A Radical Proposal for Education.

What if we eliminated all local Boards of Education and also all State Departments of Education and administered from Headstart through High School Federally only? I know that this may be a radical departure from traditional "fix-it" ideas relating to education but, what I believe it would do would be to ensure an equitable distribution and application of resources across the board and across our great nation. At present the educational playing field is far from level and too often our system currently makes no attempt to remedy those inequities and disparities until students are well into high school or even beyond. Assuring each and every student the opportunity to recieve a uniform and quality standard education might very well end up tremendously benefitting our society as a whole as well as, eliminating a great deal of the current distrust, dissatisfaction, anger and even class envy that has justifiably been generated by our current "the haves will have and the have-nots will not" educational system. It might also eliminate much of the corruption, misuse and misapplication of funds which occurs often at local levels. Any thoughts?

It is more practical than radical in my opinion. And way overdue!

Local control is something pushed on the schools by repugs--it is a way to ensure that the wealthy have better facilities and resources.

If the federal government ran the entire system--it would equalize things. I firmly believe that a student should receive the exact same quality of education in South Central that they do in Beverly Hills--with this policy in place--we would be well on our way to that goal.

Once again cateacher. Just imagine the horrors of uniform standards of competence for all teachers and uniform curriculums and standards of achievement for all students...now who exactly would that hurt? Right now the educational system is so divided and separated that it is intrinsically weighted against the poor and members of traditionally disadvantaged minority groups. My suggestion could very well go a long way to remedy that institutional classism and racism that has become an endemic component of the American educational system.

"It might also eliminate much of the corruption, misuse and misapplication of funds which occurs often at local levels. Any thoughts?"

You mean since there is so little corruption, misuse and misapplication of funds at the federal level?

Something like education should be kept close to home to administer. If I have a problem with my community's schools I can just go to the school board up the street. Can you imagine having to navigate what would probably be the largest federal department in Washington?

I'll pass.

These are the same school boards that ok creation texts and selective purchasing of politically correct history and literature books. The United States has far too much variability in the quality of its education to meaningfully compete on a level playing field with the rest of the world. Why is corruption at the American Federal level greater than that of Germany or Japan? Their systems seem to be superior to ours.

Of course a system would have to be put into place as a means of oversight but just as you probably would now you could still initially assert any complaints or criticisms directly to the hierarchy of your local school. However the traditional inequities and disparities that have always existed between different school systems based in different locales would be eliminated.

is the reason that some rural schools don't offer math above geometry or any foreign language: "This is a small town. Our kids don't need that stuff."

Local control is the reason some schools deliberately flunk promising football players in eighth grade so that they'll be bigger when they're in high school

Local control is one reason why some school systems are in trouble, as school boards hire their cronies and pay them inflated salaries while starving the actual needs of the students.

Local control is why my educational experience deteriorated when my family moved from a college town to a dumb-as-bricks suburb during my sixth grade year. (I was ahead of my new classmates in every subject.)

Local control is why the teaching of evolution is even an issue in the twenty-first century.

The idea that some black kid in an impoverished backwater county in Mississippi has the same educational opportunities as some rich kid in Beverly Hills is nonsense.

but you are like a breath of fresh air--you are one of the smartest and most well-informed people I have ever had the pleasure to interact with.

Thanks for summing it up so well. Makes it pretty easy to see that this is the kind of idea the Democratic party SHOULD be supporting.

Assuming that you are a teacher, may I say that teachers are on my list of most important people in the world.

But, thank you for the kind words.

I respect you for your true progressive beliefs--sadly it is becoming difficult to find people who are truly progressive.

I have great respect your beliefs and your defense of them. Kudos to your teachers and to you for learning well!

is a requirement to be able to claim children on taxes.

You can't get your deduction unless you can prove that you play an active part in your child's education. You have to attend meetings, sign homework and volunteer a certain number of hours at school.

You'd certainly see a lot more parents giving a crap if there was $ tied to it. Sad, but true.

Far too many parents seem to think that responsibility for their children ends at conception and that packing them off to school transfers all responsibility for their education to the teachers.

But, a lack to getting a dividend for being responsible might focus their minds a bit.

To you Texas-Teacher that too is a hell of a fine idea. Parental involvement in the educational process is desperately needed and all to often sorely lacking.

on edit-- my response was rambling and barely on topic. Sorry about that.

and everywhere I go I see schools viewed as primarily job training.

Rarely do I hear a word about knowledge being valued for itself.

Let me know how you can put food on the table WITHOUT a job.

the problems are not the same in rural Arkansas, Orange County, and downtown Phildelphia.

Local school boards often cause as many problems as they solve, but are still necessary to respond to local conditions.

National standards are an attractive idea, but it requires a massive amount of assistance needed to help bring up the bottom. Just threats, and inflexible standards, won't cut it.

massive amount of assistance--that is where YOUR tax dollars come in.

There is nothing we can spend this money on that is a better investment than the education of our youth.

As usual cateacher, after all what is a better more sacred investment of our national resources than the investment in the education and hence the futures of the children who shall be the future of this country. I am certain that my idea could be accomplished for less money than we will end up spending in the rw instigated conquest of Iraq.

we would reduce our military to the size of Canada's! We could do truly amazing things!

Another big expenditure that could be cut is all the money spent on the prison industry.

If we would free all the prisoners who are in on trumped up drug related charges alone, we would have many millions to spend on education. I would like to see this done immediately.

An educated youth is our greatest asset. When I hear people without kids arguing about the school taxes, I know it's expensive but I can't get it across that those kids in school will be our pothole fixers, doctors, business leaders, and everyone else we depend upon as we get older. What we are spending is not just for those kids, but for all of us.

And, perhaps, just perhaps, if we paid more attention to education, we could eventually pay less for police and prisons.

But, try to get that across in a political campaign where cops are heroes and teachers and librarians are terrorists.

You and cateacher are so right TB, education along with health care are perhaps the two most fundamentally important long range issues which confront our nation. Long after many of our current problems have been solved or resolved we will still face those two issues. Consequently it is of vital importance that we focus sufficient attention and direct the application of sufficient resources upon both of those issues. The investment will benefit every damned one of us as well as those who follow us...I am certain of that!

I believe very strongly in education, that the military budget should
be cut by 50% and the leftovers spent on our own schools for people
of ALL ages, from kindergartens to adult-community colleges.

I benefitted greatly from my buddhist adult school which i attended
at very high tuitions for many years. I'm for diversity and letting
there be many choices and options... that people see learning as a
lifelong thing, not as high school. I'm sure a math class including
all ages of students would provide a much more diverse learning
environment than simply high school students or college sophomores.

So much of my education is professional, yet it contains no "credits"
due to the monopoly of university on "learning" when it is all really
a certification scam, sculls and bones and all that.

Heck, i had to learn maths and history for myself as an adult once
i got away from the brainwashers and bad teachers. Surely we can
permit more choice for learners, and stop wasting our taxes on
institutionalized brainwashing centers.

At some point in the process perhaps. However, I feel strongly that we owe our children, ourselves and our nation a solid, fundamentally sound and uniform standard basic education from pre-school through high school. In the final analysis the benefit to us all will far outweigh the cost of the investment required.

I'm also a fan of diversity, is all i'm sayin'... that school is too
defined by age. The whole society benefits from educated people, and
certainly this should start with comprehensive child education...

I'm for letting all people participate in schools their whole lives,
as students, tutors and teachers, that high schools inherit some of
the multi-leveled choice of universities.

Methinks there is something to the "choice"/voucher argument, that
quality education of many flavours be available to all.

I do not like or support vouchers because they act to disrupt efforts at providing a uniform standard educational foundation to all. That said...I absolutely love your idea of extending the opportunities for various forms of education beyond the traditional ages, grades, etc. I think your definitely on a uniquely refreshing and very excitingly progressive track of planning there. Congrats.

Lets say you have a teenager, and the local school is a crime zone,
like say, "morningside high school" in los angeles. You will do
anything to keep your kid out of that hell hole, so you either rent
an apartment in the beverly hills or santa monica unified school
district, or move out of los angeles entirely.

Why should you be a victem of a horrible school? If you could choose
to put your kid elsewhere, is that a crime against progreessive
thinking?

The uniform education standard does not exist. The inner city schools
rot, some worse than others. Maybe vouchers are not the answer,
but there must be some way to give people choice when the schools
ain't changin in your kid's lifetime.

to START my own.

Why the hurry to START your own?

Their agenda is to intentionally 'dumb-down' the schools, and they are trying to insert bible teachings. So your ideas would only make it EASIER to massively educate the masses in their right wing ideologies...think textbooks here....and spin their ideas of war and greed into study materials.

If you see a federal gov't dept. of education as being under the people who actually DESIRE a well-educated, fully informed electorate, your idea sounds IDEAL.

But if you look at our CURRENT reality in federal nazi government, the idea is merely idealistic! But it may be one the current federal government would LOVE to take on, due to their totalitarian intentions.

The current government might want to make this a law, and then turn around and privatize the whole thing.

After this administration, NEVER AGAIN do I want to put all my eggs in the basket that the neocons can co-op.

I think this idea of yours has merit....we just don't have the protections in place that would insure the KIND of education we might like to see 'centralized'. We might need to think it through some more.

:kick::kick:

Thank you loudsue for your inciteful comments. Everything you say is worthy of thoughtful and reasoned consideration. Of course my proposal is an idealistic one which hopes to provide the greatest number of persons with the finest and most comprehensive standard of uniform education possible. Developing a system which would be capable of safeguarding the educational process, guidelines and indeed the curriculum itself would be crucial to the integrity and ultimately the success of the entire proposal. I am certain that in addition to the important issues which you have so articulately presented there are a number of others also of significant importance which must be thoughtfully considered and carefully planned for. However, I still believe that as a means to the ultimate goal of creating a uniform, equitable, effective and efficient system of basic education...my proposal is one of merit and therefore worthy of more consideration...a process which can only be furthered and fine tuned by more thoughtful and thought provoking contributions such as yours. Thank you so much.

National control sounds seductively good, but look at NCLB right now, for example. Is that something we want, to have the current people determine the fate of the entire country? Regardless of whether it's a left- or right-leaning government, I'm a little leery of having a few (often inexperienced) people determine what happens way out in Ruralsville, Wisconsin.

Several countries have national education systems; Japan and Korean are two, I believe. From what I've heard from grad students in education from those countries, national control means absolute control. The textbooks are all the same, the curricula are all the same, and so on. Witness the struggle in Japan to get some mention of Japanese WWII atrocities included in the textbooks, which for a long time was ignored or glossed over. Here, at least, districts--and to some extent teachers--have some input into what they choose to include or not.

For example, for a long time, Kyoto differed from the rest of the country in allowing open enrollment in its high schools, instead of placing students in high schools or barring them from high school on the basis of a single test. (It may still have this system. I haven't heard.)

Schools are allowed to choose their own textbooks, and even though almost every school teaches English, school systems are actually free to teach other languages if they choose. Some are beginning to offer Korean or Chinese as electives.

Local school boards are also responsible for hiring and firing teachers and for determining everyday aspects of school governance.

(to be implemented over time) with adequate financial aid to make it happen.

Some local control could still prevail. For example, the federal standards could mandate that certain math topics be taught in certain grades, but approve a set of six or eight textbooks that school districts could choose among. (The textbooks for all subjects would be approved by a panel composed of both subject experts--math professors who teach incoming freshmen--and experienced classroom teachers for each grade level after heavy field testing.)

The standards could mandate foreign language instruction beginning in fifth grade (ideally, or at least seventh grade), but the school district could decide which language(s) to offer, based on local needs and ethnic groups.

There could be a comprehensive social science curriculum covering the history and geography of the whole world, starting with one's own town, then outward into one's state and region, the United States, the rest of the Western Hemisphere, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific nations.

Schools would be encouraged to form partnerships with local businesses and unions so that the non-college bound could get practical experience in something besides flipping burgers.

If school districts wanted to add more subjects, they could, but over the years, higher and higher minimums would be phased in, ideally so that a student could earn an International Baccalaureate not only in Beverly Hills but in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

I'm not sure that testing would be necessary to ensure standards, either. In my experience, college admissions people and employers somehow know which school systems are good and which ones are bad.

However, I'm a little nervous about just whom would set the standards--who would be on the committees, who would set the actual rules? Look at some of the other committees we've had on the national level. They're scary.

Part of the problem, seems to me, is that we went with the wrong system in the first place. Dewey deliberately came up with a high school system (and the others were designed to prepare for high school) that would educate the workers just enough to keep them there. He even admitted as much in his works on the subject. We should have gone with the Montessori method, as it works with all kids (Maria Montessori developed it in the worst slum in Rome with "unteachable" kids) and teaches critical thinking skills very well, but would a federal system be okay with that? Currently in the U.S., only the rich can afford Montessori schools for the most part.

The Waldorf schools also are much better in terms of method and critical thinking skills, yet that too would be worrying to those in power.

*Note: I was a high school English teacher before I had kids, trained and certified in Ohio. I taught for three years in Catholic schools in the Cleveland area (only jobs I could find, given the mass layoffs right before I moved there and not having any connections) before leaving to raise my daughter and subsequent son.

Federal control of all issues is not a solution! People in Washington don't necessarily know what is best for a rural district. In that case, most representatives and senators know little of rural needs either. A perfect example is the constant desire to cut the Perkins funds. The Perkins Act established monies for Career and Technical Education. The federal government (mostly repugs) believe that career and trade education is unnecessary at a high school level.

It has been active rural communities and local initiatives (letter writing, phone calls, etc...) that have kept these monies available.

Education is a complicated subject that doesn't get solved by setting standards (If you set them they will rise to them). Sociology tells us that it is impossible to educate 100% of the population to a direct standard (If you set them they will rise to them). Also, what is best for a student in rural Arkansas may not be good for a student in upstate New York. We have a diverse population in this country (I might add that the federal government forgets this from time to time) and local governments are so incredibly important.

I could go on and would love to have a logical and constructive debate about education and it's woes.

Remember: If you set them, they will rise to them!

If you are able. That way at least you know what your child is being taught.

I say

There are families that cannot afford home schooling. There needs to be some sort of public school funding. But like you say the Boards are the problem.




Maybe Martial Law inside the schools would keep those kids in the books.

:eyes:

The boards are not the problem, parents are the problem. They take no active roles in the board selection or review of their actions. More people are concerned about voting errors in American Idol than who is on their local school boards.

Here is a solution:

If you want to see change, run for office or attend every school board meeting and fight for change! Do you really think that a representative in congress is concerned about your specific child's education (though I think Obama is)?

Come on! This is a democracy - For the people, BY THE PEOPLE. Public education has not failed --> the population is failing public education!