Thomas Jefferson said, “Democracy is never a final achievement. It is a call to an untiring effort.” At a dinner party I attended on Saturday evening there was much thoughtful political discourse, a good democratic tradition. I wanted to know, from the bright and civic-minded guests, if they are optimistic about the future of America in the next 50 years.
My sampling size was small (n=5) but the result was illuminating—and very depressing. All five had a similar realization that they were abjectly pessimistic about America’s future, even though some said they were optimistic by nature.
I highly respected the opinion of those I asked, who represent a wide swath of the political mainstream. If this is the prevailing opinion of the involved citizenry, we are in for a bleak future. Even though we tended to agree on the enormity of the problems there was little agreement on the solutions.
As one can expect I always bring the discussions back to a subject I know well. In my view the only thing that could bring about the needed revolution toward a brighter future for all is education, education, and education.
A new Phi Delta Kappa (PDK)/Gallup Poll finds the American public believes the most important national education program must be about improving teacher quality. To stay globally competitive we need a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. We need citizens who want to participate in the vibrancy of a healthy democracy, through dialogue and consensus-building. Public service once valued by the people must be valued once again.
I believe we cannot continue to cut education in this state without seriously damaging the future health of our nation, state, and Silicon Valley. There is a very real chance schools will have less money this year than last, even with the $200 per student infusion of emergency funds from Washington D.C. From my vantage point we are strangling a potentially healthy future by shortchanging our children’s education.
The facts, not to be hyperbolic here, are frightening. California is in the 61st day without a budget. Although it is rumored there might be a vote today, there is no chance either the Governor’s budget or the Democratic budget proposal will receive the two-thirds majority. Nearly 50 percent of the state’s budget involves K-16 education and the two major party gubernatorial candidates, 64 days from the election, are not addressing the issue.
On Sunday, Christian Amanpour of This Week on ABC reported that “students returning to class this week are less likely to finish high school than their parents, and they’re falling behind students in other countries, scoring lower in science than their peers in 28 nations, and ranking 38th in math, behind countries like Estonia and Azerbaijan.”
The late Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell said: “The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.” Character and civic education, two important pillars of a quality American education, cannot be scored by standardized tests.
In order to avoid what happened to Ancient Rome in their centuries of decline we must heed Jefferson’s advice. Untiring democratic efforts to work toward common solutions to our vexing problems must become the norm. Partisanship must be defanged while we embrace working toward informed and collaborative decisions with the best information available. Anything short of this goal will spell our ultimate demise. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in Sacramento and Washington D. C. are you listening?
“The facts, not to be hyperbolic here, are frightening. California is in the 61st day without a budget.”
Yet, the State Senate has time to debate a plastic grocery bag ban today, the last day of the session.
Remember in November—NO INCUMBENTS
California increases it’s education funding each year. How much taxes is enough before schools look at real causes of school and student failure
a) not efficiently spending taxes dollars received in classrooms rather than on administration and non classroom overhead ?
b) poor teacher performance
c) lack of partent involvement in children’s education
for California’s poor education results – high dropouts. failing schools and low minority graduation rates are main education failures
1) How much of the ( California ) General Fund Budget is spent on Education? (Or, on some other major program areas?)
2010-2011 – 57.70765 %
While it has changed over time and changes somewhat from year-to-year, about 52 to 55 percent of the State General Fund Budget is spent on K–12 and Higher Education.
* Chart E (.pdf, <1 MB) — All Education As a Percentage of General Fund Expenditures – 2010-2011 – 57.70765 %
* Chart C (.pdf, <1 MB) — General Fund Program (Expenditure) Distribution
* Chart C-1 (.pdf, <1 MB) — Program Expenditures by Fund
* Chart C-2 (.pdf, <1 MB) — General Fund Expenditures Increase Over The Prior Year
* Schedule 9 (.pdf, <1 MB) — Comparative Statement of Expenditures by Organization Unit, Character, Function and Fund
http://www.dof.ca.gov/budgeting/budget_faqs/#2
2) California State Local and Total Education spending – US Census
See Chart at bottom page for $ state local and total numbers
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=2000_2020&view=1&expand;=&units=b&fy=fy11&chart=20-state_20-local_20-total&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&title;=&state=CA&color=c&local=s
Year GDP-CA State Local Total $ billions
2000 1287.14 14.24 50.44 64.67
2001 1301.05 15.10 55.76 70.86
2002 1340.45 15.96 61.09 77.05
2003 1406.51 16.86 63.69 80.55
2004 1519.44 16.66 67.30 83.96
2005 1628.6 17.33 70.46 87.78
2006 1727.6 20.49 73.73 94.22
2007 1801.76 22.35 78.96 101.31
2008 1846.76 23.40 81.97 105.37
2009 1823.33 26.15 86.11 112.26
2010 1870.1 29.28 90.50 119.78
3) California will never have great schools until teachers unions focus on in classroom and parent support issues
As an American citizen and taxpayer in good standing, I sit back in my executive chair, prop my feet up on my John Q. Public executive desk, and ask one of my public servants for a report on the money I have painfully provided over the years to support public education.
Sayeth public servant Joseph DiSalvo:
“Even though we tended to agree on the enormity of the problems there was little agreement on the solutions.”
“In my view the only thing that could bring about the needed revolution toward a brighter future for all is education, education, and education.”
STOP RIGHT THERE, MR. DISALVO!!!
WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU AND THE REST OF THE EDUCRAT ESTABISHMENT BEEN SPENDING MY MONEY ON FOR THE LAST TWO, THREE, FOUR OR WHATEVER GENERATIONS?
You’ve spent 52% of the state budget, and you tell me all we have is CRAP! And the answer is MORE CRAP, MORE CRAP, AND MORE CRAP!
When we hired you to educate our children, we TOLD you what resources we were going to provide and what results we expected.
And you assured us, Mr. Public Educrat DiSalvo that you could provide the results for the resources provided and YOU ACCEPTED THE JOB.
NOW you are telling us that the job DIDN’T GET DONE and YOU NEED MORE money?
There’s got to be a better way.
I think there are many, many qualified candidates who are better able to get the results we are expecting, and who won’t be in my office all the time making excuses.
Perhaps you should consider other career opportunities.
TM,
I know as an elected person I must take all the crap and come up for more. Fortunately, since I have been writing on SJI my skin has been getting thicker. However, I think we must work tirelessly to agree on the facts and then solutions to the problems. All i said in this post was we need to work together on the solution sets that will make our schools better. Continued personal assaults do nothing to further intelligent dialogue. TM, we have serious problems for which our children and grandchildren will pay dearly. In my world we owe it to them to work to come up with bipartisan solutions.
I do think we make the problem worse with continuing cuts and an unstable base for planning and execution of change. I agree that change is necessary and have written about the changes I believe would make a difference, some requiring no money (reforming tenure laws) and others requiring more money (increase in early childhood and prenatal education funding). Read archived posts.
As I have said I am proud of my service on the county board of education that the voters in Trustee Area #4 have given me. I receive $590.00 per month for my service. According to my data I spend an average of 12-15 hours per week on County Board issues since my election in November of 2008. I do not take mileage or medical benefits. This is not my career, but it is my avocation.
I had a 34 year career as a teacher and principal in this county. My schools and staffs always performed well in San Jose, Palo Alto and Milpitas. My record is a public record.
I work hard at being the best public servant I can be. I have planned and continue to plan public discourse on Charter Schools,with a new Roundtable on Proposition 39 issues coming up on 9/22. I have worked on improving the educational programs of alternative youth. I sit on the hiring of key strategic positions in the SCCOE and give my voice and opinion to the process.
We are in a crisis in education. Last night we on the SCCOE Board approved a bridge loan for Franklin-McKinley School District of $3.6 million so they can meet their August payroll. On Tuesday the Governor’s May revision proposal to cut billions more from our public schools was overwhelming rejected. Public schools have endured $17 billion in cuts over the past two years and almost 30,000 educators have been laid off.
Wealthy districts are making up for the loss of funds through fund raising etc. i.e. Cupertino School District. We can and must do better for your children and mine. Jefferson said a democracy is a call to an untiring effort.
Joseph Di Salvo
> I know as an elected person I must take all the crap and come up for more.
Try being an underemployed white working class schlub at the bottom of the economic and political food chain who has to send his kids to public school where they are told that the problem with the schools is “white culture/values.”
DiSalvo has tried to respond to attacks by you, Bo and his racists, Dale from Lansing, and a bunch of other idiots who carp from behind a keyboard. He’s tried to explain his view, but you refuse to engage because all you have is a lame series of lines you regurgitate week in and week out. My suggestion would be for you get off of your duff and run for office so that YOUR miracle solutions can be implemented. Until then, you’re simply a jaw-jack with a boring vendetta that plays in an endless loop.
I’m told that the Doofinator is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard at the moment and is unavailable to discuss his electoral plans.
Joseph,
I think the SJI blog readers are pretty much worn out from reading about funding issues and the other pap we see here week after week.
First and foremost, parents need to play an active role in their children’s education. Without that, everything goes to hell. (Sample Size: N = 1)
Greg, make that N=2. Education without parental support is doomed to fail.
> First and foremost, parents need to play an active role in their children’s education. Without that, everything goes to hell.
Almost certainly true.
And, logically, it is likely twice as hard for a single mother to play an active role in a child’s education as it is for parents in a two parent family.
So, may I conclude that PC liberals would agree that children of single mothers are at a disadvantage in acquiring education as compared to children from two parent households?
Have we possibly stumbled on a societal advantage for two parent families with respect to the education of children as compared to children raised by single mom hero-victims of the oppressive male patriachy?
I agree that parental participation is extremely important in a child’s education. It reinforces the importance of school/schoolwork and it shows the child that the parent(s) supports them both academically and emotionally.
My quandry in thinking about this is the simple fact that many parents are working two or more jobs just to make ends meet. Then there are the single parents (many of them quite young) who are trying to go it alone. Where do they find the time to be part of their child’s education? Have they had good, solid role models themselves so do they even value education? (Forget for a moment any response that they should have thought of that prior to having the kids, that’s a given.) So, what then? These tired, overworked parents probably cannot afford tutors to help the kids. Many homework centers are being/have been closed or hours reduced.
Are there other ideas out that have been proposed? Kid’s and their education (or lack thereof) affects everyone and solutions to these types of issues need to be found, and quickly.
Last, I remember being appalled a couple years ago when I helped a professor at SJSU grade papers. From college age people many of them did not know the proper structure of sentences and others used used texting language in their school papers. I remember shaking my head (as I recommended D’s and F’s) wondering how these kids got through the system.
It’s a shame and I wish I could come up with brilliant solutions but so far they elude me.
Tina
> It’s a shame and I wish I could come up with brilliant solutions but so far they elude me.
Well, Tina, maybe YOU don’t have to come up with the brilliant solution.
Maybe you could just learn what worked in the past and, to the extent that it is better than what we have today, go back to it.
Probably, you would have to tell some selfish, spoiled modern children in grown up bodies that they can’t have everything they want when they want it, and they can’t screw whoever they want when they want to, and that they have to be responisible and think of other people, including their children.
Of course, you would have so-called “progressives” getting in your face, and calling you “reactionary” and accusing you of “wanting to roll back the clock”, and wishing to return to a horrible era when women were kept in the home “barefoot and pregnant”, but you just have to put on your big girl pants and tell those progressives to go to hell.
Some honesty from a former “Teacher of the Year”:
“I Quit, I Think”
by John Taylor Gatto
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gatto/gatto-uhae-4.html
“On my first day back to school I was hired to substitute in a horrible place, Wadleigh Junior High School, nicknamed “the death school” by regulars at the West End Tavern near Columbia. Jean Stapleton (Archie Bunker’s wife, Edith) had gone there as a young girl; so had Anäis Nin, celebrated diarist and writer of erotica. Some palace revolution long before I got there had altered the nature of this school from an earnest, respectable Victorian lock-up to something indescribable. During my teaching debut at Wadleigh, I was attacked by a student determined to bash my brains out with a chair.
Wadleigh was located three blocks from that notorious 110th Street corner in Harlem made famous by a bestseller of the day, New York Confidential, which called it “the most dangerous intersection in America.” I mention danger as the backdrop of my teaching debut because two kinds of peril were in the air that season: one, phony as my teaching license, was the “Cuban Missile Crisis”; the other, only too genuine, was a predicament without any possible solution, a deadly brew compounded from twelve hundred black teenagers penned inside a gloomy brick pile for six hours a day, with a white guard staff misnamed “faculty” manning the light towers and machine-gun posts. This faculty was charged with dribbling out something called “curriculum” to inmates, a gruel so thin Wadleigh might rather have been a home for the feeble-minded than a place of education.”
The kingdom was in disarray, taxes were too high and yes revenues were low, jobs in short supply, and the future looked grim. The wise king called the master tradesman too council and asked each where the solutions lie.
“Pipes” said the plumber, who explained that infrastructure had been neglected and we needed new pipes for the whole kingdom to move water and waste.
“Roads” said the wagon driver, who explained that his wagons and passengers suffered from decay on every journey made across the kingdom.
“Schools” said the teacher, who explained that his students couldn’t read or do arithmetic like the should.
“Hospitals” said the healer, who explained that people were so worried about getting sick and not being able to pay for it that they couldn’t concentrate on work.
“Safety” said the guardsman, who said crime was out of control and he needed more money to protect the citizens from themselves.
So the king looked at his subjects, considered his options, then decided to raffle off the crown to the highest bidder for the good of the kingdom and left town with the proceeds to live happily ever after.