February 24, 2005

California Schools not meeting standards, so lets lower them! Again!

Listening to Tom Sullivan again. Talking about how California is the bottom of the barrel as far as public school performance against the national standards. We spend 53% of our tax dollars on public education, but we're not seeing results, and I think that needs to change. I think I have an answer.

Private school administrators have 100% discretion in their budget. In contrast, California school administration (local to the school) has only 5% of their budget to spend. The rest is spent by edict before it gets to the schools. So we change the public system to a private and then subsidize their income based on attendance.

Schools will be accountable to their investors because if the teaching doesn't meet the standards the schools lose their government money. This would be accomplished through teaching assessments on a regular basis and schools being responsible for teaching the children in their district regardless of their receipt of a subsidy. That way its in the administration's best interest to guarantee the best possible standards while maintaining the lowest costs.

Then hold parents accountable for the rest if the assessments of teaching performance is being met. As it stands, schools are more accountable for children's ability than parents are, and this is enabling for parents who just want to use public education as day care. If kids don't meet the minimum standards and the teaching standards are met then punishment should come upon the parents!

1 comment:

tammo21 said...

Christle wholeheartedly agrees with you, although in her opinion, California has the highest standards in the country, and since our teachers can't meet them, it makes it look like our schools are the worst.