« State of U.S. Auto Industry | Main | League Standings for June »
June 18, 2005
The Sad State of Education
My town held a referendum late this week for a new K-2 elementary school building. The referendum lost by almost a 2 to 1 margin. This was the third referendum in 5 or maybe 6 years for a new school for the little kids. The last one lost by something like 19 votes. The building's location changed to appease critics and compromises occurred to cut costs, yet the school still lost. In the past six years the town passed a referendum for a new fire station. Many members of the school community supported the firement because they recognized the need for a new fire station. In addition, the school groups gave that support with the understanding that the firemen would help them get a new school when the time came. Yet the firemen officially opposed the new school. It appears that the firemen are going to have to come before the town for additional money due to cost overruns on the new fire station. Gee, I wonder what sort of support they can expect from the school community? Our seniors also voted against the school. They are very concerned about rising taxes, but at the same time they want the town to support some type of senior housing. I doubt there will be much support for that as well.
One major concern is not the fact that the school proposal lost, but like many political campaigns there was a great deal of deception, scare tactics and lying in our small town. Members of the Board of Education and the school administration, who are intimately concerned with the welfare of these children recognize a serious need for new facilities. The Board lives in town, pays taxes and is exceedingly careful about expenses, yet they were painted as irresponsible, extravagant and unknowledgeable by a few older white men who said that the student population was not a problem. The kids now taught in permanent portable classrooms, common areas converted to classrooms, storage areas for special programs and have lunches that begin at 10:30 to accommodate all the kids. These guys don't have children in the school, but they are experts on the issues and wrote letters to the local papers attesting to that fact. Something seems out of wack to me here.
The pressure on schools these days is tremendous. It seems parents start focusing their children on the best colleges from the time kids are in kindergarten. Competition is fierce. There are all sorts of special study and sports programs to improve chances to get into top colleges. I think much of this is crazy, however I do think that children should have the best facilities that we can afford to give them a comfortable, engaging educational environment. To force children, who will have to live and work in an increasingly competitive "Flat World" (Thomas Friedman), to study in converted storage areas and hallways does not seem to be the best that we can do, especially when the cost was only $100 per household. When such attitudes permeate our country one understands why our educational system is falling behind so many other countries.
Posted by Chip Spear at June 18, 2005 8:54 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.politicalsports.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/42