about 30 new charter schools.

“The reason this is so signifi­cant is now everything will be fo­cused on: ‘Is this child learning?’ ” Granholm said. “It’s all about aca­demic progress.”

State schools Superintendent Michael Flanagan added: “This is a game changer forever.”
Just a few observations:
  • Detroit's education system has a graduation rate of about 25%... or less.
  • Trying to force would-be dropouts to attend classes would be an impossible task and blaming their absence on teachers would be unreasonable.
  • Would the parents of those would-be dropout be held civilly liable for their absences from school?
  • Who "inculcates" the students regarding the importance of an education in getting a job when the jobless rate in Detroit is over 30% and about 15% for the entire state?
  • What will be the security and disciplinary improvements to support teachers who are required to babysit unresponsive 17-year olds?
  • Will students who fail to attend classes until they are 18 be sent to juvenile detention facilities or city cleanup details?
Gov. Granholm's plan boils down to this: we're going to get federal money to cover the administrative bungling that has plagued the State's educational system and place all of the responsibility and none of the authority on the teachers to achieve a dramatic improvement in the academic achievement of children who do not want to be students and whose parents do not care if they are students. It's easy to blame the teachers' union for all of the problems, but realistically the government... state and local... and the school boards can claim the lion's share of failure. It's like blaming soldiers for not winning a war when major areas of support are withheld... including rational policies.

Are there incompetent or indifferent teachers? Surely there are. But the percentage is probably lower than the incompetent and indifferent administrators, bureaucrats, and politicians running the circus.

Perhaps Gov. Granholm should exempt the Detroit Public School system from the requirements of the legislation. Otherwise, one can foresee the number of teachers in the DPS dwindling to... zero. Or perhaps they need Sister Mary Joseph and her wooden ruler whacking a few knuckles. And I think charter schools might be a good idea... if they were run totally independently from the public school district.

Personally, you couldn't pay me enough to deal with some of the imbeciles that the Governor wants to pass off as students. Legalize marijuana and put the dropouts in warehouses of that stuff until they turn 18. The results couldn't be worse and the cost would be a lot less.

2012 IS GETTING CLOSER

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