Free To Say What Others Only Dare To Think
Recently there has been a spate of news articles related to opposition to Governor Baldacci's school redistricting plan. In public forums held statewide, school superintendents, school board members and others have testified of the dire consequences in store for us in the event of adoption of the Governor's plan. Often the spectre of further erosion of local control is cited. By most accounts to date, there have been few, if any, who have dared to voice support for the plan to reduce the number of school administrative units to twenty-six.
However, in the Friday edition of the Bangor Daily News, in a Letter to the Editor, Joseph Baldacci expresses a rather critical assessment of recent remarks made by Bangor Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Sandy Ervin, relative to his opposition to the Governor's plan. At first read Joe's words seem harsh, but the truth is that there are many of us out here who must admit to feeling the very same way.
Following Joe's letter is one by Steve O’Connell in support of changes to the way we administer and conduct public education in a time of rapid change. A common thread in both letters is that the entrenched leaders within the public school system are very reluctant to accept the inevitable.
Issues surrounding local control become hollow echoes as school boards rubber stamp superintendents' recommendations prefaced with mandates from state or federal governments.
It is time for the benefits of new information technology to be implemented in the administration of public education.
More and more universities offer on-line courses. Certain colleges basically exist only in cyber-space, and this is only going to grow. Don't you think that it's only a matter of time before high schools operate more and more on the internet through the already in-place ATM system? Until now, education has been viewed as entirely labor intensive; not so in the new information age.
So what is the purpose of all these superintendents anyway?
However, in the Friday edition of the Bangor Daily News, in a Letter to the Editor, Joseph Baldacci expresses a rather critical assessment of recent remarks made by Bangor Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Sandy Ervin, relative to his opposition to the Governor's plan. At first read Joe's words seem harsh, but the truth is that there are many of us out here who must admit to feeling the very same way.
Following Joe's letter is one by Steve O’Connell in support of changes to the way we administer and conduct public education in a time of rapid change. A common thread in both letters is that the entrenched leaders within the public school system are very reluctant to accept the inevitable.
Issues surrounding local control become hollow echoes as school boards rubber stamp superintendents' recommendations prefaced with mandates from state or federal governments.
It is time for the benefits of new information technology to be implemented in the administration of public education.
More and more universities offer on-line courses. Certain colleges basically exist only in cyber-space, and this is only going to grow. Don't you think that it's only a matter of time before high schools operate more and more on the internet through the already in-place ATM system? Until now, education has been viewed as entirely labor intensive; not so in the new information age.
So what is the purpose of all these superintendents anyway?
posted by Art | 1/29/2007 05:58:00 AM
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