Student Last?
According to a February 27th BDN article, "Voice of the Students,"
There is a seemingly endless phalanx of superintendents spending much of their time, lobbying in Augusta for abandonment or serious amendment to the administrative consolidation plan.
School boards all around bemoan the changes which will result from the law, even while they dramatically extend the contracts of their superintendents knowing that all contracts will have to be honored.
Teachers cynically doubt the savings claims as many of them prepare to benefit from higher salaries as a result of the new blended regional contracts.
Who really has been absent in weighing in?
More “conspicuously absent” in the discussion being advanced in the press are conversations with John and Mary Q. Public. Maybe because they motivated some of the movement to consolidate through their TABOR efforts.Maybe because they never had any children and are felt to therefore have nothing to say in the matter, only the expectation to help pay for it.
Maybe even people who have seen from within, how wasteful and uncaring the system often is.
There have been many superintendents and their associations, the Maine Education Association and its members, countless school board members and now students who have weighed in on the new law.
It seems odd to me that students who generally are uninterested in our history or system of local government, would, when asked about the consolidation effort, remark, "I’m worried that consolidation could affect the local control that we have." It sounds to me like echoed remarks of parents more than unique perspectives of children.
Good parents know enough to leave their kids out of any fight.
The press should know better too.
Educators, school administrators, local elected board members, politicians, state officials and parents have all weighed in on the law mandating school consolidation in Maine.Do you really believe that it is the “children in our schools” who are the most affected by this law? Or is it more likely that those in administration and perhaps some nervous staff members are moving the conversation in this direction through the press?
Conspicuously absent has been the voice of those most affected by the law: the children in our schools.
There is a seemingly endless phalanx of superintendents spending much of their time, lobbying in Augusta for abandonment or serious amendment to the administrative consolidation plan.
School boards all around bemoan the changes which will result from the law, even while they dramatically extend the contracts of their superintendents knowing that all contracts will have to be honored.
Teachers cynically doubt the savings claims as many of them prepare to benefit from higher salaries as a result of the new blended regional contracts.
Who really has been absent in weighing in?
More “conspicuously absent” in the discussion being advanced in the press are conversations with John and Mary Q. Public. Maybe because they motivated some of the movement to consolidate through their TABOR efforts.Maybe because they never had any children and are felt to therefore have nothing to say in the matter, only the expectation to help pay for it.
Maybe even people who have seen from within, how wasteful and uncaring the system often is.
There have been many superintendents and their associations, the Maine Education Association and its members, countless school board members and now students who have weighed in on the new law.
It seems odd to me that students who generally are uninterested in our history or system of local government, would, when asked about the consolidation effort, remark, "I’m worried that consolidation could affect the local control that we have." It sounds to me like echoed remarks of parents more than unique perspectives of children.
Good parents know enough to leave their kids out of any fight.
The press should know better too.
posted by Art | 3/11/2008 06:34:00 AM
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