PUBLIC SCHOOL CHALLENGE

Notes of Concern…

…Jackson Blair



PUBLIC SCHOOL CHALLENGE



I want to turn my pen today to the subject of the public schools. I do not work for the public schools. I do work in an independent school. I have worked in public schools in the past.



My own children are products of a combination of public and private education and three of the four of them are teachers.



We all know how the economic crisis has hit us in our pocket books. Many know how the crisis has taken away someone’s job. For lots of people the future is full of fear and worry.



I wish I were able to tell you I don’t think fear and worry are appropriate. This I cannot do. We all must prepare for hard times, and be cognizant that they might last longer than we anticipate.



It is time to be squirrel-like and take in “nuts” for the winter friends! Get out the Boy Scout Manual and “be prepared.” Hope for the best, but be ready for the worst. There are a lot of “sayings” that can be used to reflect our condition today and most of them were born of a similar condition in the past.



Humans are remarkably resilient and they have survived the crisis that their generations encountered just as we shall survive those we confront.



Today I want to look at how the current crisis is impacting the education of children in the public schools.



Since Jimmy Carter decided spending millions on a Department of Education was the way to go, educators have been faced with an ever-growing pile of paperwork.



One could argue that instead of hiring more teachers the involvement of government in local education has actually required the hiring of accountants, planners, budget managers, clerical staff, support personnel, lawyers and auditors.



I challenge you to go on any website that might have this information and take a look at what manning a Department of Education at the Federal level has cost this country.



The Winchendon Public Schools have had to cut their budgets. That is a nice way of saying that people and programs have had to be “downsized”. Within the current academic year I believe the people who are charged with running our community schools will have to do even more “downsizing.” And when the stimulus money that has helped a little bit runs out, there will be a real budgetary shock awaiting the citizens of our little town.



The word “downsizing” has an ominous ring does it not? In this context it usually means:



1. somebody is going to be out of work

2. a school or two somewhere will shut the doors

3. instead of smaller classes, kids will be in larger classes

4. instead of giving more attention to each child, every teacher will be spread really thin

5. someone somewhere will pretend that none of the above will hurt the education of American children



The Superintendent in any district, might as well don a suit of armor and get prepared. As parents see an ever dwindling number of teachers, an ever growing class size, a reduction in programs, and a dwindling of services they will do what parents are supposed to do when something threatens their kids-they will get angry.



The problem for an administrative team is that none of this is their fault. Marching orders on budgets, stimuli, distributions, and a myriad of other teaching related items come directly from the U. S. Department of Education.



Sometimes the U.S. Department of Education gets help with all the bad news from other U.S. Government Departments, for instance, the Treasury Department.



The U.S. Department of Education knows how to follow the chain of command, so they speak to the states. Then the state speaks to the local schools.



Do you have any idea how many people have to be hired just to get all this communicating done? Did these people never hear of “email” and “push mail” or even just a “conference call”? Do they know how to construct a form that does not have to be in triplicate?



When the government asks you to fill out a form, they hire someone to design the form. Then they hire someone to print the form. Afterwards come the mailers of the forms. Then a department to receive the completed forms back.



Someone’s cousin or uncle gets a political appointment to file the forms, actually a large number of relatives get hired because there always are more than one copy of every form so you can send armies of people out with little carts looking for the right filing cabinet for each copy of the form.



I am not even going to get into the people who stamp the forms “received”, others who stamp the date, a couple of folks who stamp CONFIDENTIAL or some other designation for the file.



The sad truth is that most of the communications trickling down recently have contained bad news: “cut this”, “stop that”, “don’t even think of doing what you planned”, “close that”, “reduce this” and so forth.



When someone actually says “raise that” they are almost always talking about our taxes.



The people who get stuck telling you this are local administrators. They had nothing to do with the mandates coming down from on high. They have everything to do with having to implement them, which means they get to carry the message, because Washington understands we local folks might, as the saying goes: “kill the messenger” rather than the writer of the message.



I grew up in a small town called Vandergrift. My aunt, Hazel Orr, was principal of two schools there. She and her fellow teachers had a kindly superintendent with whom they worked but, by and large, they didn’t report to the state or the federal government. I don’t think they actually thought they reported to anybody. I think they thought they worked together in the best interests of the kids.



In those easier times, teachers taught. They didn’t write a gazillion reports. They didn’t need a union. They were among the most respected citizens of the town.



Everybody trusted one another and the job got done. Where I grew up parents didn’t argue with teachers. If their child was in trouble at school, he was in trouble at home. Teachers and parents were partners in this business of education.



What was the job then?



Teaching kids new stuff that they would need to go out in the world and live their lives.



Who knew best how to do this?



Local teachers and the parents (read “neighbors”) who partnered with them in this responsibility.



What is the job today?



Nothing like what I have described above. The goal of delivering an education is the same but the requirements imposed on teachers and administrators are so burdensome that they have much less time to actually interact with students and parents.



As the bad news trickles down in a form that affects you every day, right here where you live, please keep in mind where the ideas and mandates come from.



Let’s cut school administrators a good bit of slack. You cannot imagine how it affects committed educators to be forced to do the kinds of things that are being required today.



At the same time, let us demand that the bureaucracies in Washington and in state capitals be cut to the bone, and that public education of our children become more of a local endeavor.



And just for good measure, send an apple for the teacher with your child tomorrow.


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COUNTING ON YOU TO KNOW WHAT'S BEST

Notes of Concern…
…Jackson Blair

“Counting On You to Know What’s Best”

As we approach the end of the year, we give a lot of thoughts to gifts and good feelings. After the turn of the year, we give a lot of thought to “paying the piper” for the gifts that were a result of good feelings. It is a never-ending circle.

I want to take a moment to talk about living within one’s means. It applies to people, businesses and governments.

We hear a lot about this but see little of it. If you are fortunate to have an income, and if you plan on an annual basis for your expenses, and put a little away for emergencies, then you should be relatively stress free, at least with reference to finances.

But our society pushes us in so many ways to want more than we can legitimately afford. It encourages us to “lay things away” while we pay for them, or just take them now and pay for them later, or borrow to buy what you want today. There are even some commercials that suggest you can have it now and not pay a dime for 12 or 24 months.

There exists “good sense” or “common sense” but right along beside them exists “nonsense.”

If you want a Mercedes and can only afford a Chevy, common sense suggests you buy the Chevy until your prospects brighten and your career advances and you can one day buy the Mercedes.

Nonsense suggests you buy the Mercedes now and pay for it over ten years.

If you want a home with five bedrooms but can only afford one with three, common sense tells you to buy the three bedroom home.

Nonsense says grab the five bedroom because you will surely get raises every year from now until you die and one day you will look at the astronomical payments as easy to meet.

We need to apply common sense and good sense principles to government at all levels. If we do, we will be ever so much better prepared for the future.

The town manager in any town should be paid what good town managers in similarly sized towns get paid.

The mayor of a city should earn what mayors of other similar cities earn. Same for Governors. The same holds true for Fire Chiefs and Police Chiefs and teachers and so many other public servants.

What does it say about a town, city or state that so overpays public servants that it actually places everyday services at risk?

What does it say about a town that grants multiyear contracts with unreasonable terms and locks itself into a windstorm of ever growing financial obligations when it doesn’t even know if it can keep a school open, continue to pay teachers to guide children, or provide for the current needs of those who protect our property from fire or our homes from burglars.

I know what it says. And if you take a moment, so do you.

At this time of year I am reminded of a familiar carol:




Bobby wants a pair of skates,
Suzy wants a sled
Nellie wants a picture book,
yellow, blue, and red
Now I think I'll leave to you
what to give the rest
Choose for me, dear Santa Claus;
you will know whats best.

-Jolly Old St. Nicholas

And so as we end one year and begin the next, I admonish my readers not to wait for Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

He is not coming.

The tough decisions are ours.

Fortunately, we “will know what’s best.”

And that means we are obligated to select leaders who will deliver to us “what’s best.”

And those leaders are obligated to do so.

Every one of them should be held accountable when they make decisions about “what’s best” for us.