The Madison School Board of Education and the District administration are proposing nearly $50 million worth of referenda and are begging for the support of the taxpaying public to significantly raise taxes. At the same time, Superintendent Rainwater bashes the business community for not contributing more tax dollars to fund public education. By accusing businesses of "eating their own young" and "contributing to their own demise" he is creating a very divisive atmosphere that makes it very difficult for taxpayers to see the value in more and more spending for mediocre results.
Ditto for Board President Bill Keys and his remarks about State Legislators, referring to them as "bastards with no regard for human beings." One of the fundamentals for gaining financial support for any effort is to reach out through the development of positive relationships.
These charges leveled by Rainwater and Keys cannot be construed in any way, shape or form as contributing to the development of positive relationships.
Furthermore, the Board and administration are not showing good cause for the need, nor are they showing good stewardship of the increasing amounts of money the District has been receiving from the taxpayers over the past few years. More money does NOT equate with better quality education. Every business operating within the boundaries of the Madison school district pays property taxes to support this school district. Rainwater and the Board continue to put the support of the public school system at risk with their divisive, accusatory and demeaning remarks.
My March 9, 2005 Presentation to the Madison Board of Education [PDF]
Don Severson
Active Citizens for Education
238-8300
In response to Ruth Robarts' recent letter, stripped of its satire, she is suggesting that paying Madison's school staff less would eliminate the budget gap. Her proposal is that school staff should receive a package of 2.35 percent for salary and benefits combined. There are three major problems with her proposal:Be wary of last minute proposals that sound good and promise to solve the problem without painful cuts. As a community we need to face the fact that the budget gap we face is real; it is a direct consequence of the state laws and funding decisions that affect all Wisconsin school districts.
- This would impose a pay cut on almost all employees, with the deepest cuts affecting the lowest paid staff (educational assistants and food service workers)
- A 2.35 percent package would save the district about $4.6 millionthere would still be a budget gap of at least $4 million.
- State law makes such an approach impossible. The qualified economic offer law essentially requires that districts offer at least a 3.8 percent annual increase for salary and benefits combined.
/Carol Carstensen, Madison School Board /
Diane Ravich
It makes no sense to blame the high schools for their ill-prepared incoming students. To really get at the problem, we have to make changes across our educational system. The most important is to stress the importance of academic achievement. Sorry to say, we have a long history of reforms by pedagogues to de-emphasize academic achievement and to make school more "relevant," "fun" and like "real life." These efforts have produced whole-language instruction, where phonics, grammar and spelling are abandoned in favor of "creativity," and fuzzy math, where students are supposed to "construct" their own solutions to math problems instead of finding the right answers.
These are the exact same points Professor Seidenburg, UW Madison, made to the MMSD School Board earlier this year. He also critized the MMSD Superintendent for turning away $10+ million over several years of Reading First federal grant money.
I did a simple search on Google: State budget and school funding. I was not surprised to find Wisconsin sharing in their education funding crisis with many other states. On the first two pages of my search I discovered California, Texas, Washington, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, and New York have news articles about their educational funding "crisis". Each state has it's version of revenue caps, TABOR like situations, or tax restraints that cause their current problem. Some just never raise taxes and can't figure out how to fund a state and local program without taxes. Also interesting to note is Ohio and Illinois legislation funds their local schools at 51% while Washington state legislation is suppose to pay 80%. None of these states actually fund their schools at their promised level just as our federal government fails to fund it's many mandates at it's required level. I find this interesting because each time I watch the "MMSD Budget Horse and Pony Show", as I like to refer to this annually released performance, I am told how awful the state legislation is and that Wisconsin is backwards in its funding of education. While there may be some truth to that, it is comforting to know my state is not the only awful backwards state out there. That comfort however, does not solve the problem. The reason I went on this search is I have twice, maybe more, asked the board to "think outside the box". I decided since the board wants the public to present them with solutions and not complaints that I would find out how other states and communities are financing schools and present these ideas to them before they develop another "sequel".
One state that caught my attention was Virgina. To solve their school funding problem they instituted a half a cent sales tax through out the entire state. This idea was suggested by a think tank organized by Gov. Doyle in Wisconsin but it was quickly run out of Madison. The plan is something to think about,as Virgina just signed their budget that added an additional 759 million dollars to the governors original budget towards public education. I will continue this search and loft new ideas at this site. We need a new way, a creative way to fund education because we are all tired of fighting for our schools and very tired of watching "sequels" with no new plots or twist.
The Virginia link: Leesburg2day.com/current.cfm.catid=54&newsid=8927.
While the problems of low achievement and poor high-school graduation rates are clear, however, their solutions are not. The reformist governors, for example, want to require all students to take a college-preparatory curriculum and to meet more rigorous standards for graduation. These steps will very likely increase the dropout rate, not reduce it.To understand why, you have to consider what the high schools are dealing with. When American students arrive as freshmen, nearly 70 percent are reading below grade level. Equally large numbers are ill prepared in mathematics, science and history.
It is hardly fair to blame high schools for the poor skills of their entering students. If students start high school without the basic skills needed to read, write and solve mathematics problems, then the governors should focus on strengthening the standards of their states' junior high schools.
And that first year of high school is often the most important one - many students who eventually drop out do so after becoming discouraged when they can't earn the credits to advance beyond ninth grade. Ninth grade is often referred to by educators as a "parking lot." This is because social promotion - the endemic practice of moving students up to the next grade whether they have earned it or not - comes to a crashing halt in high school.
Lee Sensenbrenner summarizes last night's Madison School Board meeting where the board approved going forward with the third of three planned May referendums.
The March 13, 2005 issue of the Appleton Post Crescent had the following column by Jennifer Edmondson. She writes:
Before I began researching the topic of “intellectual giftedness,” I thought it was a bunch of trendy education baloney.
During the past four years, my thinking has changed radically. I have read books, called organizations for gifted kids, talked to teachers and parents of gifted kids, and I have attended seminars.
Gifted kids really do exist. More importantly, gifted kids have special needs. If those needs aren’t met, not only is that child doomed, but so is our society.
Let me share a tiny bit of what I have learned about the importance of meeting those needs.
Intellectually gifted is:
An unfortunate term: Every person has a special gift/ability. I wish there were a different term — “intellectually advanced” perhaps.
Being born with a very high IQ: Generally, a 130-135 IQ is considered moderately gifted, 160-plus is exceptionally gifted and 170-plus is extraordinarily gifted.
Usually a hard road: Gifted children tend to be extra sensitive to their environment — sight, sound, touch and smell. The small amount of violence depicted in films such as “Bambi” or “Dumbo” deeply affects some gifted children.
Many feel out of sync with same-aged kids. While they’re the same biological age as their classmates, their thinking processes aren’t. Their thought processes are more complex. They experience things more intensely. They often times are lonely because they don’t fit in.
Parents have the difficult task of trying to make sure their kids are being challenged appropriately. The average child generally is challenged in school. Most times, gifted kids aren’t being challenged. They’re in danger of tuning out and failing, or becoming behavior problems in the classroom.
Having needs similar to those of cognitively disabled kids. Strange but true. Consider a 17-year-old student with the intellect of a 9-year-old. Special educational accommodations are made for him. He needs to learn at his own pace. Any teaching beyond that student’s level is lost.
Now consider a 9-year-old child (in fourth grade) with the intellect of a 17-year-old. Does it make any sense to expect that 9-year-old to survive in fourth grade where she’s taught at a level eight years below her level and pace? We wouldn’t teach the cognitively disabled child at a level eight years above his actual level and pace.
How much would adults learn if they were forced to sit at training sessions taught at the level and pace of kindergarten?
Gifted is not:
The ability to fend for oneself: Gifted children are still children. They’re not born with the knowledge we adults accumulate during a lifetime. They need adults to teach and guide them.
Needing less teaching: Like their cognitively disabled counterparts, gifted kids need more attention, not less. They need instruction at their actual learning level and pace, which usually is not the same as kids their age. This makes more work for teachers, not less.
An elitist category: Some think that “gifted” is an elitist term, that all kids should be treated the same. Many parents and teachers of gifted kids feel that gifted kids are treated the way Cinderella was treated by her evil stepmother and stepsisters.
Consider this: A school forms a Gifted Kids Club. Participants get special outfits identifying them as members of this club. School funds help to pay for their expenses to academic tournaments around the Wisconsin and the U.S. They get paid advisors.
Is this club elitist? Objectionable? Unfair?
Now replace the terms “Gifted Kids Club” with “cheerleading squad,” “athletic team” or “marching band.” Replace “special outfits” with “uniforms.” Replace “advisors” with “coaches.”
Providing adequate programs and staff for cognitively disabled kids is considered necessary and good. Providing adequate programs and staff for sports or other extracurricular activities is considered necessary and good.
Providing adequate programs and staff for gifted kids must be included in what we consider necessary and good.
Jennifer Edmondson is an Appleton resident and a Post-Crescent Community Columnist. She can be reached by e-mail at pcletters at postcrescent.com