The following article appeared in the Chicago Sun Times.
According to the Illinois School Report cards in Chicago School District 299 only 31.7% of the students meet or exceed state goals on the Prairie State Achievement Exam. It is time for the Chicago Teachers' Union to let go of their iron grip on the Chicago Education System and give students a fighting chance to get a proper education. 15,587 dollars is spent per student to educate the children, the results are only 31.7% can meet or exceed state goals. The system is failing far to many students and society and our country pays the price. While teachers except no accountability and retire early on hefty pensions primarily funded by the taxpayers. It is time for reform.
Home-based online schooling ripped
July 14, 2006
BY KENDRICK MARSHALL Staff Reporter
A new Chicago Public Schools charter that would educate students online from home is illegal, the Chicago Teachers Union said Thursday, threatening a court challenge to the school, which has yet to receive state approval.
"This is not the answer for our students," teachers union President Marilyn Stewart said at a press conference Thursday at the union's Merchandise Mart headquarters. "This school is a step back in education reform."
The Chicago Virtual Academy was approved by the School Board in January and plans to enroll 600 K-8 students this fall.
However, as a charter school, it must receive state approval and Illinois State Board of Education officials said they have yet to receive its application.
Malon Edwards, CPS spokesman, said the application from the school operators arrived in March and was sent to the state this week. He could not explain the delay, but said it shouldn't affect the timetable for state approval.
Hindered socially, academically?
State Board officials will try to rule before the school year starts, a state board spokesman said.
The union contends the online setting would violate a state school code that mandates "non-home based'' charter schools. Virtual Academy president Sharon Hayes denied the program would be "home schooling children'' since they would learn in the classroom as well.
The planned school would enroll students citywide and serve physically disabled and gifted students or those from underperforming schools as part of the city's Renaissance 2010 initiative. Students would work primarily from home with the help of a parent or another responsible adult.
One of the union's biggest concerns is that students would be hindered socially and academically.
According to Hayes, students will spend 25 percent of their time online with laptops and materials provided by the school, the rest of the time they will complete workbook exercises and hands-on activities as well as interact with a state-certified teacher and other students once a week at a downtown learning center.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Ex-CPS official indicted over bribes
The following story appeared in the Chicago Sun Times.
Ex-CPS official indicted over bribes
July 12, 2006
BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter
A former Chicago Public Schools official who is the brother of a high-ranking mayoral aide was indicted on charges he took bribes in exchange for handing out millions of dollars worth of school contracts, officials disclosed today.
James Picardi, former assistant manager of operations and operations manager for the school system, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Picardi, 51, of Wauconda, is the brother of Michael Picardi, the city's Streets and Sanitation commissioner.
Federal authorities said James Picardi and two others scammed the schools out of money tied to fencing contracts.
Picardi received weekly payments totaling $5,000 in exchange for helping James Levin, a fence company executive, land contracts with the schools, authorities said.
Levin, former president of Tru-Link Fence and Products Co., and Tru-Link Commercial Inc., was charged with one count of wire fraud and tax evasion. Also charged with conspiracy to commit bribery is Arthur Miller, who owns All Power Electric.
CPS paid more than $2.6 million to Tru-Link between 1998 and 2000 for 106 fencing projects.
nkorecki@suntimes.com
Ex-CPS official indicted over bribes
July 12, 2006
BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter
A former Chicago Public Schools official who is the brother of a high-ranking mayoral aide was indicted on charges he took bribes in exchange for handing out millions of dollars worth of school contracts, officials disclosed today.
James Picardi, former assistant manager of operations and operations manager for the school system, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Picardi, 51, of Wauconda, is the brother of Michael Picardi, the city's Streets and Sanitation commissioner.
Federal authorities said James Picardi and two others scammed the schools out of money tied to fencing contracts.
Picardi received weekly payments totaling $5,000 in exchange for helping James Levin, a fence company executive, land contracts with the schools, authorities said.
Levin, former president of Tru-Link Fence and Products Co., and Tru-Link Commercial Inc., was charged with one count of wire fraud and tax evasion. Also charged with conspiracy to commit bribery is Arthur Miller, who owns All Power Electric.
CPS paid more than $2.6 million to Tru-Link between 1998 and 2000 for 106 fencing projects.
nkorecki@suntimes.com
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
New Century Project - John Kasich Chairman
The information below is from the New Century Project.
"I do not believe that there is any way to fix the public school system without opening it up to competition and parental choice. Our bureaucratic one size fits all public school system has lost its ability to encourage and nurture the uniqueness of each child. What is so radical about the idea of giving parents the power to send their child to the best possible school? I understand that this will bring huge change to our public schools, but I do not fear this change. The only thing I fear is the status quo."
- John Kasich in a speech to the Urban League
The education our nation's children is the most important civil rights issue in America today.
New Century Project supports school choice because it empowers parents to provide a better education for their children. It also increases the accountability of educational institutions and helps to restore local control over schools.
NCP continues to support initiatives and ideas for more accountable education, as well as elected leaders who are fighting for school choice, local control, and more accountability.
Our chairman, John Kasich, has a consistent and ongoing commitment to school choice.
To read more about John Kasich and the New Century Project go to New Century Project website.
"I do not believe that there is any way to fix the public school system without opening it up to competition and parental choice. Our bureaucratic one size fits all public school system has lost its ability to encourage and nurture the uniqueness of each child. What is so radical about the idea of giving parents the power to send their child to the best possible school? I understand that this will bring huge change to our public schools, but I do not fear this change. The only thing I fear is the status quo."
- John Kasich in a speech to the Urban League
The education our nation's children is the most important civil rights issue in America today.
New Century Project supports school choice because it empowers parents to provide a better education for their children. It also increases the accountability of educational institutions and helps to restore local control over schools.
NCP continues to support initiatives and ideas for more accountable education, as well as elected leaders who are fighting for school choice, local control, and more accountability.
Our chairman, John Kasich, has a consistent and ongoing commitment to school choice.
To read more about John Kasich and the New Century Project go to New Century Project website.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Time to Face our Education Crisis by Newt Gingrich
The following is a letter from Newt Gingrich. This is a good start but he should put the finger at the teachers' unions just as Dole had when he was running for president.
Time to Face our Education Crisis
School is out for the summer, but as a grandfather and former college professor, the education of our children is never far from my mind. My own grandchildren are young -- ages 6 and 4 -- and have their entire educational experience ahead of them. I saw a report recently that makes me worry about the education system they will inherit. It makes me worry what kind of country they will inherit. And it makes me ask this question: When it comes to educating our children, at what point are we willing to face the truth and declare that the education system created for the industrial era is failing to prepare our children for the demands of today's information age?
If a 21.7% Graduation Rate Isn't Failure, What Is?
The education bureaucracy likes to play a game with statistics. They usually publish data on educational successes or failures only on a statewide basis, so parents and teachers have no way to hold the education bureaucracy accountable where it counts -- on the district level. But a new study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took a different approach, and the results it reported are deeply troubling to those of us with a concern for the future of American children.
The study looked at graduation rates on a district-by-district level and found that they are shockingly lower than previously reported by the education bureaucracy. In big-city public school districts like Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and Denver, fewer than 50 percent of high school students graduate on time. In three districts, the public schools graduate fewer than 40 percent of their students: In New York City, the graduation rate is 38.9 percent; in Baltimore, it's 38.5 percent; and in Detroit, incredibly, only 21.7 percent of students who enter public high schools will graduate.
Failing Four Out of Five Students
Consider this finding for a moment. If only 21.7 percent of students graduate from Detroit schools on time, that means that 78.3 percent of students fail to graduate. Almost 80 percent of students -- four out of five -- are failed by our educational system. Why do we tolerate this level of failure? The fact is, in most aspects of life, we don't. If a private company took the money from its customers and then failed 80 percent of them, it would be closed in a day.
I am a firm believer in establishing measurable standards of success (or failure) and constantly assessing the wisdom and workability of policies against these standards. One of the most basic measures of the success of our school system is high school graduation. A high school diploma is the minimum requirement for successful participation in American life. The failure of our schools to graduate their students isn't limited to Detroit or to our big cities. Nationwide, it is estimated that three of every 10 students who start high school won't graduate on time. For minorities, these numbers are far worse. One of every two African-American and Latino students won't graduate on time or graduate at all. So dramatic is the failure that today there are more African American males in prison than there are in college -- a fact that is a national disgrace.
First, Save the Children
We've all heard the rallying cries of "Save the Whales" and "Save the Rainforest." My view is that reports on our public schools like this latest one should have us all shouting "Save the Children." Every time we allow policies that favor the education bureaucracy over our children, we not only hurt our children, we hurt our country and our prospects for future safety and prosperity.
Here's a case in point. One of the favorite talking points of the left-liberals is that more money will cure what is wrong with our education system. But here is just one of the facts that exposes this for the lie that it is. Nationally, our education bureaucracy is receiving more than $440 billion a year of our tax dollars to fund our schools, but only about 61 percent of this is actually spent in classrooms. In a state like Michigan, that number is even lower -- only 57 percent of education funds are actually spent on teachers and teaching. The rest goes to the bureaucracy for undefined, unaccountable "overhead." It cannot be overstated, that unless and until we make it a priority to put the welfare of our children over the welfare of the education bureaucracy, our education bureaucracy will continue to consign our children to future poverty and our nation to future failure.
The Valedictorian Who Flunked Out
America has many great public schools and many, many dedicated teachers. And we have more than our share of education success stories. The problem is that too often these successes are achieved in spite of our current education system, not because of it.
I am reminded of a tragic story I heard about the valedictorian at a high school in New Orleans who couldn't graduate because she had failed the math portion of her graduate exit exam five times. She had a near-perfect grade point average -- and had even received an A in an advanced math class her senior year. But when she took the test required of all Louisiana students before graduation, everything her school system had supposedly done for her was exposed as a lie. She hadn't been educated -- she had merely been processed, passed up the line from grade to grade in order to avoid exposing the failure of the very institutions and officials that were entrusted with her future.
To Rescue the Future, We Must Remember Our Past
From New York Times bestselling author William J. Bennett, comes America: The Last Best Hope, Volume 1. More than a history book, America: The Last Best Hope is a thrilling account of why America is the greatest country on earth, what made her so, and why she should prevail.
"The role of history is to inform, inspire and sometimes provoke us, which is why Bill Bennett's wonderfully readable book is so important."
- Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Had this story ended here, it would have been just one more tragic tale of how our education system is cheating kids and lying to their parents. But thankfully, the story of this young woman didn't end in failure. Even though she had been humiliated in front of her peers and the nation when the press picked up the story, she didn't give up. She persevered and, on her seventh try, passed the state graduation exam and received her diploma.
America abounds with more energy, resourcefulness and innovation than any nation in the history of mankind. We deserve an education system that nurtures and develops these qualities. I've said it before and I'll say it again: We owe our children and grandchildren an America at least as prosperous and secure as the one our parents and grandparents fought and worked to give us. "Save the children" isn't just a slogan, it's a call to win the future for all Americans, starting with our children. Let's not wait to get started.
Your friend,
Newt Gingrich
Time to Face our Education Crisis
School is out for the summer, but as a grandfather and former college professor, the education of our children is never far from my mind. My own grandchildren are young -- ages 6 and 4 -- and have their entire educational experience ahead of them. I saw a report recently that makes me worry about the education system they will inherit. It makes me worry what kind of country they will inherit. And it makes me ask this question: When it comes to educating our children, at what point are we willing to face the truth and declare that the education system created for the industrial era is failing to prepare our children for the demands of today's information age?
If a 21.7% Graduation Rate Isn't Failure, What Is?
The education bureaucracy likes to play a game with statistics. They usually publish data on educational successes or failures only on a statewide basis, so parents and teachers have no way to hold the education bureaucracy accountable where it counts -- on the district level. But a new study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took a different approach, and the results it reported are deeply troubling to those of us with a concern for the future of American children.
The study looked at graduation rates on a district-by-district level and found that they are shockingly lower than previously reported by the education bureaucracy. In big-city public school districts like Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas and Denver, fewer than 50 percent of high school students graduate on time. In three districts, the public schools graduate fewer than 40 percent of their students: In New York City, the graduation rate is 38.9 percent; in Baltimore, it's 38.5 percent; and in Detroit, incredibly, only 21.7 percent of students who enter public high schools will graduate.
Failing Four Out of Five Students
Consider this finding for a moment. If only 21.7 percent of students graduate from Detroit schools on time, that means that 78.3 percent of students fail to graduate. Almost 80 percent of students -- four out of five -- are failed by our educational system. Why do we tolerate this level of failure? The fact is, in most aspects of life, we don't. If a private company took the money from its customers and then failed 80 percent of them, it would be closed in a day.
I am a firm believer in establishing measurable standards of success (or failure) and constantly assessing the wisdom and workability of policies against these standards. One of the most basic measures of the success of our school system is high school graduation. A high school diploma is the minimum requirement for successful participation in American life. The failure of our schools to graduate their students isn't limited to Detroit or to our big cities. Nationwide, it is estimated that three of every 10 students who start high school won't graduate on time. For minorities, these numbers are far worse. One of every two African-American and Latino students won't graduate on time or graduate at all. So dramatic is the failure that today there are more African American males in prison than there are in college -- a fact that is a national disgrace.
First, Save the Children
We've all heard the rallying cries of "Save the Whales" and "Save the Rainforest." My view is that reports on our public schools like this latest one should have us all shouting "Save the Children." Every time we allow policies that favor the education bureaucracy over our children, we not only hurt our children, we hurt our country and our prospects for future safety and prosperity.
Here's a case in point. One of the favorite talking points of the left-liberals is that more money will cure what is wrong with our education system. But here is just one of the facts that exposes this for the lie that it is. Nationally, our education bureaucracy is receiving more than $440 billion a year of our tax dollars to fund our schools, but only about 61 percent of this is actually spent in classrooms. In a state like Michigan, that number is even lower -- only 57 percent of education funds are actually spent on teachers and teaching. The rest goes to the bureaucracy for undefined, unaccountable "overhead." It cannot be overstated, that unless and until we make it a priority to put the welfare of our children over the welfare of the education bureaucracy, our education bureaucracy will continue to consign our children to future poverty and our nation to future failure.
The Valedictorian Who Flunked Out
America has many great public schools and many, many dedicated teachers. And we have more than our share of education success stories. The problem is that too often these successes are achieved in spite of our current education system, not because of it.
I am reminded of a tragic story I heard about the valedictorian at a high school in New Orleans who couldn't graduate because she had failed the math portion of her graduate exit exam five times. She had a near-perfect grade point average -- and had even received an A in an advanced math class her senior year. But when she took the test required of all Louisiana students before graduation, everything her school system had supposedly done for her was exposed as a lie. She hadn't been educated -- she had merely been processed, passed up the line from grade to grade in order to avoid exposing the failure of the very institutions and officials that were entrusted with her future.
To Rescue the Future, We Must Remember Our Past
From New York Times bestselling author William J. Bennett, comes America: The Last Best Hope, Volume 1. More than a history book, America: The Last Best Hope is a thrilling account of why America is the greatest country on earth, what made her so, and why she should prevail.
"The role of history is to inform, inspire and sometimes provoke us, which is why Bill Bennett's wonderfully readable book is so important."
- Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Had this story ended here, it would have been just one more tragic tale of how our education system is cheating kids and lying to their parents. But thankfully, the story of this young woman didn't end in failure. Even though she had been humiliated in front of her peers and the nation when the press picked up the story, she didn't give up. She persevered and, on her seventh try, passed the state graduation exam and received her diploma.
America abounds with more energy, resourcefulness and innovation than any nation in the history of mankind. We deserve an education system that nurtures and develops these qualities. I've said it before and I'll say it again: We owe our children and grandchildren an America at least as prosperous and secure as the one our parents and grandparents fought and worked to give us. "Save the children" isn't just a slogan, it's a call to win the future for all Americans, starting with our children. Let's not wait to get started.
Your friend,
Newt Gingrich
Monday, July 10, 2006
Can Political Leaders Find the Courage to Liberate Education?
The following article was published in The Heartland Institute's publication School Reform News.
Can Political Leaders Find the Courage to Liberate Education?
Author: Michael Strong
Published: The Heartland Institute 07/01/2006
Editor's note: This is the final installment of a seven-part series showing why charter schools do not have the freedom needed to create significant educational improvements through innovation.
Educational innovations leading to performance improvements were the goal of introducing school choice in the first place. It is possible that if Moreno Valley High School (MVHS)--a charter school in Angel Fire, New Mexico--had replicated its program across the state, SAT scores and AP enrollment statewide might have increased as additional Socratic Practice charter schools opened, staffed by faculty trained at the proposed MVHS Socratic Practice teacher training center.
Over the course of a decade or two, New Mexico might plausibly have moved from 50th in the nation educationally into the top 10. At MVHS, Socratic Practice programs have resulted in 120 point average annual gains on the SAT, compared to 40 point average annual gains for the United States as a whole, according to The College Board.
Legions of students currently incapable of college-level work, with SAT verbal scores below 300, could become legions of students with SAT verbal scores above 500, higher than the average entering college freshman's. New Mexico could have the highest percentage of students taking AP courses of any state in the nation.
Why accept failure? If indeed MVHS has such a good program, why can't the state replicate it statewide and reap the benefits of its innovative program?
Blocking the Way
Note the obstacles to such an approach:
Exactly the same program is perceived to be excellent by some, educational malpractice by others.
Although some parents, students, and educators love the program, the state regards it as largely a failing program due to noncompliance with regulations.
The program, despite its solid, measurable achievements, is similar to progressive pedagogies with a long history of failure and little documented success outside of MVHS and a limited track record even there. It is not a "research-based" reform.
In order for the program to be successful, it must be staffed and supervised by expert, highly intelligent Socratic educators, most of whom are not state-licensed and who must be trained in an institution that does not yet exist and if it did, would be completely outside the official university credentialing system and therefore an affront and a threat to that system.
Staking Careers on Change
In short, though some parents and educators are willing to stake their children's education and livelihoods, respectively, on this program, it is unlikely that bureaucrats and politicians, who must answer to majorities, media, and opponents, would stake their careers on it. It is just too controversial and too risky.
In addition, insofar as MVHS is staffed by non-credentialed personnel and uses an approach that does not teach to state standards, the public education establishment has both the incentive and the ammunition to undermine support for such a program.
Seeing Like Bureaucrats
Learning to "see like a state" means learning to see like the politicians and bureaucrats who constitute the state. To achieve political success, it is crucial to appear to be a leader, on the one hand, and to avoid appearing to be responsible for highly publicized disasters, on the other. Both President George W. Bush, with No Child Left Behind, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), with his reform program that required all charter school personnel to be licensed, were able to portray themselves as strong, assertive leaders in educational policy.
In the hunter/gatherer communities in which humans evolved, the decisive leader was the good leader. A politician who supports diverse experiments, especially in an area of such importance as education, is apt to appear weak.
Worse yet, if some of those educational experiments fail due to "inadequate" regulatory oversight, the media and the politician's opponents will blame the politician for allowing the failure to happen. Therefore it is much safer to support tightly regulated programs than to support diverse experimentation.
We are all constantly impressed by the world of technological innovation. Read Wired, Technology Review, Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics, or visit Sharper Image or Radio Shack, to be dazzled by the rate of technological change. But the road to the dynamism of the world of technology is paved with untold numbers of failed experiments, failed technicians, failed entrepreneurs, and failed companies.
Experimenting with Children
Critics of school choice sometimes indignantly claim that the public task of educating children is too important to be allowed to a chaotic marketplace in which schools operated by uncredentialed amateurs might fail. But without experimentation, great innovations will not come into being.
Because of the policies supported through the responsible leadership of Bush, Richardson, and the New Mexico Department of Education, MVHS is now on track to be a successful school in the eyes of the State of New Mexico.
The same parties are also responsible for ensuring that New Mexico will likely remain among the poorest and educationally lowest-achieving states in the nation during the coming decades.
Demanding Freedom
Freedom is a prerequisite for innovation in every field of human endeavor. Silicon Valley, "the greatest legal creation of wealth in human history," was created out of math, sand, and freedom. The Soviet Union had the best mathematicians on Earth and plenty of sand, but in the absence of freedom they were unable to produce innovative information technology. By the mid-1980s, any decent university in the United States had more computing power than the entire Soviet Union.
If we want to create the greatest development of human intellectual power in human history, we will have to allow for much greater educational freedom.
As long as we are led by "responsible political leaders," regardless of political party, who protect the public from educational malpractice, we will never have amazingly good schools. Until the public supports politicians in liberating education from state control, regardless of whether that means we'll have public schools, charter schools, vouchers, or tax credits, risk-averse politicians will be forced by the public to support "responsible" policies that prevent innovation and thereby ensure mediocrity.
Michael Strong (michael@flowidealism.org) is CEO and chief visionary officer of FLOW, Inc. (http://www.flowrealism.org), a group working to achieve world peace, prosperity, happiness, and sustainability in 50 years.
For more information ...
The College Board's "Retaking the Test" report is available online at http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/scores/understanding/retaking.html.
THE HEARTLAND INSTITUTE
19 South LaSalle Street #903
Chicago, IL 60603
phone 312/377-4000 · fax 312/377-5000
http://www.heartland.org
Can Political Leaders Find the Courage to Liberate Education?
Author: Michael Strong
Published: The Heartland Institute 07/01/2006
Editor's note: This is the final installment of a seven-part series showing why charter schools do not have the freedom needed to create significant educational improvements through innovation.
Educational innovations leading to performance improvements were the goal of introducing school choice in the first place. It is possible that if Moreno Valley High School (MVHS)--a charter school in Angel Fire, New Mexico--had replicated its program across the state, SAT scores and AP enrollment statewide might have increased as additional Socratic Practice charter schools opened, staffed by faculty trained at the proposed MVHS Socratic Practice teacher training center.
Over the course of a decade or two, New Mexico might plausibly have moved from 50th in the nation educationally into the top 10. At MVHS, Socratic Practice programs have resulted in 120 point average annual gains on the SAT, compared to 40 point average annual gains for the United States as a whole, according to The College Board.
Legions of students currently incapable of college-level work, with SAT verbal scores below 300, could become legions of students with SAT verbal scores above 500, higher than the average entering college freshman's. New Mexico could have the highest percentage of students taking AP courses of any state in the nation.
Why accept failure? If indeed MVHS has such a good program, why can't the state replicate it statewide and reap the benefits of its innovative program?
Blocking the Way
Note the obstacles to such an approach:
Exactly the same program is perceived to be excellent by some, educational malpractice by others.
Although some parents, students, and educators love the program, the state regards it as largely a failing program due to noncompliance with regulations.
The program, despite its solid, measurable achievements, is similar to progressive pedagogies with a long history of failure and little documented success outside of MVHS and a limited track record even there. It is not a "research-based" reform.
In order for the program to be successful, it must be staffed and supervised by expert, highly intelligent Socratic educators, most of whom are not state-licensed and who must be trained in an institution that does not yet exist and if it did, would be completely outside the official university credentialing system and therefore an affront and a threat to that system.
Staking Careers on Change
In short, though some parents and educators are willing to stake their children's education and livelihoods, respectively, on this program, it is unlikely that bureaucrats and politicians, who must answer to majorities, media, and opponents, would stake their careers on it. It is just too controversial and too risky.
In addition, insofar as MVHS is staffed by non-credentialed personnel and uses an approach that does not teach to state standards, the public education establishment has both the incentive and the ammunition to undermine support for such a program.
Seeing Like Bureaucrats
Learning to "see like a state" means learning to see like the politicians and bureaucrats who constitute the state. To achieve political success, it is crucial to appear to be a leader, on the one hand, and to avoid appearing to be responsible for highly publicized disasters, on the other. Both President George W. Bush, with No Child Left Behind, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), with his reform program that required all charter school personnel to be licensed, were able to portray themselves as strong, assertive leaders in educational policy.
In the hunter/gatherer communities in which humans evolved, the decisive leader was the good leader. A politician who supports diverse experiments, especially in an area of such importance as education, is apt to appear weak.
Worse yet, if some of those educational experiments fail due to "inadequate" regulatory oversight, the media and the politician's opponents will blame the politician for allowing the failure to happen. Therefore it is much safer to support tightly regulated programs than to support diverse experimentation.
We are all constantly impressed by the world of technological innovation. Read Wired, Technology Review, Popular Science, or Popular Mechanics, or visit Sharper Image or Radio Shack, to be dazzled by the rate of technological change. But the road to the dynamism of the world of technology is paved with untold numbers of failed experiments, failed technicians, failed entrepreneurs, and failed companies.
Experimenting with Children
Critics of school choice sometimes indignantly claim that the public task of educating children is too important to be allowed to a chaotic marketplace in which schools operated by uncredentialed amateurs might fail. But without experimentation, great innovations will not come into being.
Because of the policies supported through the responsible leadership of Bush, Richardson, and the New Mexico Department of Education, MVHS is now on track to be a successful school in the eyes of the State of New Mexico.
The same parties are also responsible for ensuring that New Mexico will likely remain among the poorest and educationally lowest-achieving states in the nation during the coming decades.
Demanding Freedom
Freedom is a prerequisite for innovation in every field of human endeavor. Silicon Valley, "the greatest legal creation of wealth in human history," was created out of math, sand, and freedom. The Soviet Union had the best mathematicians on Earth and plenty of sand, but in the absence of freedom they were unable to produce innovative information technology. By the mid-1980s, any decent university in the United States had more computing power than the entire Soviet Union.
If we want to create the greatest development of human intellectual power in human history, we will have to allow for much greater educational freedom.
As long as we are led by "responsible political leaders," regardless of political party, who protect the public from educational malpractice, we will never have amazingly good schools. Until the public supports politicians in liberating education from state control, regardless of whether that means we'll have public schools, charter schools, vouchers, or tax credits, risk-averse politicians will be forced by the public to support "responsible" policies that prevent innovation and thereby ensure mediocrity.
Michael Strong (michael@flowidealism.org) is CEO and chief visionary officer of FLOW, Inc. (http://www.flowrealism.org), a group working to achieve world peace, prosperity, happiness, and sustainability in 50 years.
For more information ...
The College Board's "Retaking the Test" report is available online at http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/scores/understanding/retaking.html.
THE HEARTLAND INSTITUTE
19 South LaSalle Street #903
Chicago, IL 60603
phone 312/377-4000 · fax 312/377-5000
http://www.heartland.org
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Break teachers union
The following letter to the editor appeared in the Sun-Times.
Break teachers union
As a homeowner and as a person without a great pension plan, I am forced to pay higher taxes so that the teachers union can have $70 million added to their pension fund. When will our government have the guts to break this teachers union?
Tenure is an insult to anyone who works on merit. In every other occupation, people keep their jobs only if they do them well. Why are new, vibrant, teachers being laid off when tenured teachers can't be touched (some of whom should retire)? In this wonderful country that boasts democracy, we are harboring a socialistic school system. Pouring money into a broken system and not fixing the real problem is a waste of homeowners' money.
Jackie Granlund,
Lincoln Square
Break teachers union
As a homeowner and as a person without a great pension plan, I am forced to pay higher taxes so that the teachers union can have $70 million added to their pension fund. When will our government have the guts to break this teachers union?
Tenure is an insult to anyone who works on merit. In every other occupation, people keep their jobs only if they do them well. Why are new, vibrant, teachers being laid off when tenured teachers can't be touched (some of whom should retire)? In this wonderful country that boasts democracy, we are harboring a socialistic school system. Pouring money into a broken system and not fixing the real problem is a waste of homeowners' money.
Jackie Granlund,
Lincoln Square
Parents and Students for Academic Freedom (K-12)
The following piece is taking in part from Parents and Students for Academic Freedom (K-12) website.
JOINT SENATE RESOLUTION
CONCERNING ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
WHEREAS, Public primary and secondary education in the State of ___________ is an important and valued institution that fosters learning, culture, and economic vitality; and
WHEREAS, Providing students with a solid foundation in the language arts, mathematics, science, history, the humanities, and the social sciences to adequately equip students to learn to think critically, acquire an understanding of our shared national heritage and the richness and diversity of our culture, and prepare them to lead productive lives as informed and responsible citizens in our democratic republic is among the principal purposes of public primary and secondary education; and
WHEREAS, The academic freedom of instructors and the academic freedom of
students are essential and complementary elements of successful education; and
WHEREAS, Teachers and school administrators from the state’s public elementary schools, middle schools, junior and senior high schools have often expressed their commitment to valuing and respecting diversity; and
WHEREAS, A commitment to respect diversity in the educational context necessarily includes a respect for the diversity of intellectual, political, and religious viewpoints, and this commitment must remain strong; and
WHEREAS, A respect for intellectual, political, and religious diversity means that a student should never be penalized because of the opinions he or she holds that differ from a teacher's, and that all students should be made to feel comfortable in exercising their right to listen critically, to express and defend their views, and to challenge an instructor's opinions; and
To read the full JOINT SENATE RESOLUTION CONCERNING ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION go to the Parents and Students for Academic Freedom (K-12) website.
JOINT SENATE RESOLUTION
CONCERNING ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
WHEREAS, Public primary and secondary education in the State of ___________ is an important and valued institution that fosters learning, culture, and economic vitality; and
WHEREAS, Providing students with a solid foundation in the language arts, mathematics, science, history, the humanities, and the social sciences to adequately equip students to learn to think critically, acquire an understanding of our shared national heritage and the richness and diversity of our culture, and prepare them to lead productive lives as informed and responsible citizens in our democratic republic is among the principal purposes of public primary and secondary education; and
WHEREAS, The academic freedom of instructors and the academic freedom of
students are essential and complementary elements of successful education; and
WHEREAS, Teachers and school administrators from the state’s public elementary schools, middle schools, junior and senior high schools have often expressed their commitment to valuing and respecting diversity; and
WHEREAS, A commitment to respect diversity in the educational context necessarily includes a respect for the diversity of intellectual, political, and religious viewpoints, and this commitment must remain strong; and
WHEREAS, A respect for intellectual, political, and religious diversity means that a student should never be penalized because of the opinions he or she holds that differ from a teacher's, and that all students should be made to feel comfortable in exercising their right to listen critically, to express and defend their views, and to challenge an instructor's opinions; and
To read the full JOINT SENATE RESOLUTION CONCERNING ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION go to the Parents and Students for Academic Freedom (K-12) website.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
MEA Advocates Deceptive High Pressure Tactics Against School Board Members
The information below was quoted from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy website . We suggest that you go to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy website to listen to the tape or read the transcript of this analysis. The Michigan Education Association is similar to the Illinois Education Association in Illinois. As your school districts are negotiating their teachers' contracts take note if the same tactics are used in your district. Clearly you can see that the Huntley school board members, BEST members and school employees have used some of these tactics against Larry Snow.
MEA Advocates Deceptive High Pressure Tactics Against School Board Members
An MEA training audio tape for union negotiators offers a particularly disturbing inside look at the MEA, and clearly reveals that it has adopted the militant "industrial union" model for its organization, rather than a "craft union" or professional association model.
The transcript of the tape explains how union negotiators should use pressure tactics to force school board members to concede to their demands. Among the tactics advocated are:
* Investigate the background of each school board member, including religious affiliation, marital status, age, education, employment, family, politics, "what do his peers think of him?," "what is his relationship with his employer or employees?," and "does holding a public office help him advance in his job or produce business connections?" This should be investigated, the MEA states, so the negotiator will "know what sensitive chords and nerves to hit during negotiation to get the results you seek."
*After gathering information, the MEA recommends that the local union "consider bringing in a heavy from the outside. You know, perhaps your Uniserv director. When the job is done and the bad guy, you know, has to leave town, won’t it be nice when the local association won’t have to bear the brunt of resentment?"
*The MEA tape recommends that the negotiator "use time as an ally. You know, if your negotiating team can get to bargaining sessions well rested, whereas the board’s team is harried and fatigued, keep negotiations going until 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning. Wear down the board physically and psychologically."
*"Remember that large districts rely heavily upon the superintendent to absorb the flack. They use the superintendent as a shield. If he is discredited, the rest of the board suddenly feels naked and they are often eager to take an escape route which the association has waited for the appropriate moment to offer."
*"Do your best to split the board on crucial issues through contacts with individual board members or misrepresentation of the issues to the public through press releases. Attempt to carefully attack the credibility of the board negotiating team so that most of the board team’s executive sessions with their board will be spent answering board members’ questions about association charges and not with planning on up-coming negotiation sessions."
MEA Advocates Deceptive High Pressure Tactics Against School Board Members
An MEA training audio tape for union negotiators offers a particularly disturbing inside look at the MEA, and clearly reveals that it has adopted the militant "industrial union" model for its organization, rather than a "craft union" or professional association model.
The transcript of the tape explains how union negotiators should use pressure tactics to force school board members to concede to their demands. Among the tactics advocated are:
* Investigate the background of each school board member, including religious affiliation, marital status, age, education, employment, family, politics, "what do his peers think of him?," "what is his relationship with his employer or employees?," and "does holding a public office help him advance in his job or produce business connections?" This should be investigated, the MEA states, so the negotiator will "know what sensitive chords and nerves to hit during negotiation to get the results you seek."
*After gathering information, the MEA recommends that the local union "consider bringing in a heavy from the outside. You know, perhaps your Uniserv director. When the job is done and the bad guy, you know, has to leave town, won’t it be nice when the local association won’t have to bear the brunt of resentment?"
*The MEA tape recommends that the negotiator "use time as an ally. You know, if your negotiating team can get to bargaining sessions well rested, whereas the board’s team is harried and fatigued, keep negotiations going until 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning. Wear down the board physically and psychologically."
*"Remember that large districts rely heavily upon the superintendent to absorb the flack. They use the superintendent as a shield. If he is discredited, the rest of the board suddenly feels naked and they are often eager to take an escape route which the association has waited for the appropriate moment to offer."
*"Do your best to split the board on crucial issues through contacts with individual board members or misrepresentation of the issues to the public through press releases. Attempt to carefully attack the credibility of the board negotiating team so that most of the board team’s executive sessions with their board will be spent answering board members’ questions about association charges and not with planning on up-coming negotiation sessions."
Friday, July 07, 2006
A tale of two different taxing situations.
The first story below appeared in the Rockford Register Star. In the first article below you will read that legislators are thinking of a tax increase. The second story is an AP story and apppeared in Northwest Herald.
In the first story below Martire made two good statements:
"The honest answer is if you're going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it," Martire said.
"And if you're relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That's something other than responsible because it's borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels."
But the solution is to NOT "enhance public spending" and to NOT "maintain current spending levels". Even his own words show that the real problem is spending, not funding.
After more than 15 years, is a state tax increase inevitable?
By Aaron Chambers
REGISTER STAR SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
Click here for more information about Aaron Chambers
SPRINGFIELD — The state hasn’t hiked tax rates in more than 15 years.
Will Illinois soon hit you with a tax increase? And, as some observers suggest, would a tax hike be more responsible than the state’s nickel-and-dime approach to generating more cash to spend?
“They come up with so many creative ideas, why don’t they just raise taxes and get by all these games and get a solid revenue stream to take care of our pensions and our debt and our schools?” said Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford.
He was referring to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and fellow Democrats in the Legislature who have shaped the state budget in recent years.
Syverson predicted the state would need to raise taxes to deal with its rapidly growing expenses.
He said a sales-tax increase wouldn’t be feasible because it would drive consumers to the Internet and surrounding states.
But he would consider supporting an income tax increase — perhaps a temporary one — as long as the state stopped diverting dollars from road construction funds and committed to using all new revenue to pay bills and debt.
“Unfortunately the problem can’t be fixed with a few small fee increases,” Syverson said. “It’s going to take a pretty substantial amount of new revenue, unfortunately, just to make up for what’s happened over the last three years.”
John Kenward, a senior analyst at rating agency Standard & Poors, said the state’s nickel-and-dime approach is not unusual.
“There’s not a lot of forward financial planning with the states,” he said. “It tends to be budget to budget, year to year.”
Kenward said it’s heroic for Illinois to keep a lid on taxes to stay competitive with surrounding states. But that at some point, it would need “an overall longer-term plan because the revenues aren’t growing as fast as the expenditures are.”
In April, Fitch Ratings gave Illinois a “negative outlook,” because it must start making dramatically larger payments to its pension systems. Public pension systems have $38.6 billion in unfunded liability, which is the difference between assets and the cost of retirement benefits for everybody covered by the system.
Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a fiscal policy think tank, likened Blagojevich’s fiscal style to paying grocery bills with a credit card.
Martire supports an income tax hike to better fund education and other needs.
“The honest answer is if you’re going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it,” Martire said.
“And if you’re relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That’s something other than responsible because it’s borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels.”
The state hiked the personal income tax from 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 1989, according to the state Department of Revenue. The corporate income tax increased from 4 percent to 4.8 percent at the same time.
The state sales tax has been 6.25 percent since 1990.
Blagojevich’s latest plan to generate cash is selling or leasing the state lottery. Skeptics say that would simply postpone an inevitable tax increase, but Blagojevich budget director John Filan disputes that.
Staff writer Aaron Chambers may be reached at 217-782-2959 or achambers@rrstar.com.
In the story above
Rising gas prices have pumped millions into state budget
[published on Fri, Jul 7, 2006]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Rising gasoline prices and the extra tax money they produce have pumped an additional $137 million into the state budget over the past year, analysts say.
To view the rest of the story go to Northwest Herald.
In the first story below Martire made two good statements:
"The honest answer is if you're going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it," Martire said.
"And if you're relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That's something other than responsible because it's borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels."
But the solution is to NOT "enhance public spending" and to NOT "maintain current spending levels". Even his own words show that the real problem is spending, not funding.
After more than 15 years, is a state tax increase inevitable?
By Aaron Chambers
REGISTER STAR SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
Click here for more information about Aaron Chambers
SPRINGFIELD — The state hasn’t hiked tax rates in more than 15 years.
Will Illinois soon hit you with a tax increase? And, as some observers suggest, would a tax hike be more responsible than the state’s nickel-and-dime approach to generating more cash to spend?
“They come up with so many creative ideas, why don’t they just raise taxes and get by all these games and get a solid revenue stream to take care of our pensions and our debt and our schools?” said Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford.
He was referring to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and fellow Democrats in the Legislature who have shaped the state budget in recent years.
Syverson predicted the state would need to raise taxes to deal with its rapidly growing expenses.
He said a sales-tax increase wouldn’t be feasible because it would drive consumers to the Internet and surrounding states.
But he would consider supporting an income tax increase — perhaps a temporary one — as long as the state stopped diverting dollars from road construction funds and committed to using all new revenue to pay bills and debt.
“Unfortunately the problem can’t be fixed with a few small fee increases,” Syverson said. “It’s going to take a pretty substantial amount of new revenue, unfortunately, just to make up for what’s happened over the last three years.”
John Kenward, a senior analyst at rating agency Standard & Poors, said the state’s nickel-and-dime approach is not unusual.
“There’s not a lot of forward financial planning with the states,” he said. “It tends to be budget to budget, year to year.”
Kenward said it’s heroic for Illinois to keep a lid on taxes to stay competitive with surrounding states. But that at some point, it would need “an overall longer-term plan because the revenues aren’t growing as fast as the expenditures are.”
In April, Fitch Ratings gave Illinois a “negative outlook,” because it must start making dramatically larger payments to its pension systems. Public pension systems have $38.6 billion in unfunded liability, which is the difference between assets and the cost of retirement benefits for everybody covered by the system.
Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a fiscal policy think tank, likened Blagojevich’s fiscal style to paying grocery bills with a credit card.
Martire supports an income tax hike to better fund education and other needs.
“The honest answer is if you’re going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it,” Martire said.
“And if you’re relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That’s something other than responsible because it’s borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels.”
The state hiked the personal income tax from 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 1989, according to the state Department of Revenue. The corporate income tax increased from 4 percent to 4.8 percent at the same time.
The state sales tax has been 6.25 percent since 1990.
Blagojevich’s latest plan to generate cash is selling or leasing the state lottery. Skeptics say that would simply postpone an inevitable tax increase, but Blagojevich budget director John Filan disputes that.
Staff writer Aaron Chambers may be reached at 217-782-2959 or achambers@rrstar.com.
In the story above
Rising gas prices have pumped millions into state budget
[published on Fri, Jul 7, 2006]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Rising gasoline prices and the extra tax money they produce have pumped an additional $137 million into the state budget over the past year, analysts say.
To view the rest of the story go to Northwest Herald.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Taxes forced me out
The following letter to the editor appeared in the Northwest Herald.
Taxes forced me out
To the Editor:
A letter of thanks to the tax hikers of Kane County and District 300.
Thank you, Dundee Township assessor, for hiking my assessment for more than was needed.
Thank you, Village of Algonquin, for not keeping the tax rate lower for homeowners, even with the new developments on Randall Road.
Thank you, District 300, for running such a dirty campaign to engage my kindergartner to try to get a "yes" vote out of her parents. (By the way, I voted no.)
Thank you, Kane County, for making my taxes so high that I put my house up for sale.
Thanks for making me have to explain to my children why we needed to move away from their friends.
Thank you for making me see that moving to Indiana was a good choice and a better education for my children.
Thank you for showing that no matter what, the corrupt, twisted ways of taxes and electioneering in Illinois never will change.
Roger Case
Valparaiso, Ind.
Taxes forced me out
To the Editor:
A letter of thanks to the tax hikers of Kane County and District 300.
Thank you, Dundee Township assessor, for hiking my assessment for more than was needed.
Thank you, Village of Algonquin, for not keeping the tax rate lower for homeowners, even with the new developments on Randall Road.
Thank you, District 300, for running such a dirty campaign to engage my kindergartner to try to get a "yes" vote out of her parents. (By the way, I voted no.)
Thank you, Kane County, for making my taxes so high that I put my house up for sale.
Thanks for making me have to explain to my children why we needed to move away from their friends.
Thank you for making me see that moving to Indiana was a good choice and a better education for my children.
Thank you for showing that no matter what, the corrupt, twisted ways of taxes and electioneering in Illinois never will change.
Roger Case
Valparaiso, Ind.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
District 99 Tax Referendum Rejection Arguments
A group called Citizens for Responsible Solutions opposed to the District 99 referendum proposed the following reasons to reject the referendum. Their investigation and reasons are a good example for others to follow after they have decided to organize a group and oppose school referenda.
Reasons to vote no:
District 99 Tax Referendum Rejection Arguments
I.
Tax cap issue is a "red herring." Despite the tax cap, District 99 has already received very significant and repeated inflows of new dollars in recent years.
Due largely to property value appreciation and new construction, total revenues, after tax cap restrictions, grew from $44.2 million in fiscal 1994 to $67.7 million in fiscal 2003. That is an increase of over $22 million or an average annual revenue increase of 5.3% per year.
Additional funds from referendum/non-referendum bonds and state construction grant totaled $82.3 million.
The district's problem is not their after tax cap revenue levels, but rather their unwillingness to make budget adjustments as the economy goes through non-boom periods.
II.
District 99 has repeatedly demonstrated poor fiscal and administrative management in recent years.
Voters approved $49.5 million for construction and renovation. Cost overruns (700+ change orders) have brought cost, to date, to nearly $65 million with additional lawsuit expenses still coming. Final net impact of lawsuits is unknown.
District 99 borrowed $10.6 million they claim has generated income. In fact, the borrowing expense has exceeded the investment interest rate by several percentage points, costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative interest rate spread. They now hope to reduce, not solve, the problem by re-financing $42 million of higher cost bonds. This will cost several hundred thousand dollars to transact.
District 99 has failed to respond to calls to commit to a mandated balanced budget. Instead, it has adopted a budget where annual percentage increases for salaries and benefits exceed realistic percentage increases in revenues, resulting in continued deficit spending.
Budget problems have been compounded by practice of spiking salaries just prior to retirement, and refusing to expect administrators to contribute toward insurance costs.
Poor administrative relations with staff contributed to teacher strike that further polarized staff/administration relations.
District issued high cost taxable bonds instead of lower cost tax free bonds under pretense that money would go to cash reserves rather than be used for operations. Instead, over half that bond money has already been spent.
III.
District 99 has demonstrated poor priorities.
$3500 to $6500 pay increases were just approved in August for most administrators, but sufficient money for textbooks supposedly isn't available.
$2 million has been allocated to buy land at DGN for future parking and sports fields, but science labs, fine arts facility renovations, administrative office space and computer upgrades badly needed right now at DGS have not been funded.
Last spring District 99 spent nearly $25,000 sending 15 administrators and department heads to San Francisco for a four day conference, when sending only 2 or 3 individuals would have been much more appropriate considering district budget problems.
IV.
District 99 has not been candid with the community on many issues.
Claimed a "Balanced Budget" that clearly wasn't.
Indicated that referendum rate increase amount being considered was $.05 or $.10. In fact, it was readily changed to $.15, a 50% increase. Leadership was either disingenuous or out of touch with their fiscal needs.
Promised to abate back state construction grant money, but ceased doing so after only a couple years.
Didn't address construction/renovation needs at both schools as promised in last referendum.
Makes no mention of salary and benefit role in current fiscal problems even though that area represents at least 80% of their budget!
Finally, using per capita expenditure data in their election materials ignores the fact such data is largely a function of District size, not management efficiency.
V.
This proposed tax increase is excessive as well as potentially harmful to other taxing bodies.
Many families and individuals are currently under great financial stress due to unemployment, high medical costs, college costs, etc. $150 to $250 more in new taxes is simply unaffordable for these people and elderly on fixed income.
It is unfair to ask for a tax increase before telling citizens the fair value of the Woodridge property, and plans to either use it or sell it after forty years! "Citizen participation" means more than just asking for an endorsement. Their own survey shows citizen support of a Woodridge property sale by approx. a 2 to 1 margin.
There is still about $6 million available in reserve to cover the next two years of projected deficit, plus room to cut non-instructional expenditures such as the administrative budget.
Any true problems related to the tax cap are a statewide problem requiring a state solution, not a bailout by district taxpayers. Other non-school district taxing bodies seem able to live with the tax cap.
District 99 is already getting one third of our property tax bill. Tax dollars are not unlimited, and such a large tax increase would seriously jeopardize the growing fiscal needs of other taxing bodies such as District 58, College of DuPage, Villages of Woodridge and Downers Grove, DuPage County, etc.
Reasons to vote no:
District 99 Tax Referendum Rejection Arguments
I.
Tax cap issue is a "red herring." Despite the tax cap, District 99 has already received very significant and repeated inflows of new dollars in recent years.
Due largely to property value appreciation and new construction, total revenues, after tax cap restrictions, grew from $44.2 million in fiscal 1994 to $67.7 million in fiscal 2003. That is an increase of over $22 million or an average annual revenue increase of 5.3% per year.
Additional funds from referendum/non-referendum bonds and state construction grant totaled $82.3 million.
The district's problem is not their after tax cap revenue levels, but rather their unwillingness to make budget adjustments as the economy goes through non-boom periods.
II.
District 99 has repeatedly demonstrated poor fiscal and administrative management in recent years.
Voters approved $49.5 million for construction and renovation. Cost overruns (700+ change orders) have brought cost, to date, to nearly $65 million with additional lawsuit expenses still coming. Final net impact of lawsuits is unknown.
District 99 borrowed $10.6 million they claim has generated income. In fact, the borrowing expense has exceeded the investment interest rate by several percentage points, costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative interest rate spread. They now hope to reduce, not solve, the problem by re-financing $42 million of higher cost bonds. This will cost several hundred thousand dollars to transact.
District 99 has failed to respond to calls to commit to a mandated balanced budget. Instead, it has adopted a budget where annual percentage increases for salaries and benefits exceed realistic percentage increases in revenues, resulting in continued deficit spending.
Budget problems have been compounded by practice of spiking salaries just prior to retirement, and refusing to expect administrators to contribute toward insurance costs.
Poor administrative relations with staff contributed to teacher strike that further polarized staff/administration relations.
District issued high cost taxable bonds instead of lower cost tax free bonds under pretense that money would go to cash reserves rather than be used for operations. Instead, over half that bond money has already been spent.
III.
District 99 has demonstrated poor priorities.
$3500 to $6500 pay increases were just approved in August for most administrators, but sufficient money for textbooks supposedly isn't available.
$2 million has been allocated to buy land at DGN for future parking and sports fields, but science labs, fine arts facility renovations, administrative office space and computer upgrades badly needed right now at DGS have not been funded.
Last spring District 99 spent nearly $25,000 sending 15 administrators and department heads to San Francisco for a four day conference, when sending only 2 or 3 individuals would have been much more appropriate considering district budget problems.
IV.
District 99 has not been candid with the community on many issues.
Claimed a "Balanced Budget" that clearly wasn't.
Indicated that referendum rate increase amount being considered was $.05 or $.10. In fact, it was readily changed to $.15, a 50% increase. Leadership was either disingenuous or out of touch with their fiscal needs.
Promised to abate back state construction grant money, but ceased doing so after only a couple years.
Didn't address construction/renovation needs at both schools as promised in last referendum.
Makes no mention of salary and benefit role in current fiscal problems even though that area represents at least 80% of their budget!
Finally, using per capita expenditure data in their election materials ignores the fact such data is largely a function of District size, not management efficiency.
V.
This proposed tax increase is excessive as well as potentially harmful to other taxing bodies.
Many families and individuals are currently under great financial stress due to unemployment, high medical costs, college costs, etc. $150 to $250 more in new taxes is simply unaffordable for these people and elderly on fixed income.
It is unfair to ask for a tax increase before telling citizens the fair value of the Woodridge property, and plans to either use it or sell it after forty years! "Citizen participation" means more than just asking for an endorsement. Their own survey shows citizen support of a Woodridge property sale by approx. a 2 to 1 margin.
There is still about $6 million available in reserve to cover the next two years of projected deficit, plus room to cut non-instructional expenditures such as the administrative budget.
Any true problems related to the tax cap are a statewide problem requiring a state solution, not a bailout by district taxpayers. Other non-school district taxing bodies seem able to live with the tax cap.
District 99 is already getting one third of our property tax bill. Tax dollars are not unlimited, and such a large tax increase would seriously jeopardize the growing fiscal needs of other taxing bodies such as District 58, College of DuPage, Villages of Woodridge and Downers Grove, DuPage County, etc.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Teacher at Sheepshead Bay High School Takes Time Off to Go To Prison
The following article appeared in the NY Times.
This is our favorite section in the story below....""Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that.""
That folks is one of the many problems of the teachers' unions.
June 7, 2006
Time Off? No Problem. But for Jail? Problem.
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
For years, the New York City school system has encouraged people to leave lucrative professions behind to work as teachers. But a disbarred lawyer convicted of theft may not have been what officials had in mind.
Investigators said yesterday that when the disbarred New Jersey lawyer, Thomas Everett, applied for a leave of absence from his job teaching at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn, he wrote that he had to take care of "problems with the state of New Jersey judicial system." In fact, they said, Mr. Everett needed the time off to go to jail.
In a report, Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools, wrote that Mr. Everett, 59, was
disbarred in 2001 while being investigated by the Essex County prosecutor's office. In 2003, Mr. Everett started teaching at
Sheepshead Bay.
But his past followed him. In May 2005, New Jersey officials finished their investigation, and Mr. Everett was arrested and charged with stealing more than $1 million while serving as the executor of two elderly women's estates.
In October, investigators said, Mr. Everett pleaded guilty to theft and misappropriation and was sentenced in January to a maximum of three years in prison, at which point he applied for the leave. After serving four months, Mr. Everett was released from jail on May 22 and placed in a supervised release program, forbidding him to leave New Jersey. According to the report, he owes $1.4 million in restitution to the families.
The Department of Education issued a statement yesterday saying it would move to fire Mr. Everett. That is what Mr. Condon recommended — not because of the conviction, but because Mr. Everett had not reported the conviction to the department's Office of Personnel Investigations, although he did tell his principal.
Nonetheless, Mr. Condon said Mr. Everett may have been done in by his own honesty, by offering an accurate if vague reason for requesting the leave.
"If he had come up with a good reason, even if it wasn't true, but one that passed the smell test, he probably would have been home free," Mr. Condon said.
Mr. Everett did not return a telephone call yesterday seeking comment. But according to the report, he said that heirs of his
clients, whom he described as "two little old ladies in nursing homes," had questioned his actions in handling the estates. He told investigators that he simply failed to keep good records of his billable hours.
Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that."
This is our favorite section in the story below....""Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that.""
That folks is one of the many problems of the teachers' unions.
June 7, 2006
Time Off? No Problem. But for Jail? Problem.
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
For years, the New York City school system has encouraged people to leave lucrative professions behind to work as teachers. But a disbarred lawyer convicted of theft may not have been what officials had in mind.
Investigators said yesterday that when the disbarred New Jersey lawyer, Thomas Everett, applied for a leave of absence from his job teaching at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn, he wrote that he had to take care of "problems with the state of New Jersey judicial system." In fact, they said, Mr. Everett needed the time off to go to jail.
In a report, Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools, wrote that Mr. Everett, 59, was
disbarred in 2001 while being investigated by the Essex County prosecutor's office. In 2003, Mr. Everett started teaching at
Sheepshead Bay.
But his past followed him. In May 2005, New Jersey officials finished their investigation, and Mr. Everett was arrested and charged with stealing more than $1 million while serving as the executor of two elderly women's estates.
In October, investigators said, Mr. Everett pleaded guilty to theft and misappropriation and was sentenced in January to a maximum of three years in prison, at which point he applied for the leave. After serving four months, Mr. Everett was released from jail on May 22 and placed in a supervised release program, forbidding him to leave New Jersey. According to the report, he owes $1.4 million in restitution to the families.
The Department of Education issued a statement yesterday saying it would move to fire Mr. Everett. That is what Mr. Condon recommended — not because of the conviction, but because Mr. Everett had not reported the conviction to the department's Office of Personnel Investigations, although he did tell his principal.
Nonetheless, Mr. Condon said Mr. Everett may have been done in by his own honesty, by offering an accurate if vague reason for requesting the leave.
"If he had come up with a good reason, even if it wasn't true, but one that passed the smell test, he probably would have been home free," Mr. Condon said.
Mr. Everett did not return a telephone call yesterday seeking comment. But according to the report, he said that heirs of his
clients, whom he described as "two little old ladies in nursing homes," had questioned his actions in handling the estates. He told investigators that he simply failed to keep good records of his billable hours.
Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that."
Monday, July 03, 2006
PMA Financial Network suggests referendum but has history of funding referenda.
The following story appeared in the Daily Herald. For the most part the Daily Herald does an outstanding job reporting on education issues. If you are not a subscriber you should subscribe.
PMA has yet to say a school does not need money. This company often holds lucrative contracts with schools. If the schools get more money than PMA financial gets more money.
The most important section in the report below is as follow.... "PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003."
Report: Warren must make cuts or raise tax funds
By Bob Susnjara
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Warren Township High School in Gurnee can free up about $3 million to balance its budget by considering program cuts or a tax increase, according to a financial consultant’s report.
Donald Weber, vice president of sales and marketing for PMA Financial Network Inc. in Warrenville, made a presentation to Warren District 121 board members Tuesday night. PMA has been assisting Warren in long-range financial planning.
“You’ve got some rough waters you’re going to be approaching in the very near future,” Weber told Distrct 121 board members, “and we projected that two years ago.”
Possible programs Warren can elect to cut include:
• Eliminating all athletics and co-curricular programs, saving $1.7 million.
• Losing 30 staff members to save $2.3 million.
• Dropping non-mandatory classes, such as foreign language, saving $1.4 million.
• Cutting eighth period to save $700,000.
District 121 can also seek to boost its revenue by placing a tax-increase referendum on the ballot, stated the PMA report. The report says Warren’s deficit spending is reducing working-cash fund balance reserves.
Weber said Warren’s financial woes are tied to a lack of revenue rather than spending too much money. He said District 121 needs more revenue, fewer expenditures or a combination of both.
PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003.
PMA has yet to say a school does not need money. This company often holds lucrative contracts with schools. If the schools get more money than PMA financial gets more money.
The most important section in the report below is as follow.... "PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003."
Report: Warren must make cuts or raise tax funds
By Bob Susnjara
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Warren Township High School in Gurnee can free up about $3 million to balance its budget by considering program cuts or a tax increase, according to a financial consultant’s report.
Donald Weber, vice president of sales and marketing for PMA Financial Network Inc. in Warrenville, made a presentation to Warren District 121 board members Tuesday night. PMA has been assisting Warren in long-range financial planning.
“You’ve got some rough waters you’re going to be approaching in the very near future,” Weber told Distrct 121 board members, “and we projected that two years ago.”
Possible programs Warren can elect to cut include:
• Eliminating all athletics and co-curricular programs, saving $1.7 million.
• Losing 30 staff members to save $2.3 million.
• Dropping non-mandatory classes, such as foreign language, saving $1.4 million.
• Cutting eighth period to save $700,000.
District 121 can also seek to boost its revenue by placing a tax-increase referendum on the ballot, stated the PMA report. The report says Warren’s deficit spending is reducing working-cash fund balance reserves.
Weber said Warren’s financial woes are tied to a lack of revenue rather than spending too much money. He said District 121 needs more revenue, fewer expenditures or a combination of both.
PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform
The referendum parade will begin shortly. Money grubbers are calculating their next move at this time. Be prepared become informed before you vote. The article below is an oldie but a goodie and appears on the Heartland Institute's website. While at the site you should sign up to receive a subscription to School Reform News.
Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform
In Roslyn, education dollars spent on Lexus, limos, and luxury
Written By: Lisa Snell
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Ongoing news reports from across the country indicate incidents of corruption and mismanagement in the public schools occur frequently, often on a massive scale. Ignoring the scale of the problem not only costs taxpayers millions of dollars but also hinders school reform efforts, according to New York University law professor Lydia G. Segal.
In her recent book, Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools (Northwestern University Press, 2003), Segal argues, "one impediment to reform that no one is seriously studying in the debate over how to improve public schools is systematic fraud, waste, and abuse." Her careful documentation of the pervasive corruption and waste in the nation's three largest school districts--New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles--leaves little doubt the problem merits serious study.
However, fraud, waste, and abuse are not limited to large urban school districts, as the following recent examples demonstrate.
$8 Million in Undocumented Expenses
In New York's affluent Roslyn School District on Long Island, former school superintendent Frank A. Tassone and senior administrator Pamela C. Gluckin were each charged recently with stealing more than $1 million from the district. Gluckin allegedly used the funds to finance four homes, a Lexus, and other luxury items. Tassone allegedly used his $1 million for airline travel, cruises, dermatology treatments, furniture, and jewelry, and to give his roommate's company more than $800,000 in no-bid contracts. Both Tassone and Gluckin pleaded not guilty.
The Roslyn school board is still reviewing more than $8 million in undocumented expenses. According to the New York Times, those expenses include:
• $736,000 paid to an Oklahoma publishing company that has no record of doing business with the district;
• $600,000+ spent in delicatessens and specialty food stores;
• $100,000+ spent on limousines and car services;
• $50,000 paid to restaurants;
• $21,000 charged for a BMW lease or purchase;
• $3,800 spent to reserve space with Manhattan Mini-Storage, a long way from Roslyn;
• $1,485 spent for an Equinox gym membership.
Gluckin previously worked for Long Island's William Floyd District under former treasurer James Wright, according to Suffolk Life. In June, Wright was charged with stealing more than $750,000 from the William Floyd District simply by writing checks to himself.
$15.9 Million in Kickbacks
In Fort Worth, Texas, a school construction scandal ended in June with the former executive director of maintenance for the Fort Worth School District, Tommy Ingram, and contractor Ray Brooks being sentenced to eight years in prison each for a kickback scheme in which they defrauded the school district of an estimated $15.9 million.
Payroll Scam
In July, eight employees of the New Orleans school system pleaded guilty to stealing more than $70,000 in a scheme in which payroll clerk Louis Serrano wrote fraudulent checks to seven other employees in exchange for half of the face value of the checks. A ninth employee, payroll clerk Terri Smith Morant, admitted stealing $250,000 by printing checks to herself using her maiden name.
According to a recent report by the state legislative auditor of Louisiana, school system employees have cashed an estimated $3 million in paychecks that administrators sent out either in error or with criminal intent.
Fighting corruption in the school system is like "eating an elephant," New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told The Times-Picayune. "We just took the first bite."
Mismanagement
In addition to losses from outright fraud, taxpayers also have lost millions due to mismanagement and incompetence.
For instance, in a June 2004 audit of California's Oakland Unified School District, state auditors could not determine if in 2002-03 the district had appropriately spent millions of dollars and properly complied with scores of state and federal mandates. As a result, the district could be forced to repay $163 million to the state and federal governments. In addition, district bonds worth $322 million are in jeopardy of losing their tax-exempt status because the funds have been inappropriately spent on general education rather than on specific projects.
According to the audit's findings, the district's shortcomings included:
• Failing to hold competitive bidding for $18.4 million in contracts;
• Inappropriately using $650,000 in bond funds to pay a lawsuit settlement;
• Issuing payroll checks to employees when they no longer worked for the district;
• Failing to maintain attendance records at some schools and overreporting attendance at others;
• Inappropriately carrying over unused funds for federal projects from one year to the next.
Also in June in southern California, the Los Angeles School Board continued the saga of the most expensive high school ever built by voting to do further work on the Belmont Learning Complex. When completed, Belmont will have cost about $270 million--$175 million of which has already been spent to produce a school that currently is unusable.
In June in south Florida, auditors delivered 650 pages of backup documents to support the findings of an April 2004 forensic audit that charged the Miami-Dade school district with wasting more than $100 million in its school facilities program. The audit alleged there was massive disorganization and waste in the program as well as "probable malfeasance, misfeasance, and potential for fraud."
Exploiting a Loophole
Unethical behavior and taxpayer abuse by school employees is not always illegal. In June, thousands of teachers in Texas rushed to retire before a lucrative loophole in Social Security law closed. Although most Texas teachers participate in a state pension fund rather than paying into Social Security, the loophole allowed them to receive Social Security benefits if their last day of work before retirement was in a job covered by Social Security.
In 2002, one-fourth of all public school retirees in Texas--3,521 people--took advantage of the loophole, according to auditors. Congress moved to close the loophole in spring 2004 when auditors estimated leaving it open could cost the Social Security system $450 million.
School districts around the state helped retiring teachers meet the one-day requirement by hiring them to work janitorial or maintenance jobs on their last day of work. Teachers paid the districts a small fee for this privilege, generating substantial revenues for some districts. For example, the Lindale Independent School District made about $700,000 helping teachers beat the deadline, according to assistant superintendent for business Mike McSwain.
"We just couldn't look at our taxpayers and say we passed up this opportunity to get this kind of revenue into the district," McSwain told the Associated Press.
Lisa Snell (lsnell@reason.org) is director of the education program for the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles.
Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform
In Roslyn, education dollars spent on Lexus, limos, and luxury
Written By: Lisa Snell
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Ongoing news reports from across the country indicate incidents of corruption and mismanagement in the public schools occur frequently, often on a massive scale. Ignoring the scale of the problem not only costs taxpayers millions of dollars but also hinders school reform efforts, according to New York University law professor Lydia G. Segal.
In her recent book, Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools (Northwestern University Press, 2003), Segal argues, "one impediment to reform that no one is seriously studying in the debate over how to improve public schools is systematic fraud, waste, and abuse." Her careful documentation of the pervasive corruption and waste in the nation's three largest school districts--New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles--leaves little doubt the problem merits serious study.
However, fraud, waste, and abuse are not limited to large urban school districts, as the following recent examples demonstrate.
$8 Million in Undocumented Expenses
In New York's affluent Roslyn School District on Long Island, former school superintendent Frank A. Tassone and senior administrator Pamela C. Gluckin were each charged recently with stealing more than $1 million from the district. Gluckin allegedly used the funds to finance four homes, a Lexus, and other luxury items. Tassone allegedly used his $1 million for airline travel, cruises, dermatology treatments, furniture, and jewelry, and to give his roommate's company more than $800,000 in no-bid contracts. Both Tassone and Gluckin pleaded not guilty.
The Roslyn school board is still reviewing more than $8 million in undocumented expenses. According to the New York Times, those expenses include:
• $736,000 paid to an Oklahoma publishing company that has no record of doing business with the district;
• $600,000+ spent in delicatessens and specialty food stores;
• $100,000+ spent on limousines and car services;
• $50,000 paid to restaurants;
• $21,000 charged for a BMW lease or purchase;
• $3,800 spent to reserve space with Manhattan Mini-Storage, a long way from Roslyn;
• $1,485 spent for an Equinox gym membership.
Gluckin previously worked for Long Island's William Floyd District under former treasurer James Wright, according to Suffolk Life. In June, Wright was charged with stealing more than $750,000 from the William Floyd District simply by writing checks to himself.
$15.9 Million in Kickbacks
In Fort Worth, Texas, a school construction scandal ended in June with the former executive director of maintenance for the Fort Worth School District, Tommy Ingram, and contractor Ray Brooks being sentenced to eight years in prison each for a kickback scheme in which they defrauded the school district of an estimated $15.9 million.
Payroll Scam
In July, eight employees of the New Orleans school system pleaded guilty to stealing more than $70,000 in a scheme in which payroll clerk Louis Serrano wrote fraudulent checks to seven other employees in exchange for half of the face value of the checks. A ninth employee, payroll clerk Terri Smith Morant, admitted stealing $250,000 by printing checks to herself using her maiden name.
According to a recent report by the state legislative auditor of Louisiana, school system employees have cashed an estimated $3 million in paychecks that administrators sent out either in error or with criminal intent.
Fighting corruption in the school system is like "eating an elephant," New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told The Times-Picayune. "We just took the first bite."
Mismanagement
In addition to losses from outright fraud, taxpayers also have lost millions due to mismanagement and incompetence.
For instance, in a June 2004 audit of California's Oakland Unified School District, state auditors could not determine if in 2002-03 the district had appropriately spent millions of dollars and properly complied with scores of state and federal mandates. As a result, the district could be forced to repay $163 million to the state and federal governments. In addition, district bonds worth $322 million are in jeopardy of losing their tax-exempt status because the funds have been inappropriately spent on general education rather than on specific projects.
According to the audit's findings, the district's shortcomings included:
• Failing to hold competitive bidding for $18.4 million in contracts;
• Inappropriately using $650,000 in bond funds to pay a lawsuit settlement;
• Issuing payroll checks to employees when they no longer worked for the district;
• Failing to maintain attendance records at some schools and overreporting attendance at others;
• Inappropriately carrying over unused funds for federal projects from one year to the next.
Also in June in southern California, the Los Angeles School Board continued the saga of the most expensive high school ever built by voting to do further work on the Belmont Learning Complex. When completed, Belmont will have cost about $270 million--$175 million of which has already been spent to produce a school that currently is unusable.
In June in south Florida, auditors delivered 650 pages of backup documents to support the findings of an April 2004 forensic audit that charged the Miami-Dade school district with wasting more than $100 million in its school facilities program. The audit alleged there was massive disorganization and waste in the program as well as "probable malfeasance, misfeasance, and potential for fraud."
Exploiting a Loophole
Unethical behavior and taxpayer abuse by school employees is not always illegal. In June, thousands of teachers in Texas rushed to retire before a lucrative loophole in Social Security law closed. Although most Texas teachers participate in a state pension fund rather than paying into Social Security, the loophole allowed them to receive Social Security benefits if their last day of work before retirement was in a job covered by Social Security.
In 2002, one-fourth of all public school retirees in Texas--3,521 people--took advantage of the loophole, according to auditors. Congress moved to close the loophole in spring 2004 when auditors estimated leaving it open could cost the Social Security system $450 million.
School districts around the state helped retiring teachers meet the one-day requirement by hiring them to work janitorial or maintenance jobs on their last day of work. Teachers paid the districts a small fee for this privilege, generating substantial revenues for some districts. For example, the Lindale Independent School District made about $700,000 helping teachers beat the deadline, according to assistant superintendent for business Mike McSwain.
"We just couldn't look at our taxpayers and say we passed up this opportunity to get this kind of revenue into the district," McSwain told the Associated Press.
Lisa Snell (lsnell@reason.org) is director of the education program for the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Too much give and take
The following letter to the editor appeared in the Northwest Herald. Mr. Quinn makes an excellent point. Many people spend so much of their money paying taxes they do not have money to give to other causes. He also makes an excellent point about personal responsibility. If more individuals would take personal responsibility instead of having the government take care of them we would not have to pay so many taxes. Remember these taxing bodies live off of your blood, sweat and tears. More often than not government employees have better schedules, pay, benefits and pensions than the average taxpayer. Because of their money and time off they have the time to lobby legislators for even more of your money. The two teachers unions are the primary and tertiary donors to legislators.
If you want to pay less taxes you can give their time to groups that fight taxes. You can also spend time writing to the legislators and encouraging friends and neighbors to write to legislators to stop the educational spending race.
Too much give and take
[published on Sat, Jul 1, 2006]
To the Editor:
Re: The June 27 editorial, "Giving hits miserly low."
I'm sorry if my giving to charities appears to have slacked off. But, I'm busy giving to the federal government. I'm busy giving to the state government. I'm busy giving to the county.
I'm busy giving to the township.
I'm busy giving to two school districts. I'm busy giving to the park district. I'm busy giving to the conservation district. I'm busy giving to the city of McHenry.
I'm busy giving to the secretary of state.
I'm busy giving to the oil companies. I'm just busy giving to lots of places with their hands out, crying, "Gimme, gimme."
I'm so busy giving to all of them, that I don't give to the tobacco or alcohol industries.
I don't give to the Lotto.
I don't give to fast-food restaurants.
I almost never give to the entertainment industry; no movies in quite awhile now.
Sorry, charities, but it became inevitable that something had to give.
And with all those hands out, maybe I just didn't see you fighting for your place in the crowd.
Also, I'm doing my best to avoid taking.
And I hope that I never will, so that others don't have to give.
Dave Quinn
McHenry
If you want to pay less taxes you can give their time to groups that fight taxes. You can also spend time writing to the legislators and encouraging friends and neighbors to write to legislators to stop the educational spending race.
Too much give and take
[published on Sat, Jul 1, 2006]
To the Editor:
Re: The June 27 editorial, "Giving hits miserly low."
I'm sorry if my giving to charities appears to have slacked off. But, I'm busy giving to the federal government. I'm busy giving to the state government. I'm busy giving to the county.
I'm busy giving to the township.
I'm busy giving to two school districts. I'm busy giving to the park district. I'm busy giving to the conservation district. I'm busy giving to the city of McHenry.
I'm busy giving to the secretary of state.
I'm busy giving to the oil companies. I'm just busy giving to lots of places with their hands out, crying, "Gimme, gimme."
I'm so busy giving to all of them, that I don't give to the tobacco or alcohol industries.
I don't give to the Lotto.
I don't give to fast-food restaurants.
I almost never give to the entertainment industry; no movies in quite awhile now.
Sorry, charities, but it became inevitable that something had to give.
And with all those hands out, maybe I just didn't see you fighting for your place in the crowd.
Also, I'm doing my best to avoid taking.
And I hope that I never will, so that others don't have to give.
Dave Quinn
McHenry
Friday, June 30, 2006
Double-but-Nothing: More Education Spending Hasn't Yielded Better Results
The following partial piece below was posted on the Mackinac Center for Public Policy website. You will have to click the link at the end of the post to view the rest of the article.
Double-but-Nothing: More Education Spending Hasn't Yielded Better Results
Mr. Ryan S. Olson
Posted: Jun. 5, 2006
A proposal likely to appear on the November ballot would change Michigan law to mandate annual inflationary education expenditures. But the results of government education spending over the last several decades have shown little that would lead us to think simply spending more would improve schools. In large part, this is because schools generally operate without significant institutional incentives for producing improved results.
Source: Digest of Education Statistics 2004, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education
Consider this: In what service sector have inputs more than doubled over three decades, while outputs have remained stagnant? If you answered, "Public education," go to the head of the class.
In both Michigan and the nation at large, the amount spent per student in public education has more than doubled since 1970, even after inflation is factored out. Compare that doubling of expenditure to students’ performance on the federally administered National Assessment of Educational Progress. The most recent average reading and mathematics scores on that test are virtually identical to the scores in the early 1970s.
Our educational institutions usually do not create incentives for instructional improvement by rewarding effective teachers and sanctioning ineffective ones.
To view the rest of the article go to Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Double-but-Nothing: More Education Spending Hasn't Yielded Better Results
Mr. Ryan S. Olson
Posted: Jun. 5, 2006
A proposal likely to appear on the November ballot would change Michigan law to mandate annual inflationary education expenditures. But the results of government education spending over the last several decades have shown little that would lead us to think simply spending more would improve schools. In large part, this is because schools generally operate without significant institutional incentives for producing improved results.
Source: Digest of Education Statistics 2004, National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education
Consider this: In what service sector have inputs more than doubled over three decades, while outputs have remained stagnant? If you answered, "Public education," go to the head of the class.
In both Michigan and the nation at large, the amount spent per student in public education has more than doubled since 1970, even after inflation is factored out. Compare that doubling of expenditure to students’ performance on the federally administered National Assessment of Educational Progress. The most recent average reading and mathematics scores on that test are virtually identical to the scores in the early 1970s.
Our educational institutions usually do not create incentives for instructional improvement by rewarding effective teachers and sanctioning ineffective ones.
To view the rest of the article go to Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Choice-based reforms can help rural schools thrive
The following piece appeared in the State Journal Register and on Students First. For more information on Collin Hitt and the Illinois Policy Institute click here.
Choice-based reforms can help rural schools thrive
6/29/2006
By Collin Hitt
State Journal Register
Rural schools outperform urban schools, on average. Their students read better, and perform better in math. Like small towns, rural schools are safer. But like small towns, once they fall into decline, they founder hopelessly.
For those schools, reform has been slow in coming in Illinois. Students and parents have felt the effects.
There are those contented to relegate school reform solely to a matter of monetary relief, whereby meaningful reforms have been supplanted by strategies of how to better angle for state resources. Schools are made to jockey for the same funds. Through this process, reform comes at the expense of other reforms, and it is failing rural Illinois.
Even in the districts where policy-makers have been particularly adept at bringing home education dollars, few positive results have followed. Pumping money into a struggling school is tantamount to subsidizing a failing factory. As relief it is temporary. As reform it is nominal. Choice-based reforms offer an alternative.
The word "voucher" is anathema to Illinois policy-makers. Utter the word and special interests will run you out of office faster than a quarter of rural eighth-graders can read a fourth-grade textbook. But vouchers or grants or "opportunity scholarships" - call them what you will - are needed everywhere, and immediately.
Most educators rail against the idea - "it would spell the end of our public school system." The fact is, educational grants have never spelled the end of public education, nor will they. Once parents are given the capability to genuinely direct their children's education, once schools are made to compete for their students, the public school system will respond to their needs.
Common to school choice opponents is the fear that, if given the opportunity, parents will send their children to private, parochial schools. Where possible, however, families are more frequently opting for charter schools - schools each somewhat unique in their approach, together offering a diverse array of programs.
Without the need to comply with rigid, statewide regulations, charter schools are able to focus their energies on an approach that is perhaps unique to their campus. They supply an education that responds to a local demand - a demand that may itself be unique to a given area; a demand that, due to statewide mandates, public schools are unable to meet.
Far from undermining local schools, "rural charter schools are providing an option to school consolidation by giving parents and educators the opportunity to keep their local school open," claims a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education.
Still, there are those who are wary of charter schools, and rightfully so. Gains in flexibility and responsiveness are made at the expense of oversight and accountability. In response to such concerns, one charter principal wrote, "charters are not in themselves a reform strategy; they are a blank slate. They are simply an opportunity to try something new ... To discuss their effectiveness as a group means about as much as trying to evaluate whether restaurants, as a group, are good. Some are wonderful, some dreadful, some have shut down and some probably ought to."
The strengths of rural communities are tailor-made for a charter approach. The willingness and propensity of rural Illinoisans to time and again involve themselves in endeavors where they can make a difference is undeniable, and charter schools give them the opportunity to do just that.
Furthermore, rural educators - educators everywhere - must embrace distance learning programs. Online learning and "virtual schools" are revolutionizing education. They allow schools to provide an education otherwise unavailable, due often to faculty limitations.
"Virtual schooling," when provided, has proven especially effective amongst students who take online advanced placement and college preparatory courses. There is a dearth of such options currently available in rural classrooms. And it's not that rural schools cannot take advantage of existing distance learning options; it's that they do not take advantage of these options. They're an inexpensive way to diversify and improve offerings within a given school.
However, teachers would be made to compete with online offerings, which makes districts unlikely candidates to initiate distance learning approaches. Florida established a statewide virtual school, and so should Illinois. In Florida, rural parents have enrolled their children in droves, part time and full time. To the extent that online education was being used to supplant classroom education, schools and school districts received less money. In response, dozens of Florida school districts have since established district-based virtual schools, to compete with the statewide school, and parents now have a wider array of high-quality options.
Rural schools, when faced to compete for students, will respond to the demands voiced by parents who chose to send their children elsewhere. Attempting to recapture dollars lost will force those public schools to raise the bar. And when they do, all students will benefit.
According to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute: As a legislative priority, rural education in Illinois ranks 43rd in the country. Yet, as we have seen, there exist choice-based reforms that can bring positive results to thousands of underserved Illinoisans … now. Each can be enacted immediately. Each can be enacted independently. Each deserves support within the General Assembly. And each would leave families and students far better served than under the failing status quo.
Collin Hitt is director of education policy and reform at the Springfield-based Illinois Policy Institute. He can be reached at collin@illinoispolicyinstitute.org.
Choice-based reforms can help rural schools thrive
6/29/2006
By Collin Hitt
State Journal Register
Rural schools outperform urban schools, on average. Their students read better, and perform better in math. Like small towns, rural schools are safer. But like small towns, once they fall into decline, they founder hopelessly.
For those schools, reform has been slow in coming in Illinois. Students and parents have felt the effects.
There are those contented to relegate school reform solely to a matter of monetary relief, whereby meaningful reforms have been supplanted by strategies of how to better angle for state resources. Schools are made to jockey for the same funds. Through this process, reform comes at the expense of other reforms, and it is failing rural Illinois.
Even in the districts where policy-makers have been particularly adept at bringing home education dollars, few positive results have followed. Pumping money into a struggling school is tantamount to subsidizing a failing factory. As relief it is temporary. As reform it is nominal. Choice-based reforms offer an alternative.
The word "voucher" is anathema to Illinois policy-makers. Utter the word and special interests will run you out of office faster than a quarter of rural eighth-graders can read a fourth-grade textbook. But vouchers or grants or "opportunity scholarships" - call them what you will - are needed everywhere, and immediately.
Most educators rail against the idea - "it would spell the end of our public school system." The fact is, educational grants have never spelled the end of public education, nor will they. Once parents are given the capability to genuinely direct their children's education, once schools are made to compete for their students, the public school system will respond to their needs.
Common to school choice opponents is the fear that, if given the opportunity, parents will send their children to private, parochial schools. Where possible, however, families are more frequently opting for charter schools - schools each somewhat unique in their approach, together offering a diverse array of programs.
Without the need to comply with rigid, statewide regulations, charter schools are able to focus their energies on an approach that is perhaps unique to their campus. They supply an education that responds to a local demand - a demand that may itself be unique to a given area; a demand that, due to statewide mandates, public schools are unable to meet.
Far from undermining local schools, "rural charter schools are providing an option to school consolidation by giving parents and educators the opportunity to keep their local school open," claims a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education.
Still, there are those who are wary of charter schools, and rightfully so. Gains in flexibility and responsiveness are made at the expense of oversight and accountability. In response to such concerns, one charter principal wrote, "charters are not in themselves a reform strategy; they are a blank slate. They are simply an opportunity to try something new ... To discuss their effectiveness as a group means about as much as trying to evaluate whether restaurants, as a group, are good. Some are wonderful, some dreadful, some have shut down and some probably ought to."
The strengths of rural communities are tailor-made for a charter approach. The willingness and propensity of rural Illinoisans to time and again involve themselves in endeavors where they can make a difference is undeniable, and charter schools give them the opportunity to do just that.
Furthermore, rural educators - educators everywhere - must embrace distance learning programs. Online learning and "virtual schools" are revolutionizing education. They allow schools to provide an education otherwise unavailable, due often to faculty limitations.
"Virtual schooling," when provided, has proven especially effective amongst students who take online advanced placement and college preparatory courses. There is a dearth of such options currently available in rural classrooms. And it's not that rural schools cannot take advantage of existing distance learning options; it's that they do not take advantage of these options. They're an inexpensive way to diversify and improve offerings within a given school.
However, teachers would be made to compete with online offerings, which makes districts unlikely candidates to initiate distance learning approaches. Florida established a statewide virtual school, and so should Illinois. In Florida, rural parents have enrolled their children in droves, part time and full time. To the extent that online education was being used to supplant classroom education, schools and school districts received less money. In response, dozens of Florida school districts have since established district-based virtual schools, to compete with the statewide school, and parents now have a wider array of high-quality options.
Rural schools, when faced to compete for students, will respond to the demands voiced by parents who chose to send their children elsewhere. Attempting to recapture dollars lost will force those public schools to raise the bar. And when they do, all students will benefit.
According to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute: As a legislative priority, rural education in Illinois ranks 43rd in the country. Yet, as we have seen, there exist choice-based reforms that can bring positive results to thousands of underserved Illinoisans … now. Each can be enacted immediately. Each can be enacted independently. Each deserves support within the General Assembly. And each would leave families and students far better served than under the failing status quo.
Collin Hitt is director of education policy and reform at the Springfield-based Illinois Policy Institute. He can be reached at collin@illinoispolicyinstitute.org.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Is Michigan's Largest School Employee Union Helping or Hurting Education?
The following is a link to a series by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
This is a must read series. Although this series is about the Michigan Education Association the information contained in the series could be applied to any of the teachers unions in the United States including Illinois.
This is a must read series. Although this series is about the Michigan Education Association the information contained in the series could be applied to any of the teachers unions in the United States including Illinois.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
STATE'S ATTORNEY STONEWALLS MORTON DIST. 201 ELECTION INTERFERENCE ACT PROBE
Many of us have had problems with our State's Attorney offices following through with election interference complaints. We borrowed this line from someone but we totally agree with the statement "I'm starting to wonder if a yes person would actually be prosecuted for literally holding a gun to someone's head for a yes vote. " The antics will continue come November. The disgraceful behavior pro-referendum people in 158 and 300 used in past elections has set the bar for future behavior. They are counting on you not to speak out. Pro-referendum behavior and apathetic voters is the sure way to increased property taxes and reduced accountability on the part of our government schools. Your most powerful weapon is a no vote. Your second most powerful weapon is your voice you must be heard and not be afraid to speak out. Your third most powerful weapon is to stop re-electing elected officials who are beholden to public school employees, unions and those who do business with public schools.
Many do not want to speak out because their children our in school and they fear retaliation. But what kind of burden are you leaving for your children when they are taxpayers and parents? The public school employees will only become more wealthy and powerful and more difficult to fight.
School employees will be laughing all the way to the bank with retirement at age 55 and piles of money while your children will have to work well past 70 to pay for the tax burdens that you left because you refused to fight for education spending reform.
The following is a news release from National Taxpayers United of Illinois.
NTU NEWS RELEASE
NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNITED OF ILLINOIS
407 S. Dearborn, Suite 1170 * CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60605
(312) 427-5128 * Fax (312) 427-5139 * Web Site * E-mail
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2006
Contact:
Jim Tobin
(312) 427-5128
(773) 354-2076 (Cell)
STATE'S ATTORNEY STONEWALLS MORTON DIST. 201 ELECTION INTERFERENCE ACT PROBE
CHICAGO-The president of Illinois' largest taxpayer organization today charged that the staff of the Public Corruption and Financial Crimes Division of the Cook County State's Attorney office has let taxpayers down by stonewalling a probe into violations of the Illinois Election Interference Statute (10 ILCS 5/9-25.1) by J. Sterling Morton High School Dist. 201. The alleged violations occurred when the district sought a property-tax increase of about $400 a year for the average homeowner through a referendum on the March 21, 2006, ballot.
"The local newspaper, The Life, reported that a fax machine with a phone number belonging to the Superintendent of Dist. 201 was used to promote a fundraiser of a political committee promoting the tax hike," said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTU). "Additionally, the paper reported that some district employees complained they had been forced to work on the campaign during school hours."
The paper also stated that a "Vote Yes" banner was hung on school property, that cheerleaders passed out pro-referendum ribbons during a school basketball game, and that the school web site displayed a message urging a "yes" vote.
"NTU sent a letter to Mary Bucaro at the Cook County State's Attorney's office on March 9, and a second letter on March 13, detailing evidence of the violations," said Tobin. "In a phone conversation that took place in mid-March, Ms. Bucaro told me the court's standards of evidence are high, and that courts want to see a 'line item' for political activity in the budget. She said that if I knew anyone with 'first-hand evidence,' these persons could call her, but otherwise she couldn't do anything."
The NTU staff spoke with a Dist. 201 parent, who called Ms. Bucaro and related a first-hand account of a superintendent and a principal from a public high school speaking and distributing pro-property-tax-hike literature on school grounds. Ms. Bucaro was unconcerned, and wanted to know only who paid for the literature and other materials promoting the referendum.
On May 25, NTU Executive Director, Jeffrey Babbitt, called Ms. Bucaro, and when she returned the call, she left a message that the State's Attorney Office would be taking "no additional action" because the evidence NTU presented "did not rise to the level of the very strict interpretation that the courts have made of the Election Interference statute in terms of actual expenditure of government moneys...promoting...a subjective 'yes' vote."
On June 15 Mr. Babbitt spoke to Ms. Bucaro's junior colleague, Lynn McCarthy, asking for clarification on what would "rise to the level" that courts expect. Ms. McCarthy told him that there was no easily accessible case law because "there aren't a lot of cases that go forward under this law."
"The lethargy of the State's Attorney's office in this matter is stunning,"= said Babbitt. "Laws get passed supposedly to protect voters and taxpayers, but these laws mean nothing unless they are enforced and honored by the judicial system."
Founded in 1976, NTU is the largest taxpayer organization in Illinois with over 10,000 members and affiliation with more than 200 local taxpayer groups. ###
Many do not want to speak out because their children our in school and they fear retaliation. But what kind of burden are you leaving for your children when they are taxpayers and parents? The public school employees will only become more wealthy and powerful and more difficult to fight.
School employees will be laughing all the way to the bank with retirement at age 55 and piles of money while your children will have to work well past 70 to pay for the tax burdens that you left because you refused to fight for education spending reform.
The following is a news release from National Taxpayers United of Illinois.
NTU NEWS RELEASE
NATIONAL TAXPAYERS UNITED OF ILLINOIS
407 S. Dearborn, Suite 1170 * CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60605
(312) 427-5128 * Fax (312) 427-5139 * Web Site
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 26, 2006
Contact:
Jim Tobin
(312) 427-5128
(773) 354-2076 (Cell)
STATE'S ATTORNEY STONEWALLS MORTON DIST. 201 ELECTION INTERFERENCE ACT PROBE
CHICAGO-The president of Illinois' largest taxpayer organization today charged that the staff of the Public Corruption and Financial Crimes Division of the Cook County State's Attorney office has let taxpayers down by stonewalling a probe into violations of the Illinois Election Interference Statute (10 ILCS 5/9-25.1) by J. Sterling Morton High School Dist. 201. The alleged violations occurred when the district sought a property-tax increase of about $400 a year for the average homeowner through a referendum on the March 21, 2006, ballot.
"The local newspaper, The Life, reported that a fax machine with a phone number belonging to the Superintendent of Dist. 201 was used to promote a fundraiser of a political committee promoting the tax hike," said Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTU). "Additionally, the paper reported that some district employees complained they had been forced to work on the campaign during school hours."
The paper also stated that a "Vote Yes" banner was hung on school property, that cheerleaders passed out pro-referendum ribbons during a school basketball game, and that the school web site displayed a message urging a "yes" vote.
"NTU sent a letter to Mary Bucaro at the Cook County State's Attorney's office on March 9, and a second letter on March 13, detailing evidence of the violations," said Tobin. "In a phone conversation that took place in mid-March, Ms. Bucaro told me the court's standards of evidence are high, and that courts want to see a 'line item' for political activity in the budget. She said that if I knew anyone with 'first-hand evidence,' these persons could call her, but otherwise she couldn't do anything."
The NTU staff spoke with a Dist. 201 parent, who called Ms. Bucaro and related a first-hand account of a superintendent and a principal from a public high school speaking and distributing pro-property-tax-hike literature on school grounds. Ms. Bucaro was unconcerned, and wanted to know only who paid for the literature and other materials promoting the referendum.
On May 25, NTU Executive Director, Jeffrey Babbitt, called Ms. Bucaro, and when she returned the call, she left a message that the State's Attorney Office would be taking "no additional action" because the evidence NTU presented "did not rise to the level of the very strict interpretation that the courts have made of the Election Interference statute in terms of actual expenditure of government moneys...promoting...a subjective 'yes' vote."
On June 15 Mr. Babbitt spoke to Ms. Bucaro's junior colleague, Lynn McCarthy, asking for clarification on what would "rise to the level" that courts expect. Ms. McCarthy told him that there was no easily accessible case law because "there aren't a lot of cases that go forward under this law."
"The lethargy of the State's Attorney's office in this matter is stunning,"= said Babbitt. "Laws get passed supposedly to protect voters and taxpayers, but these laws mean nothing unless they are enforced and honored by the judicial system."
Founded in 1976, NTU is the largest taxpayer organization in Illinois with over 10,000 members and affiliation with more than 200 local taxpayer groups. ###
2 school council members can keep seats
The piece below is an excellent example of how board members break the law but nothing happens to them. We have a huge battle ahead of us. You need to decide if you are going to sit back and take it or start to speak up. The following piece appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times.
2 school council members can keep seats
June 4, 2006
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter
Two South Loop local school council members can keep their seats, even though they were won in an election in which six "seedy'' men were paid $5 each for their votes, a hearing officer concluded Friday.
Buying LSC votes may break the law, but the six votes were not enough to change the outcome of the election, so the results must stand, Chicago Public Schools hearing officer Stephen Pugh ruled.
During an earlier hearing, a resident of the New Ritz Hotel said on videotape that a man went floor to floor at the South Loop flophouse April 19, offering people $5 to vote in the nearby South Loop LSC election. Takers were told to punch 27 and 29 -- for LSC community candidates Enrique Perez and Jacques Eady -- the resident said.
'What a great example'
"The petitioners have demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that six individuals were paid to vote for Mr. Perez and Mr. Eady,'' Pugh ruled. "The penalty for any such violation, however, is in the hands of other authorities.''
South Loop LSC parent member John Jacoby, who challenged the election of Perez and Eady, said Friday's ruling "sent a horrible message.''
LSC members oversee school budgets, decide the fates of principals and vote on other school matters.
"I'm outraged that they are now representatives of the school when the hearing officer said, 'Yeah, they bought votes,' " Jacoby said. "What a great example for the kids at our school.''
CPS spokesman Michael Vaughn said the case will be referred to the Cook County state's attorney's office for investigation, and CPS officials will review the LSC election handbook to see if it needs to be improved.
"Vote-buying should, if proven, make a candidate ineligible to serve,'' Jacoby said. "That's one sentence they can put into their handbook to resolve our issue.''
rrossi@suntimes.com
2 school council members can keep seats
June 4, 2006
BY ROSALIND ROSSI Education Reporter
Two South Loop local school council members can keep their seats, even though they were won in an election in which six "seedy'' men were paid $5 each for their votes, a hearing officer concluded Friday.
Buying LSC votes may break the law, but the six votes were not enough to change the outcome of the election, so the results must stand, Chicago Public Schools hearing officer Stephen Pugh ruled.
During an earlier hearing, a resident of the New Ritz Hotel said on videotape that a man went floor to floor at the South Loop flophouse April 19, offering people $5 to vote in the nearby South Loop LSC election. Takers were told to punch 27 and 29 -- for LSC community candidates Enrique Perez and Jacques Eady -- the resident said.
'What a great example'
"The petitioners have demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence that six individuals were paid to vote for Mr. Perez and Mr. Eady,'' Pugh ruled. "The penalty for any such violation, however, is in the hands of other authorities.''
South Loop LSC parent member John Jacoby, who challenged the election of Perez and Eady, said Friday's ruling "sent a horrible message.''
LSC members oversee school budgets, decide the fates of principals and vote on other school matters.
"I'm outraged that they are now representatives of the school when the hearing officer said, 'Yeah, they bought votes,' " Jacoby said. "What a great example for the kids at our school.''
CPS spokesman Michael Vaughn said the case will be referred to the Cook County state's attorney's office for investigation, and CPS officials will review the LSC election handbook to see if it needs to be improved.
"Vote-buying should, if proven, make a candidate ineligible to serve,'' Jacoby said. "That's one sentence they can put into their handbook to resolve our issue.''
rrossi@suntimes.com
Stopping School Corruption
The following piece appeared at the Yankee Insititute.org. CRAFT suggests all tax fighters and concerned parents obtain the manual in the piece outlined below and read Armand Fusco's book School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust.
Stopping School Corruption
by Armand Fusco
Hartford, May 17, 2006 -- In a new manual for Nutmeg State taxpayers, the Yankee Institute for Public Policy outlines strategies to combat corruption in Connecticut’s school districts.
"Stopping School Corruption: A Manual for Taxpayers," by Armand Fusco, Ed.D., is designed to assist Connecticut taxpayers who are seeking responsible answers from districts about whether school resources are being protected from abuse.
Fusco's manual lists ten questions school boards should be asked to determine whether school corruption is being committed. Topics covered by the questions include asset management, credit cards, student-activity funds, state/federal grants, contracting, and personnel policies.
"This manual will be a powerful tool for citizen-activists all over Connecticut," said Yankee Institute Executive Director Lewis Andrews, Ph.D. "'Stopping School Corruption' is the latest step in the Yankee Institute's mission to supply helpful tools to the leaders of taxpayer groups, who are fighting important battles at the local level."
Fusco, the former superintendent of the Branford School District, is also the author of School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust. The book, published last year, documented hundreds of examples of corruption in government schools throughout the nation.
"We must realize," Fusco said, "that Connecticut is no stranger to corruption in its school districts -- no state is. This problem can only be addressed responsibly and effectively by alerting the public and by generating outside pressure and public discussion. That's what the Yankee Institute is committed to doing."
Dr. Fusco holds a master's degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. Since retiring from his superintendent post in 1992, he has authored many professional works, as well as a regular column, "Inside Education," which is published by several Connecticut shoreline newspapers.
"With 10 simple questions," Andrews said, "Dr. Fusco empowers citizens with the ability to discern if their school districts are really being run in the best interest of the community."
Yankee Institute Philip Gressel Fellow for Tax and Budget Policy D. Dowd Muska believes the release of Fusco's manual is timely, given the municipal-budget fights that are currently being waged across the state: "Adjusted for inflation, Connecticut more than doubled its spending on government schools between 1981 and 2001 -- despite a very small increase in student enrollment. It is entirely appropriate for taxpayers to demand greater transparency and better management of school districts."
The Yankee Institute is a think tank that creates new ideas for lower taxes and better government in Connecticut. As a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, donations to the Institute are tax-deductible. It is based on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford.
Dr. Fusco is available for print, radio, and television interviews. Contact Mary Crean at (860) 521-6164 or mary@yankeeinstitute.org.
The Yankee Institute
for Public Policy Studies
© 2006
Stopping School Corruption
by Armand Fusco
Hartford, May 17, 2006 -- In a new manual for Nutmeg State taxpayers, the Yankee Institute for Public Policy outlines strategies to combat corruption in Connecticut’s school districts.
"Stopping School Corruption: A Manual for Taxpayers," by Armand Fusco, Ed.D., is designed to assist Connecticut taxpayers who are seeking responsible answers from districts about whether school resources are being protected from abuse.
Fusco's manual lists ten questions school boards should be asked to determine whether school corruption is being committed. Topics covered by the questions include asset management, credit cards, student-activity funds, state/federal grants, contracting, and personnel policies.
"This manual will be a powerful tool for citizen-activists all over Connecticut," said Yankee Institute Executive Director Lewis Andrews, Ph.D. "'Stopping School Corruption' is the latest step in the Yankee Institute's mission to supply helpful tools to the leaders of taxpayer groups, who are fighting important battles at the local level."
Fusco, the former superintendent of the Branford School District, is also the author of School Corruption: Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust. The book, published last year, documented hundreds of examples of corruption in government schools throughout the nation.
"We must realize," Fusco said, "that Connecticut is no stranger to corruption in its school districts -- no state is. This problem can only be addressed responsibly and effectively by alerting the public and by generating outside pressure and public discussion. That's what the Yankee Institute is committed to doing."
Dr. Fusco holds a master's degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. Since retiring from his superintendent post in 1992, he has authored many professional works, as well as a regular column, "Inside Education," which is published by several Connecticut shoreline newspapers.
"With 10 simple questions," Andrews said, "Dr. Fusco empowers citizens with the ability to discern if their school districts are really being run in the best interest of the community."
Yankee Institute Philip Gressel Fellow for Tax and Budget Policy D. Dowd Muska believes the release of Fusco's manual is timely, given the municipal-budget fights that are currently being waged across the state: "Adjusted for inflation, Connecticut more than doubled its spending on government schools between 1981 and 2001 -- despite a very small increase in student enrollment. It is entirely appropriate for taxpayers to demand greater transparency and better management of school districts."
The Yankee Institute is a think tank that creates new ideas for lower taxes and better government in Connecticut. As a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, donations to the Institute are tax-deductible. It is based on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford.
Dr. Fusco is available for print, radio, and television interviews. Contact Mary Crean at (860) 521-6164 or mary@yankeeinstitute.org.
The Yankee Institute
for Public Policy Studies
© 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
A Coming Crisis in Suburban Schooling? by Lewis Andrews
The following piece was sent to us by Kevin Killion of The Illinois Loop.org. If you are not a regular reader of the Illinois Loop.org besure to add it to your list. The piece below is published by the Yankee Institute. To view all of their articles on school reform be sure to visit the Yankee Institute website.
A significant and important article appears in the new July/August issue of The American Enterprise:
A Coming Crisis in Suburban Schooling?
by Lewis Andrews
The article is copied in its entirety below. I encourage you to note its observations about the state of suburban education, and where it might be leading. The key themes of the article are:
1) "Bell and whistle bonanza"
"While the vast majority of Americans have historically accepted a common interest in paying for the education of successive generations, today's suburban parents and educators have increasingly abused that sense of obligation. Families are more and more being provided with benefits that go far beyond any traditional notion of required schooling. ... very little of the heavy funding funneled into schools in wealthy commuter districts was spent on improved academic performance. ... Where then does this surplus money go? Much of what passes for a quality education today in America's prosperous suburbs has little to do with academic rigor."
2) "Middle-class racketeering"
"The existence of self-serving relationships between municipal officials and the public employees they supposedly supervise is hardly news. But suburban school boards and administrators are especially gifted in their ability to portray mutual backscratching to the broader taxpaying public as academic idealism. Organized public-school parents have in many places ensured that both Republicans and Democrats produce local candidates who think identically on the 65 to 80 percent of local expenditures that are related to public education. On most school boards and town councils, would-be reformers have little or no influence."
3) "Backlash on property taxes"
"With house assessments ballooning, the property taxes that support most schools are becoming onerous burdens for many newlyweds, widows, families with children in private or parochial schools, or older couples on fixed pensions. Property tax collections went up an average of 23 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2004 ... clearer connections are beginning to be established in many taxpayers' minds between skyrocketing public school costs and ever steeper real estate levies. ... In what is perhaps the most ominous sign for suburban parents and public educators, the leadership of local taxpayer groups -- historically dismissed as 'kooks' and 'cranks' -- is becoming more politically sophisticated."
4) "Priced out and dumbed down"
"Perhaps the most telling defectors from suburban education are the growing numbers of parents who believe that local schools are failing in their most important obligation -- to provide children ... with a challenging and academically sound curriculum. ... Many suburbanites are just as concerned about low academic standards in local schools as urban and rural parents are known to be. On April 28, 2001, the New York Times ran a front page story entitled 'Parents Hungry for ABCs Lead New School Movement.' It profiled Princeton, New Jersey parents who had become 'horrified' by the poor quality of local education and founded a no-frills charter school, free from the yoke of district bureaucracy and dedicated to a more demanding academic curriculum. Today ... charter schools are starting to become more common in affluent suburbs." (This section has a nice mention of our Looper friend Margaret McIntyre, tireless education activist in Wilmette!)
5) "Mediocrity forever?"
"Certainly many of the suburban schools just down the street are much less successful in getting top results than many parents glibly assume. 'A lot of suburban Americans are living in a kind of fantasyland' right now, says education expert Chester Finn. ... Public education in America's suburbs could soon experience some jarring and unexpected changes. And you know what? That is long overdue."
Make use of this article in your own local efforts! You are not alone in working for better education options in the suburbs!
The article is part of several articles on education in this July/August issue of American Enterprise (it's available at Border's and other stores with good magazine selections). The cover story on "Education Fairy Tales: Our 'money-starved' schools and other costly myths" also will be of great interest to some of the participants on the Illinois Loop list.
For more on suburban schools, see our roundup page at:
Illinois Loop: The Suburbs
http://www.illinoisloop.org/suburbs.html
-- Kevin Killion'
==========================================
THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE
July/August 2006
A Coming Crisis in Suburban Schooling?
by Lewis M. Andrews
Lewis M. Andrews is executive director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy in Hartford, Connecticut
We are all accustomed to the idea that America faces problems in its public education systems. But mostly it's the other guy's school, in the city next door, where we think the troubles center. Suburban schools in neighborhoods with rising home prices -- those are the ones where U.S. education is just fine. Right?
Not exactly. Suburbia is afflicted with its own problems of public school mediocrity. That much is beginning to become apparent to some striving middle-class parents. And there's another threat stalking public education in upscale commuter enclaves that hasn't even begun to sink into the public consciousness: money troubles.
Bell and whistle bonanza
The tax base supporting public education in the suburbs is broad. Those who have no children contribute. So do families who send their children to private schools. Couples who have seen their children graduate and move out are also paying. The beneficiaries, meanwhile, are a much smaller group. Families with children attending public schools can easily net a yearly gain from the community of $10,000-$20,000 in educational services.
While the vast majority of Americans have historically accepted a common interest in paying for the education of successive generations, today's suburban parents and educators have increasingly abused that sense of obligation. Families are more and more being provided with benefits that go far beyond any traditional notion of required schooling. Last year, a researcher at the Yankee Institute for Public Policy at Trinity College completed a study of every school district in Connecticut, a state noted for its affluent suburbs. Using per pupil costs and student scores on mastery tests, he found that very little of the heavy funding funneled into schools in wealthy commuter districts was spent on improved academic performance. "Many affluent towns spend much more.. .for the same educational outcomes," the study concluded.
Where then does this surplus money go? Much of what passes for a quality education today in America's prosperous suburbs has little to do with academic rigor. "Quality" has become a deceptive code word for an ever-expanding menu of non-essential services, hobbies, and recreational activities for school children and their families. These include low-cost forms of day care (both before and after school), expensive and eclectic sports programs, holiday "socials," subsidized recreation camps run out of public school buildings during summers and holidays, and a variety of school-day distractions for students like pottery and ballet lessons, cafeteria pasta bars, media centers with state-of-the-art video technology, glitzy rooms overflowing with shiny electronic equipment, and even costly observatories, stadiums, and galleries.
High schools in commuter enclaves outside of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other large cities have curricula as diverse as many small colleges, offering credit for hundreds of nonacademic electives, including courses in jewelry making, computer animation, and television. The burgeoning cost of these services is only partially reflected in the staffing lines of annual school operating budgets. Much of the expense is buried in 20- to 30-year bonding for school additions and renovations. "Back in the 1950s and '60s," explains James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Public Policy at Rutgers University, schools "were so much cheaper. You didn't have the bells and whistles. A lot of high schools now have TV studios, swimming pools, and computer labs. The schools have to be triple-wired and air conditioned."
Persuading taxpayers that high school pupils should have the right to take exotic electives has proven a surprisingly easy sell -- particularly since parent-dominated school boards have crafted mutually advantageous relationships with the educators they are supposed to be regulating. That's how we've ended up with thousands of suburban schools where all students are entitled to study video production or play golf at voter expense.
Middle-class racketeering
Margaret Tannenbaum, professor of education at New Jersey's Rowan University and formerly on the school board in her home town, notes that the resulting quid pro quos are never publicly stated, but always clearly understood. In most cases, she explains, parent board members know that being "supportive of the schools" is code for accommodating generous salary and benefit increases for unionized teachers and schools administrators. In return, even the most superfluous perks for suburban schoolchildren -- like academic credit for district-subsidized trips abroad -- are deemed "educational" by local school officials.
The existence of self-serving relationships between municipal officials and the public employees they supposedly supervise is hardly news. But suburban school boards and administrators are especially gifted in their ability to portray mutual backscratching to the broader taxpaying public as academic idealism. Organized public-school parents have in many places ensured that both Republicans and Democrats produce local candidates who think identically on the 65 to 80 percent of local expenditures that are related to public education. On most school boards and town councils, would-be reformers have little or no influence.
For their part, educators have developed a language which makes the self-serving policies of parents and teachers appear pedagogically sound. More financially efficient alternatives are characterized as "too risky" or "cold-hearted." Costly requirements like smaller class sizes, which create a need for more teachers and administrators, are consistently praised for the "personal attention" and "individualized instruction" they supposedly offer students. Such glowing phrases are rarely used to describe Internet-based courses, however, though they too can provide truly individualized instruction, without the need to hire more educators.
Biased language is supplemented with selective statistics. Washington Post education writer Jay Matthew has noted how suburban principals brag about the large number of advanced placement (AP) courses their schools offer, conveniently ignoring the fact that only a fraction of the students who take them actually earn college credit by passing an objective test. Suburban administrators similarly boast about the high percentage of seniors that go on to college. Few care to find out how many of their graduates drop out of college, or are required to take remedial courses in math, reading, and writing.
The successful partnership between suburban parents and professional educators is facilitated by Americas continuing tolerance for a blatant conflict of interest, whereby a school board member is permitted to vote on an issue that can directly affect his own family. It is not an exaggeration to say that public schooling in many suburbs is a form of upper-middle-class racketeering. Under the banner of "advancing learning;' parents of district children and their public-sector allies collaborate to serve their own narrow interests, at the expense of the broader taxpaying community.
Backlash on property taxes
One need only observe the swarms of angry parents who descend on local politicians whenever the school athletic budget is threatened, or see the care school boards take not to offend the inevitable union monitor at their meetings, to conclude that the vested interests currently driving suburban education are firmly in control. Yet history shows that recipients of public subsidies inevitably court opposition from those who pay the bills. And suburban public schools are beginning to come under fire.
Those with the most obvious reason to be critical are voters without children in public schools, many of them increasingly restless under heavy and soaring local tax burdens. With house assessments ballooning, the property taxes that support most schools are becoming onerous burdens for many newlyweds, widows, families with children in private or parochial schools, or older couples on fixed pensions. Property tax collections went up an average of 23 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2004, and are now approaching $300 billion -- totaling very close to what Americans spend annually on mortgage interest.
The true costs of suburban education are obscured in many parts of the country by regionalized school systems, which tap a labyrinth of funding sources, including state income taxes, state and local sales taxes, casino gaming licenses, and lottery profits. Nonetheless, clearer connections are beginning to be established in many taxpayers' minds between skyrocketing public school costs and ever steeper real estate levies. Led mostly by activist seniors, dissident taxpayer groups in Maine, Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas have succeeded in getting property-tax reductions on state or local ballots. Politicians in Nevada, Iowa, and Indiana have been forced to establish commissions on tax reduction; and the legislatures in South Carolina and Virginia are considering annual limitations on how much their localities can raise local levies.
In the Northeast in particular, where a long-standing tradition of each town managing its own school system gives local citizens the ability to vote on their school district budgets, a tax rebellion is clearly under way. ln a special report on Connecticut's 169 towns and cities, the state's Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) found that rejections of school budgets recently reached a peak "since ACIR started tracking these figures." Less than half of the budgets going to referendum were approved on the first vote.
In what is perhaps the most ominous sign for suburban parents and public educators, the leadership of local taxpayer groups -- historically dismissed as "kooks" and "cranks" -- is becoming more politically sophisticated. Just as the 1980s saw the creation of more than 40 state-oriented think tanks devoted to monitoring and shrinking the costs of government, so today there is a similar growth of county- and town-level groups. It is not a coincidence that the increased rejection rate of local budgets by Connecticut towns was accompanied by a doubling in the number of town taxpayer groups (from 25 to 50), with many employing spreadsheets, attractive Web sites, and well-researched policy papers.
Priced out and dumbed down
At the same time that watchdogs are becoming more effective politically, discontent is also brewing among some parents who in the past would have considered themselves beneficiaries of the public school system. In a 2003 book (written before the explosion in housing prices), Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren studied bankruptcy filings in America and found that the biggest squeeze on middle- and upper-middle-class families came from high mortgage payments and escalating property taxes on homes in towns with desirable public schools. Today, says Warren, "young parents buy houses with just three thoughts in mind: schools, schools, and schools:' The problem is that "in inflation-adjusted dollars, they're paying more than 70 percent more than their parents paid for a house." ln other words, lavish "free" public education is pricing many families out of homes and neighborhoods.
But perhaps the most telling defectors from suburban education are the growing numbers of parents who believe that local schools are failing in their most important obligation -- to provide children (between soccer games and class field trips) with a challenging and academically sound curriculum. University of Missouri political scientist Martin Rochester is one such parent. The low academic expectations at his own children's schools inspired him to conduct a 2003 survey of numerous suburban systems. He found many costly distractions from the basic educational tasks that should be the central work of schooling.
Another critic is Margaret McIntyre, a member of the Wilmette, Illinois school board from 1999 to 2003, who argues that the expensive infrastructure at suburban schools is intellectually counterproductive. "The spending on special programs, technology, and 'enrichments';' she writes, "actually crowds out time for math, reading, writing, geography, and history." She estimates that more than 40 percent of families in Chicago's affluent North Shore suburbs have been forced to pay for tutors and other supplemental instruction.
A recent poll on the subject of public education conducted by the Business Roundtable shows "overwhelming support for standards-based reform among all groups, regardless of race, income, or political party." Similar polls by the non-partisan Public Agenda suggest that many suburbanites are just as concerned about low academic standards in local schools as urban and rural parents are known to be.
On April 28, 2001, the New York Times ran a front page story entitled "Parents Hungry for ABCs Lead New School Movement." It profiled Princeton, New Jersey parents who had become "horrified" by the poor quality of local education and founded a no-frills charter school, free from the yoke of district bureaucracy and dedicated to a more demanding academic curriculum. Today, notes Joe Nathan, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for School Change, charter schools are starting to become more common in affluent suburbs.
Mediocrity forever?
Could these political, financial, and academic trends combine to force a broad restructuring of suburban education? They might if there is a bursting of to day's inflated real estate bubble. The ensuing calls for proportional reductions in property taxes would surely increase pressure for a back-to-basics restructuring of public education. Rather than being a problem, such a development might be a good thing, to be welcomed by suburban parents now coping with mediocre public schooling by hiring tutors or sending their children to private or parochial institutions.
Even without impetus from home price distortions, change could come. Certainly the decades-old alliance between opportunistic parents and self-interested local educators is not nearly as sound as it appears. And certainly many of the suburban schools just down the street are much less successful in getting top results than many parents glibly assume. "A lot of suburban Americans are living in a kind of fantasyland" right now, says education expert Chester Finn. In an era of globalization and heightened competition in education and jobs, more sober and realistic assessments of the training being offered by typical neighborhood institutions may become inevitable.
Take a critical mass of disillusioned and financially pressed parents, add in the growing political clout of taxpayers without school-age children, the lax oversight of district budgeting, and a tempestuous real estate market, and public education in America's suburbs could soon experience some jarring and unexpected changes. And you know what? That is long overdue.
--
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The Illinois Loop
http://www.illinoisloop.org/
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A significant and important article appears in the new July/August issue of The American Enterprise:
A Coming Crisis in Suburban Schooling?
by Lewis Andrews
The article is copied in its entirety below. I encourage you to note its observations about the state of suburban education, and where it might be leading. The key themes of the article are:
1) "Bell and whistle bonanza"
"While the vast majority of Americans have historically accepted a common interest in paying for the education of successive generations, today's suburban parents and educators have increasingly abused that sense of obligation. Families are more and more being provided with benefits that go far beyond any traditional notion of required schooling. ... very little of the heavy funding funneled into schools in wealthy commuter districts was spent on improved academic performance. ... Where then does this surplus money go? Much of what passes for a quality education today in America's prosperous suburbs has little to do with academic rigor."
2) "Middle-class racketeering"
"The existence of self-serving relationships between municipal officials and the public employees they supposedly supervise is hardly news. But suburban school boards and administrators are especially gifted in their ability to portray mutual backscratching to the broader taxpaying public as academic idealism. Organized public-school parents have in many places ensured that both Republicans and Democrats produce local candidates who think identically on the 65 to 80 percent of local expenditures that are related to public education. On most school boards and town councils, would-be reformers have little or no influence."
3) "Backlash on property taxes"
"With house assessments ballooning, the property taxes that support most schools are becoming onerous burdens for many newlyweds, widows, families with children in private or parochial schools, or older couples on fixed pensions. Property tax collections went up an average of 23 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2004 ... clearer connections are beginning to be established in many taxpayers' minds between skyrocketing public school costs and ever steeper real estate levies. ... In what is perhaps the most ominous sign for suburban parents and public educators, the leadership of local taxpayer groups -- historically dismissed as 'kooks' and 'cranks' -- is becoming more politically sophisticated."
4) "Priced out and dumbed down"
"Perhaps the most telling defectors from suburban education are the growing numbers of parents who believe that local schools are failing in their most important obligation -- to provide children ... with a challenging and academically sound curriculum. ... Many suburbanites are just as concerned about low academic standards in local schools as urban and rural parents are known to be. On April 28, 2001, the New York Times ran a front page story entitled 'Parents Hungry for ABCs Lead New School Movement.' It profiled Princeton, New Jersey parents who had become 'horrified' by the poor quality of local education and founded a no-frills charter school, free from the yoke of district bureaucracy and dedicated to a more demanding academic curriculum. Today ... charter schools are starting to become more common in affluent suburbs." (This section has a nice mention of our Looper friend Margaret McIntyre, tireless education activist in Wilmette!)
5) "Mediocrity forever?"
"Certainly many of the suburban schools just down the street are much less successful in getting top results than many parents glibly assume. 'A lot of suburban Americans are living in a kind of fantasyland' right now, says education expert Chester Finn. ... Public education in America's suburbs could soon experience some jarring and unexpected changes. And you know what? That is long overdue."
Make use of this article in your own local efforts! You are not alone in working for better education options in the suburbs!
The article is part of several articles on education in this July/August issue of American Enterprise (it's available at Border's and other stores with good magazine selections). The cover story on "Education Fairy Tales: Our 'money-starved' schools and other costly myths" also will be of great interest to some of the participants on the Illinois Loop list.
For more on suburban schools, see our roundup page at:
Illinois Loop: The Suburbs
http://www.illinoisloop.org/suburbs.html
-- Kevin Killion'
==========================================
THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE
July/August 2006
A Coming Crisis in Suburban Schooling?
by Lewis M. Andrews
Lewis M. Andrews is executive director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy in Hartford, Connecticut
We are all accustomed to the idea that America faces problems in its public education systems. But mostly it's the other guy's school, in the city next door, where we think the troubles center. Suburban schools in neighborhoods with rising home prices -- those are the ones where U.S. education is just fine. Right?
Not exactly. Suburbia is afflicted with its own problems of public school mediocrity. That much is beginning to become apparent to some striving middle-class parents. And there's another threat stalking public education in upscale commuter enclaves that hasn't even begun to sink into the public consciousness: money troubles.
Bell and whistle bonanza
The tax base supporting public education in the suburbs is broad. Those who have no children contribute. So do families who send their children to private schools. Couples who have seen their children graduate and move out are also paying. The beneficiaries, meanwhile, are a much smaller group. Families with children attending public schools can easily net a yearly gain from the community of $10,000-$20,000 in educational services.
While the vast majority of Americans have historically accepted a common interest in paying for the education of successive generations, today's suburban parents and educators have increasingly abused that sense of obligation. Families are more and more being provided with benefits that go far beyond any traditional notion of required schooling. Last year, a researcher at the Yankee Institute for Public Policy at Trinity College completed a study of every school district in Connecticut, a state noted for its affluent suburbs. Using per pupil costs and student scores on mastery tests, he found that very little of the heavy funding funneled into schools in wealthy commuter districts was spent on improved academic performance. "Many affluent towns spend much more.. .for the same educational outcomes," the study concluded.
Where then does this surplus money go? Much of what passes for a quality education today in America's prosperous suburbs has little to do with academic rigor. "Quality" has become a deceptive code word for an ever-expanding menu of non-essential services, hobbies, and recreational activities for school children and their families. These include low-cost forms of day care (both before and after school), expensive and eclectic sports programs, holiday "socials," subsidized recreation camps run out of public school buildings during summers and holidays, and a variety of school-day distractions for students like pottery and ballet lessons, cafeteria pasta bars, media centers with state-of-the-art video technology, glitzy rooms overflowing with shiny electronic equipment, and even costly observatories, stadiums, and galleries.
High schools in commuter enclaves outside of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other large cities have curricula as diverse as many small colleges, offering credit for hundreds of nonacademic electives, including courses in jewelry making, computer animation, and television. The burgeoning cost of these services is only partially reflected in the staffing lines of annual school operating budgets. Much of the expense is buried in 20- to 30-year bonding for school additions and renovations. "Back in the 1950s and '60s," explains James Hughes, dean of the Bloustein School of Public Policy at Rutgers University, schools "were so much cheaper. You didn't have the bells and whistles. A lot of high schools now have TV studios, swimming pools, and computer labs. The schools have to be triple-wired and air conditioned."
Persuading taxpayers that high school pupils should have the right to take exotic electives has proven a surprisingly easy sell -- particularly since parent-dominated school boards have crafted mutually advantageous relationships with the educators they are supposed to be regulating. That's how we've ended up with thousands of suburban schools where all students are entitled to study video production or play golf at voter expense.
Middle-class racketeering
Margaret Tannenbaum, professor of education at New Jersey's Rowan University and formerly on the school board in her home town, notes that the resulting quid pro quos are never publicly stated, but always clearly understood. In most cases, she explains, parent board members know that being "supportive of the schools" is code for accommodating generous salary and benefit increases for unionized teachers and schools administrators. In return, even the most superfluous perks for suburban schoolchildren -- like academic credit for district-subsidized trips abroad -- are deemed "educational" by local school officials.
The existence of self-serving relationships between municipal officials and the public employees they supposedly supervise is hardly news. But suburban school boards and administrators are especially gifted in their ability to portray mutual backscratching to the broader taxpaying public as academic idealism. Organized public-school parents have in many places ensured that both Republicans and Democrats produce local candidates who think identically on the 65 to 80 percent of local expenditures that are related to public education. On most school boards and town councils, would-be reformers have little or no influence.
For their part, educators have developed a language which makes the self-serving policies of parents and teachers appear pedagogically sound. More financially efficient alternatives are characterized as "too risky" or "cold-hearted." Costly requirements like smaller class sizes, which create a need for more teachers and administrators, are consistently praised for the "personal attention" and "individualized instruction" they supposedly offer students. Such glowing phrases are rarely used to describe Internet-based courses, however, though they too can provide truly individualized instruction, without the need to hire more educators.
Biased language is supplemented with selective statistics. Washington Post education writer Jay Matthew has noted how suburban principals brag about the large number of advanced placement (AP) courses their schools offer, conveniently ignoring the fact that only a fraction of the students who take them actually earn college credit by passing an objective test. Suburban administrators similarly boast about the high percentage of seniors that go on to college. Few care to find out how many of their graduates drop out of college, or are required to take remedial courses in math, reading, and writing.
The successful partnership between suburban parents and professional educators is facilitated by Americas continuing tolerance for a blatant conflict of interest, whereby a school board member is permitted to vote on an issue that can directly affect his own family. It is not an exaggeration to say that public schooling in many suburbs is a form of upper-middle-class racketeering. Under the banner of "advancing learning;' parents of district children and their public-sector allies collaborate to serve their own narrow interests, at the expense of the broader taxpaying community.
Backlash on property taxes
One need only observe the swarms of angry parents who descend on local politicians whenever the school athletic budget is threatened, or see the care school boards take not to offend the inevitable union monitor at their meetings, to conclude that the vested interests currently driving suburban education are firmly in control. Yet history shows that recipients of public subsidies inevitably court opposition from those who pay the bills. And suburban public schools are beginning to come under fire.
Those with the most obvious reason to be critical are voters without children in public schools, many of them increasingly restless under heavy and soaring local tax burdens. With house assessments ballooning, the property taxes that support most schools are becoming onerous burdens for many newlyweds, widows, families with children in private or parochial schools, or older couples on fixed pensions. Property tax collections went up an average of 23 percent nationwide between 2000 and 2004, and are now approaching $300 billion -- totaling very close to what Americans spend annually on mortgage interest.
The true costs of suburban education are obscured in many parts of the country by regionalized school systems, which tap a labyrinth of funding sources, including state income taxes, state and local sales taxes, casino gaming licenses, and lottery profits. Nonetheless, clearer connections are beginning to be established in many taxpayers' minds between skyrocketing public school costs and ever steeper real estate levies. Led mostly by activist seniors, dissident taxpayer groups in Maine, Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas have succeeded in getting property-tax reductions on state or local ballots. Politicians in Nevada, Iowa, and Indiana have been forced to establish commissions on tax reduction; and the legislatures in South Carolina and Virginia are considering annual limitations on how much their localities can raise local levies.
In the Northeast in particular, where a long-standing tradition of each town managing its own school system gives local citizens the ability to vote on their school district budgets, a tax rebellion is clearly under way. ln a special report on Connecticut's 169 towns and cities, the state's Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) found that rejections of school budgets recently reached a peak "since ACIR started tracking these figures." Less than half of the budgets going to referendum were approved on the first vote.
In what is perhaps the most ominous sign for suburban parents and public educators, the leadership of local taxpayer groups -- historically dismissed as "kooks" and "cranks" -- is becoming more politically sophisticated. Just as the 1980s saw the creation of more than 40 state-oriented think tanks devoted to monitoring and shrinking the costs of government, so today there is a similar growth of county- and town-level groups. It is not a coincidence that the increased rejection rate of local budgets by Connecticut towns was accompanied by a doubling in the number of town taxpayer groups (from 25 to 50), with many employing spreadsheets, attractive Web sites, and well-researched policy papers.
Priced out and dumbed down
At the same time that watchdogs are becoming more effective politically, discontent is also brewing among some parents who in the past would have considered themselves beneficiaries of the public school system. In a 2003 book (written before the explosion in housing prices), Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren studied bankruptcy filings in America and found that the biggest squeeze on middle- and upper-middle-class families came from high mortgage payments and escalating property taxes on homes in towns with desirable public schools. Today, says Warren, "young parents buy houses with just three thoughts in mind: schools, schools, and schools:' The problem is that "in inflation-adjusted dollars, they're paying more than 70 percent more than their parents paid for a house." ln other words, lavish "free" public education is pricing many families out of homes and neighborhoods.
But perhaps the most telling defectors from suburban education are the growing numbers of parents who believe that local schools are failing in their most important obligation -- to provide children (between soccer games and class field trips) with a challenging and academically sound curriculum. University of Missouri political scientist Martin Rochester is one such parent. The low academic expectations at his own children's schools inspired him to conduct a 2003 survey of numerous suburban systems. He found many costly distractions from the basic educational tasks that should be the central work of schooling.
Another critic is Margaret McIntyre, a member of the Wilmette, Illinois school board from 1999 to 2003, who argues that the expensive infrastructure at suburban schools is intellectually counterproductive. "The spending on special programs, technology, and 'enrichments';' she writes, "actually crowds out time for math, reading, writing, geography, and history." She estimates that more than 40 percent of families in Chicago's affluent North Shore suburbs have been forced to pay for tutors and other supplemental instruction.
A recent poll on the subject of public education conducted by the Business Roundtable shows "overwhelming support for standards-based reform among all groups, regardless of race, income, or political party." Similar polls by the non-partisan Public Agenda suggest that many suburbanites are just as concerned about low academic standards in local schools as urban and rural parents are known to be.
On April 28, 2001, the New York Times ran a front page story entitled "Parents Hungry for ABCs Lead New School Movement." It profiled Princeton, New Jersey parents who had become "horrified" by the poor quality of local education and founded a no-frills charter school, free from the yoke of district bureaucracy and dedicated to a more demanding academic curriculum. Today, notes Joe Nathan, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for School Change, charter schools are starting to become more common in affluent suburbs.
Mediocrity forever?
Could these political, financial, and academic trends combine to force a broad restructuring of suburban education? They might if there is a bursting of to day's inflated real estate bubble. The ensuing calls for proportional reductions in property taxes would surely increase pressure for a back-to-basics restructuring of public education. Rather than being a problem, such a development might be a good thing, to be welcomed by suburban parents now coping with mediocre public schooling by hiring tutors or sending their children to private or parochial institutions.
Even without impetus from home price distortions, change could come. Certainly the decades-old alliance between opportunistic parents and self-interested local educators is not nearly as sound as it appears. And certainly many of the suburban schools just down the street are much less successful in getting top results than many parents glibly assume. "A lot of suburban Americans are living in a kind of fantasyland" right now, says education expert Chester Finn. In an era of globalization and heightened competition in education and jobs, more sober and realistic assessments of the training being offered by typical neighborhood institutions may become inevitable.
Take a critical mass of disillusioned and financially pressed parents, add in the growing political clout of taxpayers without school-age children, the lax oversight of district budgeting, and a tempestuous real estate market, and public education in America's suburbs could soon experience some jarring and unexpected changes. And you know what? That is long overdue.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Illinois Loop
http://www.illinoisloop.org/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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