That’s an alarming title –if you think about it, but no one
seems to be thinking too much about the current state of ‘school finance’.
Granted, it’s not a flashy topic. Not as flashy and controversial as, say,
Rosey O’Donell. There is some
passion
where “taxes” are evoked and charged words like ‘accountability’ make it
somewhat of a hot topic. But for the most part public schools, despite the 20
some years of scrutiny, attacks and changes, remain barely solvent, besides
dull and except for the occasional championship team, very boring. Kids say
that too often. Financially schools are at a perpetual, boring C-. Not enough
money, or barely enough money is just too much of an old story.
Recently (this April) the State has warned of a $90-$100 per
pupil reduction. (To put it into context, that’s about 3-4 teacher lay offs
here at Fennville. -Fennville has already lost 13 teachers to early retirement,
this year. That’s about 400 years of experience…to put it into context.) To
think that this constant, reduction-type,-accountability has no effect upon our students is to bury
our heads in the 20th Century and hope Henry Ford’s assembly line
will keep making cars to support our schools.
It’s easy to talk or complain about, but what do we REALLY do? It costs over $20,000
dollars a year (usually much more) to meet the needs of a special education
student. A ‘regular ed. Student’ is supposed to be educated within the $7,600
and some change the state grants. The Feds kick in about 8%, then mandate
expenditures of around 15% with No Child Left Behind and the rest comes from
you and I. Some people offer simple solutions: close the schools. Lay off
teachers and administrators. Just teach with a piece of chalk, etc. The simple
suggestions sound easy –especially when you are angry and of course, are not
feasible. Not yet anyway.
For almost a century Michigan
received a big pay off for little public school investment. Workers could add
parts to the assembly line and go to Friday night games for what amounted to
chump change. Kids got a good assembly-line-style education. The Russians gave
us a little scare with their Sputniks, but we don’t scare easy. We outspent
them, buried THEM and went back to our comfortable lives of barely being aware
of Kosovo or Baghdad,
let alone what our kids were learning in school.
However, whatever they were learning did not seem to match
what was happening in the world around us. If you haven’t noticed there has not
been very many shift changes at the local factory. Medical technicians are
reading our MRI’s (magnetic resonance images) in Australia. Software companies in India are writing programs to deal with
unemployment in Indiana.
Mortgage companies have their properties titles’ researched by people in front
of computers in cities like Bangalor,
India; places
we cannot pronounce, let alone locate on a map. We buy fuel efficient cars from
Japan
and pay for expensive gasoline here. Walmart is the nation’s largest employer
(!) and their product labels say, over and over, Made in China.
Yes, the times, as they say, are a changin’: It takes two
minimum wage workers, adjusted for inflation, to earn what just one worker did
in the 60’s. (Holly Slkar) And the news gets even grimmer. Since 2000 college-educated
workers’ wages have fallen steadily. In 2005 Americans borrowed more money than
they earned. (Parade Magazine) Business Week: “China’s competitive edge is
shifting from low-cost workers to state-of-the-art-manufacturing. India is creating world-class innovation hubs,
and its companies are far better performers than China’s.” In the U.S. we try to
remain competitive by cutting wages and benefits. Our competitors gain the edge
over us by moving ahead with investments in technology, innovation and an
educated work force. Among the world’s 100 largest corporations in 2005, only
30 some were U.S.
companies. Yet Americans work 200 more hours a year than our counterparts in
European countries. (Holly Sklar) We work more for less and less. Both parents,
too often, work more for less and less
And in the same article, A High-Road Economy: (http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/17/wanted_a_highroad_economy.php)
from a study done by the prestigious MIT of 500
international companies, "Contrary to the widely held belief of many
managers, we conclude that solutions that depend on driving down costs by
reducing wages and social benefits —are always dead ends. . . The activities
that succeed over time are, in contrast, those
that build on continuous learning and innovation."
We have students who have never intentionally opened the (paper)
pages of an encyclopedia, but who can access the CIA fact book online. They can
look at their home from a camera in orbit. MySpace, a social networking web site, has
over a 100 million members. 61% are teenagers. They have messages, photos, chat
rooms and yes, predators, stalking those cyber neighborhoods. We know of campus
killings even before the victims know they are being literally murdered. No,
this is not our fathers’ world. And shockingly, horribly, it might not be our
children’s world anymore.
Our public schools, with what little monies they have, must
prepare our kids for a future with all the above feature. It can be frightening
or exciting depending on how good your community’s school really is. And it is
more frightening if you don’t know this or don’t really care.
So is school finance a boring topic? Yes. Is it important? You, as a citizen,
will have to determine that.
