Just another manic monday

Monday's are hard for everyone. The weekend teases things like sleep and relaxation, but Monday comes along to takes those away. In office space the famous line says “it looks like you have a case of the Mondays.” This week is a hard week for a lot of teachers. This is the week that some find out whether they have jobs next year or not. The state requires that the districts give at least 45 days notice if they are not renewing a contract and that day is Tuesday. All across the state, school boards are meeting and deciding without all the facts how many teachers and support personnel have to go. It is why this week is a double edged sword. We are just a few weeks away from TAKS and the pressure is on; add to that a little job insecurity and you better buy stock in junk food and alcohol.

  This last week Dr Otto the superintendant of Plano ISD appeared on a Dallas radio station (KRLD for those local to the Dallas area.) In this appearance the superintendant slammed Perry for some of the statements that he has made about education. One statement that is being thrown out there a lot is the abundance of administrators and support personnel being 1 to 1. Perry suggested that this overabundance of managers should be the first thing to go. This number is misleading to say the least. The number that they get is not just the bosses (principals, heads of departments) but all of the support employees. This included people like bus drivers, cafeteria ladies, secretaries, aides, and janitors. Is this number closer to 1 to 1? The answer is no. Can we get rid of administrators? The answer is yes. Most districts have at least a few positions that are not needed. Some of these are created from the dreaded contract. These are positions that are created to give people under a renewing contract a place to go. A fiend told me that there is a district out there that has a former coach that could not win games in a place like this. Districts do have a financial obligation to get rid of administrative positions that are not needed, but what about those that are? My aunt is an administrator and she gets more work added to her every year. She is over 3 to 4 different departments as it is and has to work 50 hours a week at the minimum. Her job is needed, but others are not.

  We have a responsibility as a state to provide a quality education to all of those children that live within our state lines. If that is not a priority then we need to change to a state that has a fully private school system. I am reminded of a story that a friend told me just after the finance debate began to show itself. My friend has a son that use to intern for a state representative. This son worked for the representative over a semester and at the time the issue of state education funding came up. When the friend's son asked about why they do not fix it. The representative smiled and said "son, we can fix education tomorrow, but what will platform will we have left to run on."  The solution to the problem is not an easy one. How about the legislature brings in teachers to help identify places that could cut money? If we have to use the bureaucracy, why not use it to help identify places where districts have been successful and places where they are not. Doesn’t it make more sense instead of blindly cutting money to analyze what money should be cut? Dr Otto says that 90% of Plano’s budget is in classroom expenditures. If this is so then some districts are already pretty lean. Nobody likes to raise taxes, but sometimes it is a necessary evil for the state to make up revenue that it needs. School finance will not be solved by laying off bus drivers and teachers. School finance will be solved when the legislatures in Austin decide that they want to fund it right. It will be solved when the state representatives stop looking out for reelection and start looking out for the children of this state. For if we do not change our ways now we are doomed to become a “welfare state.”

Here is the link to the article on the Plano Superintendent.

Until Tomorrow,

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.  ~Robert G. Ingersoll