How to hide the truth: Don't say anything!
Okay, this is a little dated, but it bears mentioning: On the Thursday, Jan. 27, 2005 edition of the San Francisco Examiner, they had an article about how the San Francisco Unified School District may have to close between two and five schools because of budget woes. Well, it was repeated on tonight's television broadcast on KRON-TV Ch.4 and they even included a graphic that showed San Francisco as being among several San Francisco Bay Area school districts that will be experiencing school closures.
Well, wanting to find out more, I went to the San Francisco Unified School District's website (http://portal.sfusd.edu/template/default.cfm) to see if there were any additional information about the school closures. Guess what I found? NOTHING! Not a mention on their main page, nothing in their press releases, news & events, newsletter, public notices or their school information pages.
So, if I were a parent with a child in the SFUSD, I would be completely oblivious to the situation unless they were to send a notice home with my child informing me of said possible school closures. In this day and age when everybody touts the importance of closing the technology gap and trying to educate children through technology and other means, I find the lack of information disconcerting.
If you ask me, it seems that school superintendent Arlene Ackerman is not being as forthcoming as she should be. I hope that school administrators are more forthcoming than she is because that would be a disservice to the parents of the children who are attending public school in the SFUSD. However, I wouldn't hold out much hope on that. Why? Because, if you consider the interests involved, they (meaning the unions and the administrators) are looking at the $$$ that is involved.
They are all citing how there is declining enrollment in school districts across the Bay Area. And, they are all citing how the budget cuts are hurting them. Well, if you listen to their rhetoric, you should be asking yourself, "So, which one is the primary cause of the alleged maladies of the school districts?" If you listen to the liberals and unions, it's the governor's fault. Gee, how come they weren't as vocal BEFORE Schwarzenegger came into office? Why wait for a REPUBLICAN governor to come into office and then place the blame on him?
Because it's much easier to blame Republicans for problems rather than face up to the truth or reality. In the SF Examiner's news article about declining enrollment, they cite how many families are leaving the school district in droves by either putting their children in private schools or how they are moving out to the suburbs where school districts may be better than the one(s) their children are currently enrolled in. This is very telling, indeed.
If the schools are not providing what the families need, should they expect them to keep them in a non-productive environment? I certainly wouldn't, and I'm an individual who wants to become an elementary-school teacher in the future! If my child were to go to school, I would want them to get the best education possible. Every parent should expect that. But, from the sounds of it, the school districts expect the parents to keep their kids in public schools even if they are not performing at their best.
The news article cites how the view is that charter schools are "taking away students, oversight, and money from the district."
For me, the bottom line is this: Regardless of where the blame is assigned (and I know it shouldn't be Governor Schwarzenegger), why aren't the school closures disclosed on the SFUSD website? Don't they have a fiduciary responsibility to the parents of the children who are in the school district? If they would inform the parents, at least they can begin to make contingency plans for their children instead of scrambling at the last minute to get their children enrolled in another school and competing along with dozens of other desperate parents? Don't they care at all?
Apparently not.
posted by Edmund @ 9:30 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Did they decide which schools would be closed?
Another thing that Arlene Ackerman is not mentioning is that the monies that all county school districts receive are controlled by the local school district. "Local control".
That means that the big fat raise Arlene Ackerman got around January comes out of the money that comes in to pay for the schools. And the raise that the unions want now are also coming out of that pot.
The majority of funding comes from local taxes, the bulk of that being property taxes. Just because the SFUSD puts themselves above the kids who are forced to attend school there doesn't mean that they can cut services because they want their raises.
Over the past two years, SFUSD has put its needs above the needs of the community. From trying to send Asian kids to horrible high schools on the east side (to preserve union jobs) to closing schools to "save money" for their fat salaries, the SFUSD needs regime change.
Which means you people reading this should either run for School Board or VOTE! No tong-yahn excuses will cut it now. Unless u wanna pay for private school.
Of course, if they didn't make so much g-money, these union people wouldn't be able to send their OWN kids to private school (at the highest rate of all public school teachers in the state)!
So the schools are at fault for not improving the quality of education while thier budget goes down? Explain that one PLEASE, I would love to hear how that should work. You stated that you want to be an elementary school teacher, and I sincerely hope one day you can teach in a school where you purchase most of the supplies out of your own pocket like my father has done for the past 32 years! When you see how the teachers get a 5 percent raise, you very rarely see that their insurance went up 7 percent, and yes that increase in premiums IS directed by the state.
Good luck in your education career.
And I suppose you expect that lawyers expect their off spring to be represented by public defenders ?
That makes as much sense as indicating that teachers should be ashamed of being willing to pay 10 - 30 grand a year to make sure their kids get a good education. Anytime the general public wants to tax itself to such a degree that they can compete with private schools with smaller class sizes and the ability to kick out altogether troublesome students, then great, public school teachers will send their kids to public schools.
Now you might want to ask why Arlene sits on the third (top) floor of 555 surrounded by....lawyers ? Why her head of personnel is a ....lawyer ?
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