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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Things Aren't So Bad With School System

Well, that is a comparison comment.

Out in Wayne Township, in Indiana, they gave their beloved Superintendent a $1 million retirement package.
In 2007, the Wayne Township School Board and then-Superintendent Terry Thompson agreed to a renegotiated contract that provided a generous retirement package for whenever Thompson decided to step down.

But it wasn't until this month that board members realized just how lucrative that deal was, to the tune of more than $1 million.

Thompson, 64, who retired in December after 15 years with the district, already has received more than $800,000 of his retirement deal, which included a year's base pay at more than $225,000, as well as contract provisions that kicked in hundreds of thousands more.
Lack of due diligence, it would seem to me.

I don't think we can say that about our own Lowell School Committee.

Regards  —  Cliff

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the most depressing reality of the day is the state of education (or more precisely...the lack of it) in America. Three factors have combined to make ours among the worst in the world, and by any objective standard, almost completely ineffectual. The first is the teacher's unions...I say plural because the NEA is a defacto union alongside the National Teacher's Federation. The ONLY purpose for a teacher's union is to achieve greater and greater salary along with virtual lifetime job security. The unions speak nothing about quality of education. Second is closely allied with the first and that is the politicization of the education "system." Local, state, and national "educational" plans, programs, and organizations serve at the majority of political forces and have only accidental and incidental relationships with quality of education. Lastly comes the American process of education itself. We have long become accustomed to "industrial production line teaching." We pour young minds in at grade one and then following a long established prescribed and proscribed litany, process them along until they exit the big education factory after grade 12....if they make it that far. Once they have graduated, i.e., been "certified educated" they are essentially on their own....except we have overwhelming and glaring evidence that year after year, more and more are simply ill prepared intellectually to be on their own. Huge percentages of HS grads are unable to make change at a retail counter, are functionally illiterate when it comes to essential life skills such as naming states and their capitols, knowing the three branches of government and what they do, knowing the why and what of the legislative process....not to mention having a fundamental grasp of our Americanized English language. The few who do excel have achieved their abilities largely in spite of the American system of education. They are increasingly products of private schools and the growing popularity of home schooling. Imagine....parents providing the education process to their children at home......with greater success than "trained professionals" in a "purpose built environment."

School boards are part of the problem. They are formed out of a collective set of personal agendas with little understanding of the foundations and goals of education process. Thus, they become adjunct administrators and in that role, often simply rubber stamp what they are told represents "progress" and "maintenance of excellence." There hasn't been a school board in years that has emerged with a budget reduction to put before the voters...unless that reduction is couched in dire predictions of forthcoming disaster brought about by an irresponsible, stingy electorate.

In my town, it costs roughly $11M to run the show...but $27M to run the school. Amazing. Depressing.

So...."things ARE bad with the school system".......critically bad.