Education reforms

Two editorials sent to our local newspaper.  Don't know if they will ever publish.

To the Editor:

The PC News headline “PC Schools for Community Participation” sounded wonderful.  For every educator knows the great value of excited and involved parents in a child’s learning.   Half my family is teachers and we speak of this all the time.  But the disappointing article was mostly an editorial for the exclusionary politics of public schools.  Wouldn’t it be better to look at the education system as a business?  We spend $9000 per student per year.  Multiply this by a typical classroom of 20 students and get $180,000 income.  An average underpaid teacher makes $44,000, one-fourth this amount. Where does the other 75% of the money go?   It goes for administration, busing, sports, child care, counseling, mainstreaming, entertainment, and school meals where many eat free.  This vast mélange of social programs goes under the somewhat misleading label of education.  Are we really getting much scholarship?

Americans are willing to spend enormously for the future of their children yet aren’t getting much product. We spend twice as much as other developed countries.   The latest OECD study of education and work skills of 16-34 year olds places USA a dismal19^th out of 22 countries.  40 years ago it was first. Since 1970 the number of common education staff has doubled and spending has tripled (inflation adjusted).  Meanwhile, enrollment is up less than 20% (baby boom gone bust).  Reading scores have flat-lined.  Math and Science are down 7%.  Seven of the nine top-ranked countries had “private education alternatives”, i.e., ESA’s or vouchers in some form.  These plaguy observations come, not from arch-conservatives, but the British “The Economist” (series of articles, JA – MR, 2015). And how shall we succeed in business if this is our workforce?

So the public demands reform and accountability. And therein are encouraging stories left unreported. Oklahoma’s colleges graduated 17,000 bachelors 5 years ago and now we graduate 25,000—one of the fastest growing states in the country. It’s good news but a challenge.  We will need double the Sci-Tech-Engineering-Math (STEM) grads we have now to support our tech-heavy industries. Otherwise the economy will languish.  At $4.5 billion revenue from all state sources, common education is now funded at an all-time high. Still, our teachers are underpaid.  Surely, somewhere in the other 75%, I would think that some clever local administrator could find a way for a teacher bonus.  Good question for the next school board meeting, is it not?

Part II

 

Listen to many of the voices at the Capitol on Monday and one will learn exactly how much Ed funding they desire.  “More.”  But no one is volunteering to tell the taxpayers how they will raise taxes.  Sometimes it is heard that the cuts in state income tax have hurt our state and education budgets.  Calculate it.  Income tax revenue is 1/3 the state budget at about $2 billion. By cutting from 7% to 5.25% in the last 7 years, that represents 1/4 equals $500 million.  Then adjust for recent income.  Median OK income has risen $1500 while the rest of USA is down $2000.  So $550 million in revenue was lost by the tax cuts.  But wait.  Oklahoma’s economy has increased 20% in seven years equating to more sales tax receipts of $1.6 billion.  Net gain, $1.1 billion to state budget.  Personally, I like the vibrant economy as well. 

 The education establishment doesn’t bear full blame for all the extra-curricular social programs.  The public opted for these, and their legislatures and governors enacted them over many years.  Now the public wants reform and accountability.  They ask for testing and evaluation evinced.  The reason Ponca City High School got a C for their A-F grade was sub-par student proficiency scores and a lackluster graduation rate (and other missed bonuses).  So too, it is vital for an incoming 4^th grader to be able to read at a 1^st grade level or better.  Without this achievement, future success is dubious.  (30 states require this.)  Are students over-tested?  Our new State School Superintendent has vowed to streamline testing.  Yet I asked a retiring principal at one of our outstanding private schools here, “How many days do you test achievements?”  Answer: “3 days. However, our teachers don’t try to teach the tests.”  That’s a principle of good educating—teachers are free to teach and individualize instruction. This school graduates eighth graders with an average 11.6 grade level.

The Governor and Legislature have made public education a huge priority, contrary to what some think.  Education spending is 49.8% of the state budget.  In some sense, Oklahoma is All About Education.  Common Ed gets much off-budget revenue—school lands rents, HB 1017 funds, lottery money and last year a new annual $60 million added kicker.  Schools pocket ad valorem taxes and federal revenues as well.  I count 21 revenue sources for schools.   

So did our local declaration of no-school lobbying day at the capitol fix any of this?  I have doubts.  Yet there is much good news.  The Money to Classroom Initiative for Common Education capped admin personnel and stopped counting certain staff as teachers. Used well, that grows the kitty to pay instructors.  During the first year of A-F school grading, there were 12 million hits on the state website.  People are obviously interested in how their school stacks up.  3^rd grade reading is spawning reading tutoring programs all over the state.  That’s Community Participation we can use.