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Every morning, Americans (and people around the world) wake up to falling stock prices, job layoffs and doom and gloom predictions of a world-wide recession (or worse).

At the same time, politicians are suggesting that school budgets maKe do with existing funds or in the-worst-case scenario, cut spending.  States like California and Texas have been cutting school budgets and laying off classroom teachers and administrators.  And I believe this is merely the beginning of the tsunami.

Do you remember when gasoline prices peaked at $4 per gallon?  School districts started shortening bus routes making children walk longer distances.  Some districts considered going to four day weeks, expecting educators to teach students the same material in a shorter time frame.

We have not yet begun, what is being predicted a severe winter, with increased fuel costs.  School budgets need to be approved by an increasing aging population and by people who have been let go from their jobs.  It’s time to do several things:

1. Remind politicians runnig for office that you are an educator and you vote.
2. VOTE on election day for people who will represent your values.  This blog has posted the Republican and Democratic party platforms dealing with education.
3. Start speaking at school board, Rotary, fraternal organizations, Chamber of Commerce and Senior Citizen homes about the value that schools provide communities.
4. Those of you who work in districts represented by educational associations or unions, suggest that they become increasingly visible within the community with bumper stickers, information flyers to parents, business leaders and other community people.

Remember the job you save maybe yours!

VOTE

Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice at a women’s conference, made the statement above.  The statement is similar to the one made by Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Meet the Press.

“It makes me terrified because… if we cannot do better in educating all of our people, then we are not going to be competitive in a global economy…the United States is not going to lead.  Kids who might be the next Nobel Prize winner are trapped in some public school that’s just basically warehousing them.”

America in the 1960’s was concerned about providing equal access to our schools.  Today our schools need to provide equal opportunity to all of our students.

Ms. Rice acknowledged that education has not been one of the more pressing issues in the current presidential campaign.

Low attendance rates, which affect school funding, can be caused by a variety of things:

1.  An unhealthy climate characterized by poor relationships between teachers and students.

2.  The lack of enforcement of truancy laws.

3.  Students who fall behind do not come to school because they are afraid they cannot catch up.

4.  Coursework may not be challenging enough and students have become bored.

5.  Students who are excluded from school because of school infractions.

6.  Illness.

7.  The need to take care of a younger sibling so that a parent can go to work.  The need to take care of a ill family member.

8.  The need for a student to go to work to help support a family.

In Virginia, it was found that “less than 18% of punitive school exclusions” were in response to serious infractions such as those involving drugs and alcohol, fighting and assault, weapons, threats and theft. In New York City, 20% or one-fifth of all elementary school students are absent more than one month of the school year.  The number in high schools is far worse; 40% of all students miss a month or more of school.  In middle schools, the number is 24% missing a month or more of school.

It is ironic that in many schools, the punishment for not coming to school – truancy – is school suspension.

Before teachers, counselors and school administrators react to student absence, they need to identify the cause and then use appropriate remedies depending on the cause.

According to a study conducted by Achieve, Inc. and the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University,  the most severe dropout problem exists, where nearly half of the schools graduate less than 50% of their freshman class, is concentrated in 35 of our nation’s largest cities.

The cities are:

• Indianapolis
• Detroit
• Cleveland
• San Antonio
• Baltimore
• Fort Worth
• Dallas
• Houston
• Chicago
• Philadelphia
• New York City
• Austin
• Columbus, OH
• Milwaukee
• Denver
• Kansas City
• Nashville
• Memphis
• El Paso
• Oklahoma City
• Portland, OR
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Boston
• San Diego
• Washington, DC
• Long Beach, CA
• Phoenix
• San Jose, CA
• Seattle
• Tucson
• Virginia Beach
• New Orleans
• Jacksonville, FL
• Charlotte

Several critical questions I believe need to be asked:

What do these cities have in common other than the fact that there are many of the students living in poverty and many of these students are minorities?

Can anything be gained by studying the fact that 2 of these cities are in Ohio, 6 in Texas, 2 in Arizona, 2 in Tennessee and 5 in California?

Does the fact that many of these cities are in states which border Latin America play a part in their names being on the list?

How much does state spending on education contribute to the problem?

How much of a role does the fact that many of these states are agricultural play in their names being on the list?

Till next time,

Franklin

With the American economy, and most of the rest of the world, in free fall, people’s attention focuses on their jobs, their future and the future of their children.  Unfortuanately, politicians and policy makers focus on today and not tomorrow.

When the economy is good, politicians say that taxpayers need a break and should receive a tax rebate.  They rarely indicate that we should invest more money in our nation’s future, our children and our schools.

When the economy is on the decline, the concern (correctly) focuses on repairing the decline.  Tax monies should be used to bail out stock brokers and stock exchanges, banks, mortgage holders, insurance companies, etc.

The reality is that no one speaks for the children, or the schools except for educators.   Teacher unions speak for teachers.  Parents organizations speak for parents.  School board organizations speak for school boards.  Administrator organizations speak for administrators.

Let’s face it.  Whether times are good or times are bad it is bad for children.

Till next time.

Franklin

Educators are aware that computers, both at home and in school are subjected to viruses as well as security invasions.  There are number of “freeware” programs that can be used to protect Windows based computers.  While they may not have as many whistles and bells as those which you can spend $50 to $100; they are free.

AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 7 (www.free-av.com) is a spy-ware and ad-ware detection program.  Windows Defender (www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx) and a spam filter, SPAMfighter Standard (www.spamfighter.com) will provide decent protection.

Teachers provide an invaluable and frequently ignored, role in the world.  Progress in a global economy comes from an educated mass population. Yes, Warren Buffett, Michael Dell and Bill Gates provide the world with the where with all but if they failed to get an education, they would not have had the resources they currently have.

Go to a room, anywhere in the world, of successful economic, political, entertainment or sports leaders, and identify one consistent commonality. It would be education.

Look at the world’s problems – poverty, disease, drugs, starvation, crime. At the root cause is the lack of education. Political and business leaders claim that education is expensive.  It isn’t!  It is ignorance – the lack of education which is expensive.  In the United States, 70-80% of all incarcerated people have dropped out of school.

When I go to a barber, plumber, lawyer or doctor, they do not say “I’m only a …”

Why do educators belittle themselves and their occupation by introducing themselves with, “I’m only an educator”?  Are there low performing educators? Sure!  But there are also low-performing judges, stockbrokers, lawyers and doctors.

We need to be proud of our field and the job we do.  WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

We are improving the lives of children and improving the world.

Having published the Republican Platform, in fairness, here is the Democrat Party’s Platform entitled, Renewing America’s Promise.

A World Class Education for Every Child

In the 21st century, where the most valuable skill is knowledge, countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow. In the platform hearings, Americans made it clear that it is morally and economically unacceptable that our high-schoolers continue to score lower on math and science tests than most other students in the world and continue to drop-out at higher rates than their peers in other industrialized nations. We cannot accept the persistent achievement gap between minority and white students or the harmful disparities that exist between different schools within a state or even a district. Americans know we can and should do better.

The Democratic Party firmly believes that graduation from a quality public school and the opportunity to succeed in college must be the birthright of every child-not the privilege of the few. We must prepare all our students with the 21st century skills they need to succeed by progressing to a new era of mutual responsibility in education. We must set high standards for our children, but we must also hold ourselves accountable-our schools, our teachers, our parents, business leaders, our community and our elected leaders. And we must come together, form partnerships, and commit to providing the resources and reforms necessary to help every child reach their full potential.

Early Childhood
We will make quality, affordable early childhood care and education available to every American child from the day he or she is born. Our Children’s First Agenda, including increases in Head Start and Early Head Start, and investments in high-quality Pre-K, will improve quality and provide learning and support to families with children ages zero to five. Our Presidential Early Learning Council will coordinate these efforts.

K-12
We must ensure that every student has a high-quality teacher and an effective principal. That starts with recruiting a new generation of teachers and principals by making this pledge-if you commit your life to teaching, America will commit to paying for your college education. We’ll provide better preparation, mentoring and career ladders. Where there are teachers who are still struggling and under performing we should provide them with individual help and support. And if they’re still under performing after that, we should find a quick and fair way””consistent with due process”” to put another teacher in that classroom.  To reward our teachers, we will follow the lead of school districts and educators that have pioneered innovative ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on them. We will make an unprecedented national investment to provide teachers with better pay and better support to improve their skills, and their students’ learning. We’ll reward effective teachers who teach in under-served areas, take on added responsibilities like mentoring new teachers, or consistently excel in the classroom. We will fix the failures and broken promises of No Child Left Behind-while holding to the goal of providing every child access to a world-class education, raising standards, and ensuring accountability for closing the achievement gap. We will end the practice of labeling a school and its students as failures and then throwing our hands up and walking away from them without having provided the resources and supports these students need. But this alone is not an education policy. It’s just a starting point. We will work with our nation’s governors and educators to create and use assessments that will improve student learning and success in school districts all across America by including the kinds of critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills that our children will need. We will address the dropout crisis by investing in intervention strategies in middle schools and high schools and we will invest in after-school programs, summer school, alternative education programs, and youth jobs. We will promote innovation within our public schools-because research shows that resources alone will not create the schools that we need to help our children succeed. We need to adapt curricula and the school calendar to the needs of the 21st century; reform the schools of education that produce most of our teachers; promote public charter schools that are accountable; and streamline the certification process for those with valuable skills who want to “Strong public schools are the foundation of democratic community life. With the intention of helping all children to succeed, we must facilitate improved education, including vocational and special education programs” -shift careers and teach.  We will also meet our commitment to special education and to students who are English Language Learners. We support full funding of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  We also support transitional bilingual education and will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by supporting and funding English Language Learner classes. We support teaching  students second languages, as well as contributing through education to the revitalization of  American Indian languages. We know that there is no program and no policy that can substitute for parents who are involved in their children’s education from day one-who make sure their children are in school on time, help them with their homework, and attend those parent-teacher conferences; who are willing to turn off the TV once in a while, put away the video games, and read to their children.  Responsibility for our children’s education has to start at home. We have to set high standards for them, and spend time with them, and love them. We have to hold ourselves accountable.

Higher Education
We believe that our universities, community colleges, and other institutions of higher learning must foster among their graduates the skills needed to enhance economic competitiveness. We will work with institutions of higher learning to produce highly skilled graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines who will become innovative workers prepared for the 21st century economy.  At community colleges and training programs across the country, we will invest in short-term accelerated training and technical certifications for the unemployed and under-employed to speed their transition to careers in high-demand occupations and emerging industries. We will reward successful community colleges with grants so they can continue their good work. We
support education delivery that makes it possible for non-traditional students to receive support and encouragement to obtain a college education, including Internet, distance education, and night and weekend programs.  We must also invest in training and education to prepare incumbent job-holders with skills to meet the rigors of the new economic environment and provide them access to the broad knowledge and concrete tools offered by apprenticeships, internships, and postsecondary
education. We need to fully fund joint labor-management apprenticeship programs and reinvigorate our industrial crafts programs to train the next generation of skilled American craft workers.  We recognize the special value and importance of our Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority serving institutions in meeting the needs of our increasingly diverse society and will work to ensure their viability and growth.  We will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans. In exchange for the credit, students will be expected to perform community service.  We will continue to support programs, especially the Pell Grant program, that open the doors of college opportunity to low-income Americans. We will enable families to apply for financial aid simply by checking a box on their tax form.  Our institutions of higher education are also the economic engines of today and tomorrow. We will partner with them to translate new ideas into innovative products, processes and services.

Science, Technology and Innovation
America has long led the world in innovation. But this Administration’s hostility to science has taken a toll. At a time when technology helps shape our future, we devote a smaller and smaller share of our national resources to research and development.  It is time again to lead. We took a critical step with the America Competes Act and we will start by implementing that Act “”then we will do more. We will make science, technology, engineering, and math education a national priority. We will double federal funding for basic research, invest in a strong and inspirational vision for space exploration, and make the Research and Development Tax Credit permanent. We will invest in the next generation of transformative energy technologies and health IT and we will renew the defense R&D system.
We will lift the current Administration’s ban on using federal funding for embryonic stem cells- cells that would have otherwise have been discarded and lost forever-for research that could save lives. We will ensure that our patent laws protect legitimate rights while not stifling innovation and creativity. We will end the Bush Administration’s war on science, restore scientific integrity, and return to evidence-based decision-making.  In sum, we will strengthen our system, treat science and technology as crucial investments, and use these forces to ensure a future of economic leadership, health well-being and national security.