OK, tag teaming off of Ian’s post on why why we aren’t paying for “verifying achievement” instead of “verifying attendance” here because of a question of from a LONG time reader who worked with me for over a decade at my former employer (Epicor). Here was his email on Ian’s post and, of course, my response (emphasis mine):
Skip – I read Ian’s article on school funding and adequacy.
I’m a big fan of giving parents a voucher and they can spend it at the school of their choice. What I haven’t seen yet, is a way to hold parents accountable. Its not just teachers, and not just students. All 3 – teachers, students, and parents – need to be actively involved , and held accountable.
Dayton Public Schools is making strides to avoid state takeover, but I haven’t figured out how yet – I suspect they’re just changing the rules.
Ok – I’m a cynic. But until you pay the parents to come to school as well, and spend time helping their kids with homework, I think hiring more teachers, admins, social workers, etc is just a waste of money. Regrettably, I doubt the problem is the students, or the problem is the teachers. I really think the problem is – the parents.
Well, he’s both right – and horribly wrong. But given the current situation, the Edu-Industrical complex is a Mobius strip encased in an Escher painting with a dash of Picasso. Everything is jumbled up and inside out, it seems everyone is. That said, here is my response:
Regrettably, I doubt the problem is the students, or the problem is the teachers.
Remember where that voucher money came from – the parents (and other taxpayers). Remember, too, that the schools ARE OUR EMPLOYEES – too often everybody forgets that. And that old school teacher with the wooden desk with the apple on the front edge is just that – an old long ago story. Wish we could bring back that model but with unions, bloated bureaucracies, and and every higher level of govt sticking in their fingers into the process (and into our wallets), those days are gone.
So how are employees to “keep parents accountable” with vouchers? Is that really something that employees should really be doing? It may feel that way, but who REALLY should be in charge? At the nitty-gritty level, who IS in charge and who SHOULD be in charge?
I really think the problem is – the parents.
Look at the situation I’m in – having to have legally adopted my Grandson and raise him because of the utter failure of his parents. In this, you are right. But do you really think that the Youngest listened to me? And how is Govt supposed to make him do the right things by HIS son if he wouldn’t listen to me and can’t even take care of himself (for all of the myriad of problems he has and has created)? And I see more and more Grandparents like me raising our Grandkids.
Yet, the model works – FAMILY works. At least for those that have families (and I blame the Welfare State, the Great Society, for screwing us all up by removing personal responsibility from a lot of people who needed to live up to it but when you have an intrusive Government playing both husband and father, you get what you get. But that’s another post…hmmmm).
Both the parents of the Grandson failed – but the Youngest’s Parents have not. Family was, and always SHOULD BE, Society’s First Responders. Followed by friends, neighbors, and then Government. The latter should be the LAST resort instead of the First that we have made it.
But until you pay the parents to come to school as well
Paying my Youngest money just to do the right thing education would have been a waste of money because I know where it would go. I also know it wouldn’t have accomplished its purpose either.
And why should Govt be paying parents to do what they should do in the first place? YOU didn’t need to be paid, did you? Nor I, right? And do I need to paid to be doing it a second time?
Paying for what should be personal responsibility? Never a good ending. Those that would ‘need” to be paid to be responsible – won’t be. That that don’t need to paid – will be responsible anyways.
And what it really comes down to it, THAT’S the problem – or the lack thereof.
Personal responsibility – and if you can fix that, you’d never have to code another line of Optio again!
Here’s the rub – we outsourced the educational process to our employees (teachers et al) and then “walked away”. Like all bureaucracies, they’ve grown beyond their britches in a lot of ways (as in “these are OUR kids and not the parents”; unionizing hasn’t helped and neither has the bloat that has occurred in positions that we just don’t need (e.g., Diversity and stuff that doesn’t work to “adequacy” to turn out nascent Citizens from our little barbarians). In doing that outsourcing, parents have handed off TOO much responsibilities to our employees such that the results are not adequate from both sides of the “kid equation” and oft times, our employees have injected aspects into the process that go counter to the “morality and beliefs” that parents may be teaching the kids at home.
When coding up a solution, often the Marketeers start demanding more and more functionality. “Ingenious” engineers start thinking “well, if I add this, and redirect that, and put in these kinds of rules….”. At the end of the day at some point in the future, its all a convoluted disaster – sorta like our educational system: too big, too expensive, hard to maintain, and it no longer meets the original need.
In the software world, that means a throw it away / restart / redo. Thus far, the Edu-Industrial Complex has resisted that needed exercise – inertia has become too massive (like Christopher’s post here). Charter schools are bitterly fought. Online schooling is dismissed. And homeschooling is treated as a subversive exercise.
So, what to do?
To Be Continued…
