School Reform

My head is spinning. I've been on Twitter. You should see the mess over there regarding school reform. It's ugly. School reformers are accusing unions who are accusing politicians who are attacking teachers who are pointing fingers at reformers! Geez. I just keep wondering where all the parents are in this discourse. Sure there is a group that has the name parent in it, but I doubt that any parents in that group have kids in failing schools because they are talking about all the same things that have absolutely nothing to do with kids or the REAL problem with education. The fact is no one can even agree to what the real problem is. Well lucky for all of you, I've given this a lot of thought. I will now share my wisdom with you all and tell you what the REAL problem in public education is. Ready?

It's the MONEY. It's not even a lack of money, it's just the money. First thing relating to money is the huge gap in education among the affluent and the poor. Sure, the affluent have money and the poor don't. True, but public education is for EVERYONE regardless of income, social status, geographical location. In essence a child in Holmby Hills should be getting the same education as the children of Appalachia. We know this is not happening because schools receive funding from many different sources including federal, state and city and from home owner taxes. So the school in cities that are dying like Cleveland,Ohio are not going to have the same kind of money as the school in Lake Oswego, Oregon. That is just one money factor, but it's a big one.

So I ask myself, instead of continuing to aggravate the problem, why isn't the federal government the sole funding agency for schools across America? If the federal government gave $10,000 per child to very household in America for the sole purposes of educating the child in that household it would alleviate all this finger pointing and constant bickering. Of course the federal government won't do that, because it does not trust parents to raise their own children. It has no problem trusting our children to corporations (Hi Microsoft!) or to experts (Greetings, Mr. Duncan), but to parents, NEVER!

I'm actually liking this idea the more I write about it. (Warning this post is taking of on it's own course...next stop...common sense!) I'm going to let this sink in for a bit before I write more. I promise that come next month, I'll be writing about a lot more fun stuff like curriculum and projects and stories. Until then bear with me while I get my thoughts in order.