Pulling the Trigger or Pulling the Plug on School Reform?
Posted in Education by Julie Ponzi
Parents with children in California's failing schools (and out of 9000 public schools in the Golden State, 1300 now qualify as "failing") got an unexpected lifeline last January. As part of the Democrat-led legislature's unsuccessful attempt to get a piece of the Obama Administration's Department of Education "Race to the Top" funds, they passed a law which includes a provision giving parents the legal right to demand intervention at failing schools in the form of a charter school, a school closure and transfer of their children, or a staff/curriculum overhaul. Eager parents in Compton--a city "known best for its political corruption, racial division, and gang violence"--were on the case without haste. They got the requisite number of signatures and were well on their way to demanding a charter school when (prepare yourself for the shock!) union-backed bureaucrats stepped in and tried to shut them down on a technicality.
Ben Boychuk has been following this story in great detail over at the
Heartland Institute's website and, more recently and in greater detail, at the
City Journal. Both pieces are well worth a read and Ben is, as always, worth following--especially on matters related to education reform.
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The Stupid State is on the brink of collapse. There is no money, people are leaving (taxpayers not the entitlement hounds) in droves. I was in the Silicon Valley this week and was amazed at the amount of empty business buildings.... 10 years ago it was hustling and bustling.... Now it is near death. There will be no money to pay the pension, salaries or benefits of state workers. Eventually many of the state services will be contracted out. Unfortunately, many state workers who are retired will see cuts in their pensions and benefits. I am anxious to see Jerry Brown who basically is responsibe for this mess (he signed the Dill Act in 1978 allowing the state workers to collective bargain) handle the situation. The powerful state workers unions in California got him into office
As far as the schools, the collapse will be good. Parents will have a choice and good teachers will be paid well to teach. I am lucky right now - We homeschool our son. If I need him to get a glance at what he is missing, I just take him to one of the local shopping malls to see the piercings, tattoes and pants on the ground that he is missing in public school. Other than that, he is missing nothing and getting a quality education.
Sadly, the cancer cells that are California liberals are doing damage elsewhere. They're turning formerly bright red states purple and blue -- Arizona, Colorado, Montana.
They are inflicting the same damages in their new host states.
But the body is near dead, and they have few places to go.
Don, I gotta love it when conservatives refer to their political opponents as things that are typically thought best dealt with by removal or extermination. I hear this all the time on right-wing radio. Glenn Beck has done it a lot, too. Liberals are cancer, a virus, some kind of pestilence or vermin. It seems only natural that if we want to save the country (or a particular state) from a certain death, then the only choice we have is to eliminate them wholesale, right?
You have an unhealthy obession with Glen Beck. You watch him more than I do. You need some help brother.