Money for Schools? First make certain that the funding is actually needed for the purposes for which it is used. From me, a thirty-three year veteran teacher, you will get no argument about whether schools need money. The problem is whether or not the money is used in ways that enhance student learning.
I work in a Title One school. A healthy majority of our students are on free and reduced lunch programs; they come form “official” poor families.
These children exhibit the difficulties documented so well in Ruby Payne’s book A Framework for Understanding Poverty. Their deficits become cumulative in the areas of background knowledge and cultural understanding. In many of our families, wiives, children, and even husbands are “property.” It is the right of other family members to rule over them. Schools do not have the right to insist on attendance, courteous behavior, or even to insist that assignments be completed; those things come under the purview of parents who may not hold the same values that we in education generally find important for student success.
Title One’s answers to these problems are of mixed success. We are required to hold many family activities that encourage involvement with the school. I understand the need to engage parents. However, some of the other activities required by Title One regulations are less helpful.
For example, any student in the school is entitled to free “tutoring” after school. A multitude of companies have come to the trough to feed on federal funds without significantly improving the students’ academic achievement. Why? Students are not really tutored in the traditional sense of the word. What does happen is that students are grouped in numbers of 15 or so and assigned pages in workbooks that they are told to complete. There is little, if any, individual attention.
The tutoring companies are receiving per head federal dollars as though students were really getting individual attention, but such is not the case. In fact, at my school, the tutoring seems no more than adding a ninth and tenth period to the students’ long days. Parents get to feel good because they believe their children are being “tutored,” the companies are making money, but the kids are not being given the small group or one-to-one attention that might actually address their needs. This tutoring program costs a great deal of money.
Those funds could be better used to lower class size in the regular day so that all students could have more interaction with their teachers, and there would be an opportunity for teachers to use proven techniques that depend on small groups for success. In my county, teachers and paraprofessionals have been and will continue to be laid off. If the tutoring funds, which are federal dollars, could be used to retain teachers, students might benefit much more directly and for full school days.
Another area of waste is the money used for textbooks and materials in Title One schools. There is money for some materials, but it is tightly monitered, which is fine. However, there is plenty of money for hot dogs and soda to lure parents to after-school activities. The structure governing the use of funds seems to be based on general principles rather than individual school needs.
Finally, once materials are ordered and used, they are cast aside with no regard to their cost. Two years ago, I worked in a Title One school where workbooks were available in abundance. At the end of the year, teachers were told to clear out their rooms. Any books that did not fit in the room were to be “recycled.” By recycling, I mean actually put in a dumpster for pick-up by a recycling firm, not sent to other schools that could use the materials.
Ironically, during the next year, at a non-Title One school, teachers were struggling to assemble a collection of the same books to meet the needs of their students. I could not help but feel the irony very strongly. A Title One school had tossed out the very materials that a regular school needed, and there was no outcry. Such waste is intolerable.
Do schools need money? Yes, indeed. However, throwing money at a problem without assessing needs and insuring that money is used where it is most helpful is not only wasteful, but it reduces the funds available for people and materials that might actually address students’ difficulties.
I have sent the following letter to the editor to two local newspapers. I hope that my letter helps shift the uncertain Florida vote to Obama.
Barack Obama is not a perfect human being. He is not a perfect candidate. He is, however, our best hope for actually bringing about some of the changes in our country’s damaging policies.
Obama’s intelligence and willingness to think outside the box coupled with his common sense approach to understanding the difficulties of Americans will take this country in the right direction. His ability to listen to and work with those who are from the other party or those who embrace differing philosophies makes him a strong candidate. Such attributes are essential for bringing about necessary changes in the way our country approaches its myriad problems, from health care, to education, to a staggering economic downturn.
It is telling that some people are circulating outlandish stories about Obama’s background and beliefs. The truth of his steadfast love of this country does not promote their agendas. Still, it is difficult to believe that there are people in this country who have bought the propaganda that Obama is the product of a terrorist madrassa, that he is a Muslim (although true American values would dictate that Muslims are just as welcome here as any other religious group), or that he has ties to terrorists. These folks are desperate to discredit Obama and cannot do so with the truth.
We cannot afford to overlook Barack Obama’s true history: He did work hard to acquire the education that has made him the well-informed candidate that he is today. With his mother, he studied English in the wee hours of the morning while he was living in Indonesia. He attended a challenging high school, Punahou School, in Hawaii. He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in New York. Then, with that impressive educational background, he worked as a community organizer in the poorest neighborhoods of Chicago. Later he received his law degree from Harvard, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. This is not the history of a man with a “sketchy” background. Virtually every phase of his life has been documented, and he emerges as a man of intelligence, courage, and compassion.
Barack Obama brings to the country a set of experiences and qualifications unique to candidates for our presidency beyond the much-discussed issue of his race. He has shown himself to be a tenacious fighter for Americans in the middle and working classes. He has demonstrated a commanding understanding of the domestic and foreign policy issues facing our country. Most importantly, Barack Obama has shown that he has the intelligence, the background, and the temperament to bring fresh ideas to bear on some of our most intractable American problems: the economy, health care, tax reform, education, and the debilitating war in Iraq.
We cannot afford to let this opportunity to elect a dynamic, well-informed, and determined president pass us by. For too many years, our choices have been limited to choosing among uninspiring candidates and hoping to select the one who will do the least damage. We now have the chance to choose a presidential candidate who is a bona fide leader and well-qualified for the position of President of the United States of America. If we love America, let us give her a chance to be led by a president who can govern with intelligence, experience, compassion, and wisdom. Vote for Barack Obama and give our country a chance to regain her former status as a strong and vibrant nation which embraces all of her people.
I have had an Obama yard sign in my front yard for a few weeks. I know that my neighborhood association is picky about the placement of signs, so I placed it well back behind the city's right of way and definitely within my property's boundaries.
Today a member of the neighborhood association knocked on my door and told me I had to take down the sign. He says that there is a city ordinance that prohibits election signs until 45 days before the election and that according to the neighborhood association, my sign may be no larger than 4 x 6 inches, which is useless for a yard sign. There has been a McCain sign up for MONTHS down the street, but the man claims he hasn't seen it. I assured him that I will be checking to see that laws are equally enforced.
This seems to me to be a violation of my right to free speech. I own the land on which I placed the sign. It is a standard Obama sign--no slings and arrows, no objectionable words or illustrations...
I hope that any other folks here from Punta Gorda, Florida will let me knoww whether or not your signs have been taken down. I am furious.
I hope that Barack Obama's organization can appreciate that many donors, including me, are giving what they can in pre-arranged monthly donations. I received a call a whille ago that offended me. I was asked to "up my ante" by further commiting to a pledge on top of my monthly donations. I was unable to convince the caller that I am giving what I can and cannot responsibly give more. She remained unconvinced.
In your solicitations, it would be helpful for those of us who give monthly to acknowledge that and not press us for more. I don't believe that Barack Obama's campaign wants to squeeze people, but that is how you are coming across. Having been a supporter from March 2007, a close follower of the campaign, and having read both of the Senator's books, I am a firm believer in Obama's principles. I am proud of him and what he represents of the American spirit. I hope that image is not sullied by aggressive fund-raising techniques by misguided campaign workers. Do not let the goal be obfuscated by financial grasping.
Thank you for listening.
Chris Teater
