There is a strong correlation between the effectiveness of the military and the K-12 pubic school system in America. We have the best-trained and equipped military on this planet. We have spent half-a- trillion dollars since 9/11 on our national security apparatus. Our investment and training has paid dividends. Tragically during the same 10 years we have disinvested in public education. This disinvestment is a national security crisis of epic proportions.
What I am asking for is a smart reinvestment in our children’s education that will pay the same dividends as we see with our military spending—a public education second to none. This reinvestment will bode well for our social and economic survival, while continued inequity in funding and our systematic disinvestment augurs bleakly for our nation’s survival as a top-tier power.
Our tireless efforts to eradicate terror and the killing of innocent people took a giant leap forward on May 1 with the killing of Osama bin Laden. At Monday’s Medal of Honor Ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President Obama said: “Today we are reminded as a nation, there’s nothing we can’t do. When we put our shoulders to the wheel, when we work together, when we remember the sense of unity that defines us as Americans.”
With the same tremendous resolve and investment we can reach the laudable and critical goal of equity and excellence in education. A few weeks ago I quoted former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice as saying that we cannot afford a school system where children receive a quality of education predicated on their zip codes.
Congressman Honda of the 15th Congressional District of California has helped establish a federal commission under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Public Law 92-463) called the U.S. Department of Education Equity and Excellence Commission. The purpose of the Commission is to collect and analyze data and issues through broad public input on how the Federal government can increase educational opportunity for each child through an equitable funding system.
On April 21 in the San Jose City Hall Rotunda the Commission held one of its first regional town hall meetings. More than 150 people attended the town hall and provided thoughtful input for the commissioners. Two teachers—one from Los Angeles Unified and the other from Palo Alto Unified—gave testimony at the Commission’s invitation. Both teachers are Nationally Board Certified and are members of the Accomplished California Teachers Network. The lens for their testimony was equity from their divergent high school perspectives. Here are excerpts from their remarks.
Martha Infante, graduate of UCLA, teaching in South Central Los Angeles: “The state of education funding today has hit schools like mine in a way few have come to know. Increases in class size are common, and limited classroom resources are the immediate, obvious results. However, it is the precipitous state of the whole child that is affected in urban schools, when cuts hit hard and often. Students needs such as autism and dyslexia appear in overcrowded classrooms but their needs go unnoticed by the predominantly novice teachers which tend to be employed in hard to staff schools.”
David B. Cohen, teacher Palo Alto High School, across the street from Stanford University: “Our district’s general expenditures per pupil this year stand at $11,431 per student—87 percent more than San Francisco Unified, 103 percent more than Oakland Unified. This is despite the fact that their students, on average, need and deserve more support than students in Palo Alto. There is some government assistance for school turnarounds, but it dictates punitive actions—as if the persistent failure of a school had little to do with persistent poverty, and persistent anemia in school funding. Equity, partnered with some compassion and common sense, might involve government support unencumbered by restrictive mandates that disempower all of the stakeholders at the local level.”
Mr. President, congratulations on finally taking out Osama bin Laden. The military you have at your command is second to none. Now I think it is time that we construct a public K-12 education system that mirrors our military. When the Equity and Excellence Commission’s recommendations are released this December please help put them on the front burner of our educational reform agenda. I concur with you, “when we put our shoulders to the wheel, when we work together, when we remember the sense of unity that defines us as Americans,” we can accomplish great things few would dream possible.
> “Today we are reminded as a nation, there’s nothing we can’t do. When we put our shoulders to the wheel, when we work together, when we remember the sense of unity that defines us as Americans.”
There may be “nothing we can’t do”, but it is always possible to concoct a wrong-headed policy that will prevent anything from being done.
I agree with Joesph .
Let’s curb some spending on the military and invest it toward education . The last decade the United States has burned trillions on the war on terror , and occupying two countries . Here is the chance , now that Bin Laden is checked out .The door is open , and should open to ‘rebuild’ our domestic spending .
> Let’s curb some spending on the military and invest it toward education . The last decade the United States has burned trillions on the war on terror , and occupying two countries .
The United States has ALSO burned trillions of dollars on education “investments”.
Have we gotten our money’s worth?
The Los Angeles Unified School District spends almost thirty thousand dollars per student.
Are children getting thirty thousand dollar educations?
It might make more sense to cut the U.S. “investment” in education to zero, give the money to the military, and have them occupy some countries that have high performing educational systems, and send our children there.
Are you serious or just a troll?
> Are you serious or just a troll?
You haven’t heard any of this before, have you?
Why do you think that’s the case?
Why do we not outsource education? That would save so much money! Excellence, here I come. Competition would bring so much to the table. Right now, there is no competition. Needs to be outsourced.
Too Late, we already do! Where do you think 55%+ of our tech force come from? The wealthiest of China and India buy the best education money can buy. Our headhunters working for all of Guardino’s buddies are actually instructed to hire them over an equivalently educated US Citizen. They take up and increasing share of our College seats, and make up the vast majority of new single family Valley house buyers over $500k. Corporate Tech America needs a relatively small percentage of innovators and managers. The brunt who implement are increasingly foreign. Wake up, it’s just posturing. Who do you think benefits from our 60 hour weeks with one vacations and union bashing?
I agree that we need to reinvest spending towards education. Education should be our top priority right now.
Nancy, I agree. I believe that education should be the priority but unfortunately it seems that this is not usually the case.
> I agree that we need to reinvest spending towards education.
We have zillions of highly paid credentialed professional educators like Joe DiSalvo who, over their entire careers, have made eduction their top priority.
WHY do we have to invest more if it already IS our top priority and we already have our best, brightest, and most caring professionals educating our children?
Are you suggesting that teachers make a lot of money? We need to invest more because we keep taking money from education. Therefore, we need to put that money back into education.
I agree that education should be our top priority right now. It seems that everyone I know feels this way… when will the people that are able to make it the top priority realize this? Hopefully sooner than later.
I agree that education should be on the priority! I also agree that people who can help make this a priority need to realize this.
I agree that education should be our top priority right now and I constantly wonder why it is not. I do think that the people who have the power to make it happen (and also think that education should be a top priority) are doing as much as they can to try to change things. However, there is always more that can be done in order to change things. I think the more people get involved and step in, the bigger difference we can make.
Nancy, I agree with you we need to take another look into where we are investing money. Education, of all, should be the priority in where we make the biggest investments. We need to stop all this non-sense of investing money in other places rather than education!
The US can acheive any goal it strives for. As a country, we need to work together so all citizens receive a fair education. The system currently in place is only widening the gap between rich and poor.
Yes the U.S. has achieved many great things such as our effective military and the killing of Bin Laden, but why don’t we take all of those efforts that the military takes into education? We could have utilized the money that was used in those 10 or so years we were invading the middle east to find Bin Laden, to dedicate towards children’s education. I understand that our nation’s safety is a top priority but so is our children’s future.
Fair education is a right. So, I think it’s important that the current system be put in place and education receive some serious attention
I particularly like the statement that, “‘when we put our shoulders to the wheel, when we work together, when we remember the sense of unity that defines us as Americans,’ we can accomplish great things few would dream possible.” In fact, I believe this is true with many things in life.
This article reminds me of one that I read this week by Dave Eggers in the NY Times called, “The High Cost Of Low Teacher Salaries.” He begins the article nearly the same as Joseph DiSalvos does here by referencing the military but makes the point that when things go wrong overseas in combat we don’t blame the soldiers: we blame the planners of the conflict. And yet people keep blaming teachers for our failures in education. Eggers proposes that we raise teachers salaries so that their starting pay is around $65,000 and their ending around $150,000. While I think that is a fairly high number I think that he is onto something. One of the ways that we can make the US a great educational power is making the teaching profession more appealing so we can get more teachers who are passionate about education and not scared away by the low pay.
I agree with you and with this article that I also happened to have read as a future teacher. As a parent, however, I don’t think that I would feel comfortable with a generation of “passionate” teachers that are in the education field because of the salary. I think that with higher salaries come candidates whose hearts are not where they should be but are instead looking at the money.
you both have good points. one thing to also think about is, let’s say we do raise salary for teachers and the teaching market becomes more competitive. will we then have teachers who want to teach because they actually care about student’s development and growth, or will we have teachers who just want to make money? where will the line be drawn?
I think that in order to balance a higher salary and the people who might just go after the jobs for money, gaining a teaching degree should be similar to gaining a medical degree. It should take a few years, cost a decent amount, include more than a year of training, and have better job placement. If the standards to get into teaching school were as stringent as those for medical school, many idiots and unenthusiastics would be cut early on. The difficult training and long hours would hopefully weed out the rest.
There is a huge difference between the military and education. It’s called motivation.
If you’re not motivated in the military, you are discharged. No B.S. blaming the D.I. or “the system”. You do what you told or you’re gone.
Try that in the education system with all the Joe’s of the world devising new ways to throw money at the problem in the hopes that everyone will achieve equally.
You want to cut the drop out rate in high school? Pass a nationwide law that says no diploma or GED means no public assistance of any kind. That would at least cut down the welfare cost for a couple of years per potential dropout.
Education should be our priority as the students in our schools are the future of this country. By not providing them with the quality education they deserve and require to be productive and responsible citizens that will one day run the country, the future of our country could be in trouble.
Well said. It is truly saddening to think that these children who are our future are not receiving the quality education they need and deserve. It is with great hope that the change we need happens soon.
I agree that education should be one of our highest concern, but the people in power seemed to disagree. Education is one of the first programs to get cut when budget cuts are in the table. Once again, we the people need to remind Washington who they are serving. We need to voice our opinion and become active in providing our children the future and education they deserve.
I agree with Maggie! I also think that this is the constant argument that keeps being brought up. We all know education should be a top priority but it doesn’t really matter because the people who are in power obviously do not think education is that important. They do not think it is important and yet they make a big ordeal if our students are not up to “their” standards.
I agree Jennifer! I think that we need to work more or giving our children quality education…. this affects them for the rest of their lives.
Jennifer, you took the words right out of my mouth. A change needs to be made and education needs to be our top priority otherwise our country is going to be in trouble. The younger generation is not going to be able to fill our jobs if they don’t get a quality education.
Joseph,
Why do Indian and Asian kids do so well in school with or without funding?
You take a 6th grader fresh off the boat from china, and he’s already into his second year of Algebra. Same thing goes for Indian kids.
So what’s the problem in ESSJ?
It’s like there’s this huge white elephant in the room nobody wants to accept responsibility over there….
If more parents in ESSJ snapped their kids into line like this mother, ESSJ wouldn’t have 1/2 the problems it does.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576059713528698754.html
Robert,
Realize you answered your own question. They are “fresh”. Give the family one more generation, they will establish many of the same media and social distractions our native children have. I know, my son is half Asian 2nd generation. His buddies in High School were Asian. Yes, the parenting is MUCH more materialistic. But there are plenty of cracks.
Also, we should remember, the Chinese and Indian H-1b workforce we see do not represent the cultural characteristics of there respective countries any more than the families of Beverly Hills or Atherton have relevance to middle America. Ex. The majority of Chinese men smoke.
Finally, and teachers will corroborate. Hispanic children of East Side place family over academics, a generalization, but an influence. Filipinos are less likely to make money the only real factor in a career choice than their Asian counterparts etc. OK P.C. folks. Let me have it. (I forgot, white kids can’t jump).
Mr. Cerebral:
I notice that you HAVE NOT YET agreed that education should be our top priority.
Are you anti-education or something?
How many ways must we say it?
The problem with education lies not in the amount of money being spent on education, but rather the manner in which that money is allocated.
In CA, per-pupil spending as of 2008 was $7571 per student (source is here). As we saw in Mr. DiSalvo’s article, that number varies from district to district, sometimes wildly so. But for this conversation, it is equitable to use the statewide average. So take that number, and multiply it by 20 (the most commonly-stated “goal” of student-teacher ratio). That yields a product of roughly $151,000 being allocated to any one classroom at any one time. Raise the student-teacher ratio to the current norm of 30 or so, and that $151K goes up to $227,130.
$227K, per classrom, per year, year in and year out. Subtract $100K or so for teacher salary/benefits/union squeeze.
Where is the rest of the money going? How many bureaucratic empires are being supported by taking just a little “slice” of that yearly per-pupil spending allowance?
There are over 1000 school districts in CA (source is <a href=“http://www.greatschools.org/schools/districts/California/CA”>here>/a>). Each of those districts has administrative functions and staffs, all of whom perform duplicative work. How many of those districts (not to mention the 58 separate county BOE’s and or school departments) could be consolidated and/or have their activities coordinated in a more efficient manner?
Folks, I can’t state it plainly enough: There. Is. No. School. Funding. Problem. The only problems lie in the allocation of that funding, in the gross inefficiencies in the system, and in the Educrats – like Mr. DiSalvo – who continually insist that more funding is the answer.
Give each parent a scholarship of $7571 per year to be spent at any school.
You want to see MAJOR improvements!
Right now, Joe has no competition! It is a monopoly system and he has the kids as prisoners.
“What I am asking for is a smart reinvestment in our children’s education that will pay the same dividends as we see with our military spending—a public education second to none. This reinvestment will bode well for our social and economic survival” I agree with this statement. It will be a great day for our nation when we can see this become a reality.
I completely agree Laura. I would love to see the outcomes of education if we were to invest more money into it.
“I would love to see the outcomes of education if we were to invest more money into it.”
Katie D.
It’s your lucky day.
Here’s the outcomes Wisconsin got from investing more money into it’s public education system.
“Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education, despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.
…
The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite a significant inflation-adjusted increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/two-thirds-wisconsin-public-school-8th-g
Here’s a thought.
Instead of repeating the Wisconsin mistake over and over and over and expecting a different outcome – let’s try something different like:
– give parents school vouchers
– education providers compete for school voucher dollars.
– education providers will compete for the best teachers to attract the school voucher dollars.
Win-Win-Win
> Here’s the outcomes Wisconsin got from investing more money into it’s public education system.
Great find, Novice!
I hereby nominate you to be Supervising Grown-Up for the Santa Clara County Office of Education.
Just a couple of questions:
1. Did the teachers in Wisconson try really, really hard?
2. Did they have good intentions and feel that they were doing good jobs?
3. Did they make the children their number one priority?
Oh, and did they have really good union benefits?
” THERE. IS. NO. SCHOOL. FUNDING. PROBLEM. The only problems lie in the allocation of that funding, in the gross inefficiencies in the system, and in the Educrats – like Mr. DiSalvo – who continually insist that more funding is the answer “
A truer statement could not be made about California’s dysfunctional public education with the most responsibility for educational problems the highly political California Teachers Association an politically correct college professors more interested in their own benefit than student’s education
Another major problem is the widely promoted false educational premise that every child needs a college education rather than learning the necessary the hard and soft skills to be successful in life and work
Many students get very discouraged
1) during school because they are required to take years of unnecessary courses that have no relation to life or work but because politically correct Educats dictate so and needed courses are not available in public education system
2) after completing school or college many times after wasting years and with large debts to discover their degree has no value in work world and do not have necessary life or work skills so have to work at low paid low skill jobs and pay to go back to tech school to gain skills they should have had before graduating
Everyone knows that education SHOULD be a top priority for our nation as a whole, but the population has different ideas for where the funding should be distributed. What is it going to take for Americans to value education?
I couldn’t have said it better. By not funding education, our nation is being short-sighted. We need to be forward thinkers, our future is sitting in th e classrooms of America. If we want a change, then now is the time to make it and begins with the boys and the girls who are the future workers of America.
I agree with you Jennifer, with no funding how can teacher teach and how can districts provide an education to children all over the state. We are technology savy, so it makes sense to do that.
I would be very curious to see the IP addresses of “Kim P”, “jennifer w.”, “Sarah S.”, “Katie D.”, “Laura V.”, “Nicole F.”, “Magdalene L.”, “Jamie J.”, “Jennifer S.”, and all the other “Firstname Lastinitial” posters who all basically said the same thing or agreed with their similarly named posters’ points.
My sockpuppet detector is beeping on this one.
I definitely agree that education needs to be top priority as much as our military. Our military is important but education is what will propel us into the future. Without educated children, there will be no educated adults to serve in the military, no new technology to assist our troops, and no medical personnel to care for our soldiers.
> I would be very curious to see the IP addresses of “Kim P”, “jennifer w.”, “Sarah S.”, “Katie D.”, “Laura V.”, “Nicole F.”, “Magdalene L.”, “Jamie J.”, “Jennifer S.”, and all the other “Firstname Lastinitial” posters who all basically said the same thing or agreed with their similarly named posters’ points.
Or, maybe just look at the list of students enrolled in Joe’s “Education Psychology” class.
Posting on a blog is probably a lot easier than a term paper. Wouldn’t you think?
The repetitive mantra-like character of the comments from DiSalvo’s DiSciples are beginning to seem deliberate and calculated- probably some brilliant new low key, non-confrontational strategy of influencing public opinion that Joe’s trying out.
‘Education Psychology’ huh? Every week here DiSalvo is walking talking proof that we’re spending too much money on education- not too little.
> Every week here DiSalvo is walking talking proof that we’re spending too much money on education- not too little.
Are you trying to put a dollar value on Joe’s contribution to society?
You’re crass and soulless, Galtus.
Whatever Joe is paid, he’s worth more.
Or, so I’ve been told.
Beg pardon, Momentus. I’ve been away awhile and forgot about DiSalvo’s ‘civil discourse’ edict. Allow me to rephrase my previous remarks:
I completely and totally agree with everything everybody has ever said- both here and everywhere else. I believe that our young people represent the future of our country and I think educating children is extremely important and should be given top priority along with all the other extremely important top priority things. I don’t understand how some people don’t see how important it is to agree with this- but I don’t disagree with them. After all, disagreement is terribly disagreeable. Don’t you agree?
“I would be very curious to see the IP addresses of “Kim P”, “jennifer w.”, “Sarah S.”, “Katie D.”, “Laura V.””
I’m guessing these are legitimate and are students in DiSalvo’s class – which he teaches whilst holding a swaying pocket watch with a giant swirling spiral displayed on the wall behind him.
It was interesting to hear what Cohen, the teacher from Palo Alto, had to say about equity among schools and that he recognized that other districts such as Oakland Unified need the funds much more than Palo Alto does. I liked his comment about government assistance: “as if the persistent failure of a school had little to do with persistent poverty, and persistent anemia in school funding.” Poverty and funding are key issues in inner-city schools.
So, then, is your solution for school equity the “equal redistribution of poverty” from Oakland to Palo Alto?
I think it will take much more than funding to improve our public education system.
Additional funding may be vital for schools in districts where poverty runs rampant but without a way to guide that funding in an appropriate, responsible manner, it may simply be more money thrown away while thrown at the problem. Running a district is not unlike a business, one without much profit if any. Unfortunately, what business professional wants to get into education? There is a waning in district responsibility in balancing their own budgets and working with what they’ve got. Sure, they need more money yet in tough times, there should be savings to help and there are always ways of stretching your dollars and being more proactive to create better schools. It’s simply what has to be done until things change. So start teaching and stop complaining. We all have more than we realize.