From Harford County Education Association President Ryan Burbey:
For the past several years the school budget and school funding have been the source of public debate. School funding in Harford County has reached a crisis point but this crisis did not happen overnight. Harford County has a deplorable history of under-funding its schools. Despite considerable wealth and economic growth over the years, Harford County Government has not increased school funding appreciably. From 2002 through 2005, HCPS was the lowest funded school system in the state of Maryland based on per pupil expenditure. During this time, it was ranked 24th out of 23 counties plus Baltimore City in its support for its schools. In speaking with former HCPS Superintendent, Jackie Haas, about gifted and talented services; she told me that there were many program enhancements that she wanted to make and had planned but simply could not move forward without increased funding.
In 2006, HCPS was ranked 23rd in school funding. In 2007, it climbed to 15th but has been on a steady decline since. In 2010, HCPS was ranked 18th in per pupil funding while in 2011 and 2012, it was ranked 16th and 17th respectively. These facts are available within the MSDE Fact Book and The Overview of Maryland Local Governments.
http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/bus_svcs/fb.htm
This would not be a problem if Harford County were ranked in the lower quartile for wealth, as state education aid would increase. The state school funding formula for determining state education aid is dependent on wealth. Unfortunately, Harford County does not rank near the bottom of the state for wealth. Conversely, it ranks near the top. Harford County currently ranks 7th in per capita income, 8th in median household income and 7th in total personal income.
http://www.choosemaryland.org/factsstats/Pages/Income.aspx
Similarly, Harford has climbed from the 64th richest county in the USA to the 42nd richest, as of 2011. That’s right little ole’ Harford County has the 42nd highest income in the entire country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/local/highest-income-counties/
Between 2006 and 2013 Harford County’s wealth per pupil climbed from being ranked 13th to 11th. This climb in ranking is the result of an overall increase in measured wealth by over 60%. During this same time period, local school funding by percent of budget, the money Harford County Government contributes to our schools, has declined by 8.2%. This means that while more money is flowing into county coffers, less is being directed towards educating our children, the primary purpose for the enactment of real estate taxes. We, the citizens of Harford County, should demand that our County Government fund our schools appropriately as compared to the relative wealth in our county.
Recently, the Craig Administration, represented by Human Resources Director, Scott T. Gibson, compared Harford County to Frederick County at a Board of Education meeting. Initially, I found these comparisons rather off-putting and irrelevant but upon further research I did find some interesting corollaries. Unlike Harford County, in Frederick, the percentage of the county budget dedicated to schools has not precipitously fallen below 50% of County revenues. In fact until recently, Frederick County allocated over 50% of their county budget to public schools. In 2013, 50% of Frederick County revenues went to the schools. While a difference of 2% might not see much, in Harford County, that represents almost $10,000,000 in additional funds for schools this year alone. Similarly, Frederick’s wealth per pupil has not risen by over 60% in the past seven years. Since Frederick has consistently funded their schools, as compared to their relative wealth, they also are not currently losing over 4 million dollars in state aid for education.
The Craig Administration has done a consistently good job bringing employers to the county, as well as, building wealth, increasing fund balances, and maintaining a high bond rating; even in a time of recession. Unfortunately, they have also done a consistently horrible job of funding our schools. Funding public education should not be fodder for political manipulations and wrangling. Educating our children should be our county’s top priority. Education should be funded at a level, which allows our schools to provide the best possible education to our students. Harford County Public Schools needs proper funding to become the best school system in Maryland. Help fight for our schools. Come to the County Executive’s Budget Hearing Monday February 11, 2013 6PM at Aberdeen High School. Tell County Executive Craig our children and schools deserve to be Harford County’s top priority.
“Despite considerable wealth and economic growth over the years, Harford County Government has not increased school funding appreciably.”
School funding has nearly tripled over the course of the past twenty years.
That seems pretty appreciable.
Spending has tripled but math and science scores haven’t changed.
Over a period of twenty years? If you would have said 10 years or 5 years you may have sold me on that statement.
According to you, Harford County doesn’t spend much per student. It’s my understanding that Baltimore City spends a goodly sum per student. This begs the question: what is your point?
I’d love to see the spending-per-student once the special education students requiring tens of thousands of dollars each are removed from the equation. What amount is spent on the average 3rd, 8th and 11th grader in HCPS today?
@ Kharn and @ I Left,
Yes according to the budget special ed does seem to receive a lot of money per student, however, what most people don’t see is that the state and federal governments give a good amount of money for those kids, in addition the school system can and does bill MA for services if the child receives Speech, OT, PT or other services. I heard that HCPS even bills for non-existent students (this coming from a former teacher of HCPS). I would suggest you go to visit John Archer School, the school in HCPS that serves only special ed students and see the type of “education” they receive there. There are no student books, all the work is printouts. It’s sad to see all this money “allocated” for them and it isn’t used for them, so where does it go? They don’t even use any of the money for field trips, that is unless you want to count the one trip a year, if that, that the entire school goes to.
Get rid of Everyday Math and you will see a large decline in special ed math students in the elementary schools.
What does everyday math have to do with special ed?
Kharn,
To what effect? We can’t cut special education services. They are mandated by federal law and Supreme Court precedent. Frankly, I think some parents lobby to get their kids on an IEP as a means of getting more funding/attention (there was a doctor in the area where I used to teach that we all referred to as “the IEP doctor.” Everyone knew that when you wanted a kid rubber-stamped with an ADHD diagnosis to get an IEP, you went to her).
There is copious waste in the system. It isn’t in special education.
Because that is the number that really matters. Parents of special children will move to districts with better support or liberal policies towards funding special education outside of the public school system (Highlands, etc) when the system cannot provide the help the student requires internally, artificially increasing the educational costs of that district. For example, if you have one student where HCPS is paying $28k/yr for them to attend Highlands, and four students at $8k/yr, the average is suddenly $12k/yr for those five students, yet the average students are only recieving 66% of that money. People would then say that district is better than a $9k/yr district because they spend 33% more money per student, when in reality they’re spending 12% less per year on the average kid.
One special ed student can require anywhere from a few hundred extra dollars of work (low-impact/easily worked around learning disabilities or gifted who just needs an IEP and monitoring) to tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of accomodations (special school, dedicated para-educator, sign translator, daily nurse visits, etc) per year. That money adds up when you have over thirty thousand students.
The average cost per average student would be a much better metric of HCPS’s funding.
Also, when I was in school, my parents would take me to school board meetings to defend gifted education funding. Can you guess who were the biggest advocates for defunding gifted education? The parents of disabled kids, because they wanted all of that funding for their children.
Screw education! We don’t need kids to know anything but what’s in the good book. Everyone wants to go to college. I want to know whose going to serve me my coffee at McDonald’s. Engineers! Who needs them? Architects! Fah! Doctors! Lawyers! I say phase them all out and we’ll all be better off for it, living like God intended – wearing fig leaves.
And your name says it more eloquently than any of us could ever say it.
Meeeeowa
Come and join me, fellow pro-ignorancers!
More suggested headlines:
HCPS – a deplorable history of educating students in Harford County.
Tomback – a deplorable history of leading HCPS.
HCEA – a deplorable history of union leadership.
Anyone want to add some more?
I keep finding myself replying to you Alex. I think it’s because, while we rarely agree, I honestly think that we see things more closely than either of us would care to admit, haha.
While I agree with your latter two assertions (though I think we probably differ in our views of why HCEA leadership has a deplorable history), I would disagree with the statement that HCPS has a deplorable history of educating students in Harford County. There are FAR more outstanding teachers than poor ones in the county (though that number is shrinking–I was one of the first out when I left–I had a conversation the other day with one of my former colleagues, and found out that people are leaving that school in droves now. It’s one of the “good schools” in the county, too).
I do think that your post raises a good point though. I think before funding levels become an issue, we need to seriously address the waste in the system, and there is PLENTY of it (central office positions, the positions created to get the Race to the Top money, wasteful spending on redundant technology, the feeling that every school needs to look like a multi-million-dollar state-of-the-art facility, etc). Unfortunately, nobody wants to have that discussion. I think the teachers are worried that if THEY address the waste, they’ll be targeted by the very people who are PART of the waste. I’ve said it before–the public needs to spearhead that discussion. If the public attacked the issue of wasteful spending with the same fervor that they attacked the HCEA and lobbied for new buildings, this county could very likely fund the teachers’ contracts AND save money.
I Left,
Some of us know that there is plenty of money if waster were slashed but we think that the only way that waste is ever going to be addressed is to just cut off the flow of additional funds. We know that things will get worse before they get better and administrators and the BOE will only address waste as a last resort. We also suspect that the ‘educational organization’ in place at HCPS and at most school systems is ill equipped to even think in terms of doing more with less and slashing waste. But, it frankly is the only option we can see that may eventually work. In the short term a bunch of people will be hurt and we don’t want that, but we can’t come up with any other option.
As my dentist said, I am going to have to fill that cavity on your tooth. It will hurt a little but it is the only way to save the tooth. Kind of like how to get Congress and the President to cut the budget, isn’t it?
Cut off additional funds??? Cut off any funds! We don’t need our kids to be educated. We don’t need them to think critically! We don’t need them to be questioning that there was never any record of rain until the flood. Once kids start questioning authority, bad things, like the 60’s start to happen. And brother, let me tell you — the sixties were bad. All those drugs floating around. And the music. Christ the music was enough to make you tear your own ears off your head and eat them. While we are at it, let’s cut off all funds for maintenance, too. The county may have several hundred million (maybe a billion?) dollars worth of buildings that they have to maintain, but after 10 years without spending a dime on maintenance, we won’t have to pay for maintenance anymore because the buildings will be completely useless! It’s a perfect plan! Not only will we save money up front on maintenance costs, but we will not have to pay people to use the buildings after a few more years. Have you seen the senior center in Bel Air? Do you know they have a jacuzzi in there? The hot tub parties we throw… I’d miss them, but I’m willing to sacrifice for the greater good. Tear down all the rec centers, the senior centers, the health facilities. We don’t need government. Get rid of the fire and police. My house isn’t on fire… tonight.
Alex, I usually agree with you, but I have to take exception that the HCPS has failed to educate students. Quite the contrary. I am not sure where you came up with that statement, but it is unfair. Burbey is a jackass, but he isn’t all wrong. The Board of Education has sometimes fallen for fancy education theories that have kept teachers from getting raises that were negotiated. But then again, the negotiations process is a joke since agreements are being made without funding authorities agreeing to it. Except for this post, keep up the good posts that you usually make.
Monster,
When I say HCPS has failed to educate students why not look at stats that say how many kids drop out of school before graduating, how many who go on to a 4 year college fail to graduate in 4 years, how many must take remedial courses when the further their education, how many are clueless as to how to balance their checkbook when they get one, how to calculate interest, how to do simple math in their head, etc. I now the test scores for a lot are okay and maybe on par with Baltimore County, Montgomery, etc. I think HCPS is just another school system and few of them turn out an educated student. Just because they have lowered their standards doesn’t mean I have lowered mine. I have jobs to offer and I avoid the 17-30 crowd like the plague. Not very well educated and generally poor work ethic.
Burbey’s very long winded way of saying he wants taxes raised so that he can get more money; not because there’s any proof more money equals better schools, nor evidence that it would end up anywhere other than swirling around a beaurocratic cesspool, but taxes should be raised apparently for no other reason than people pay more in other counties and in his eyes we have more money than we need in the first place.
Yeah! Burney is a long winded fool who doesn’t know anything about education. Does he even know any teachers? Come on! It’s not that the teachers are underpaid, overworked, have no family life, have to take on second jobs, their benefits being cut, responsibilities being added, outdated materials, inferior technology, leaky roofs, poisonous water, intolerable classroom temperatures, ridiculous class sizes that attrition at HCPS is so high, it’s that Burney is the head of the “union” if you can call it that. It’s his fault, and he’s long winded. I mean, my eyes glazed over when he started in with the 42nd richest county in the US. So what does he expect? That we should have schools with roofs that don’t leak and that have potable water for washing lunchtrays? That guy… He’s just crazy. He should go back and read the bible more. I say, until there are no teachers left in the schools, not one penny more for education. And while we are at it, noore maintenance money until all the schools roofs are leaking. And kids can bring in their own lightbulbs and toilet paper.
If you thought that being a teacher guaranteed a well-paying 12-month job in a great facility with modern text books, new computers, store rooms of supplies, etc, you must’ve slept through your K-12 education.
I remember having to bring in TP, chalk, facial tissue, copier paper, paper towels, glue, spray bottles of various cleaners, dry-erase markers, red pens, etc, for classrooms when I was a student. The light bulbs were all flourescent, so they did not die with any regularity. The teachers with nice cars and big houses were all married to people who were successful in private industry.
At least you HAD toilet paper. When I was in school, we didn’t even have indoor plumbing. Sure, we had water that wasn’t poisonous, and a dry thatched roof over our heads, but dry erase? What is that? Some kind of new “mathematics”? Come to think of it, I’m not so sure the water we carried in from the stream that ran by the schoolhouse was all that clean. It ran past the Josefson’s farm, and their cows used to wade in to cool off. I guess that would explain why Guntor Josefson always used to come down withwhat they called “the runs” back then, when you really had to run to the privvy, or forget it, skip to the loo, indeed, when he drank the water after coming in from recess. You are right, Kharn, these kids are lucky to have a place to get an education. And these teachers! Why should they have an environment that is conducive to learning? What do they think they go to work in? A school? Who do they think they are? Educators?
I think HCEA needs to do a better job of explaining to the community how the schools are really being affected. The community does not always get to see or hear how the shortage of funds have affected our schools. There are a lack of textbooks due to a shortage of money. The BOE self funded raises for it’s employees at a rate of $10,000,000 which depleted professional development money and program money has gone away. That means new teachers are not receiving the professional development they need to be outstanding educators. Why did they self fund this money? They realized that they look horrible compared to adjacent counties when it comes to beginning salaries. They can’t recruit the best of the best. What also resulted from this? Every school had to cut at least one position. That means we decreased our number of employees by about 56 positions. People who always argue that student enrollment has decreased can’t argue that HCPS needs to cut positions. It has already happened and it will be even worse this year. Our county has a very important decision to make and it is important that we share this opinion with the one man who decides the fate of HCPS, David Craig. Do we continue to cut programs, use out of date materials, and give students an ok education or do we fund education, offer our community a great education by giving them great programs and up to date materials and grow our economy by inspiring our future citizens?
What the HCEA needs to do is to explain where all of the money is going that does not go for teachers, textbooks, classroom supplies, etc. What is the overhead rate? How many administrators do we have, what are they paid, what do they do? Where is the waste? If HCEA would explain that – and they do have enough information to actually do it – then maybe their case would be better made. They also need to start publishing, or somebody does, the total pay package for teachers including how much is paid for their retirement, health care, training, vacation, sick time, etc. Then let’s look at that in terms of only working part of a year not the full year. Maybe they aren’t paid well. But maybe the total number doesn’t look that bad when grossed up to a true full time position.
You tell’em cat girl! Put those lazy teachers to work during school vacations like the rest of us who only work 40 hours a week as opposed to their 60. Summer vacation, they can work on the farms around here haying and milking cows and whatnot.
Rant all you want but it’s a valid point. 189 contracted work days for teachers vs. the average of 240 represents a world of difference in terms of actual recompense per hour. Plus the teachers contracted work day is 7 hrs. not 8. so there’s even more a descrepancy. There may be some teachers that work 60 hours a week, but none of that can be documented – it’s always presented as time at home correcting papers so it can’t be counted at all, plus that assumes teachers are the only ones who ever work from home – trust me they aren’t. The fact that projections indicate we’ll need fewer and fewer teachers moving forward due to decreases in school aged children tends to suggest supply and demand may in fact suppress wage rates. Nobody thinks teachers ought milk cows, or sweep sidewalks in summer but then lets not pretend most of them aren’t home enjoying thier children or perhaps a long vacation in June, July and August while the private sector folks get up and go to work.
Most of them aren’t home enjoying the life of luxury. With graduate courses, workshops, and other job opportunities…most are doing SOMETHING within that time span. To think that they are eating bon bons by the pool is ludicrous. Many can’t afford pool membership!
MOney tree it is 7.5 not 7! Be careful what you wish for. Teachers can start documenting it by refusing to do anything after that time and you will see how bad it is when you take a week to get a returned call. few ed-line updates and your kids papers hardly get any feedback!!!!
Most teachers I know which is a considerable number do have a part time job in the summer unless thye are married to a doctor, lawyer or engineer!
That’s right, no teacher I ever met ever worked more than 7 hours a day (if you call maintaining order and discipline among 30 snide preteens without resorting to using a bushmaster work). I’ve never met a teacher who brings work home to grade until eleven o’clock. I’m sure the essays that English teachers ask their kids to write never even get read. They probably just get a letter grade on them based on how closely the student’s political views align with the teacher’s(if the teacher even bothers to get to know the name of any of the 180 kids they see in a day). I mean, really, what sane person would even try to read 20 pages of childish gobbledygook to begin with. You are right on the money, money tree, there is no possible way a teacher’s work hours could compare to a full time job in the private sector.
How teacher’s spend thier time in summer matters little – they aren’t teaching. They may choose to further their educations, sit by the pool, repaint the tv room or work on the car; those are still activities aside and away from the classroom. In addition, nobody thinks teaching is easy; certainly not me and some really put thier hearts and souls in it but many do not. If we took the current budget “pie” and instead of mindlessly providing steps and raises to everyone using the same criteria which in reality is no criteria; we could rearrange the “pie” to give big raises where raises are due and incent the ones who need to work on performance a reason to do so.
CDEV lets have it your way – 7.5 hrs. x 189 contracted days gives us 1418 hrs/yr per vs. private sector 8.0 hrs x 245 days, totalling 1960 hrs/yr. The difference amount to nearly 14 additional work weeks for the private sector employee. That’s no small amount of time – it’s significant and the primary reason I think salaries are probably about right as they are. A $60,000 per year salary represents well over $42.00/hr.
MoneyTree,
I’m trying to wrap my mind around your comments. On the one hand you want to compare teachers to private sector employees in terms of numbers of hours clocked on the year. On the other hand you then want to compare the salary structure of teachers to private sector employees. In both cases it is a dishonest comparison.
People work the requisite number of hours for their given job/profession as it is required. People, regardless of whether it is public or private sector, will put effort and dedication into that arrangement as they personally see fit. In other words, in the private sector a motivated and hard working employee will earn the rewards of promotion and compensation commensurate with the effort. That is not the case with public employees. They are in an environment that was largely created prior to their hire. In other words, how do you criticize people for things they have no control over?
It seems to me you are upset over the fact there are people who do good jobs and people who do bad jobs getting the same or even unequal pay, and increases arrive regardless of effort. I dare say a teacher ineffective in school will not earn high marks on a performance appraisal, and thus will not get the steps or other increases awarded to teachers who do earn the mark. Thus, why would you punish hard working teachers who are effective? What data can you provide that unsuccessful teachers are receiving raises?
As for you rants about how teachers spend their time away from school – I’m scratching my head. If the school is structured to have kids enrolled for 180 days and the their contract stipulates they need to be there 190 days – how is this a problem created by teachers? If an employer does not require his or her employees to work weekends – is that 2 days off each week matter in the equation of their compensation or work schedule? I’m missing something here.
It sounds to me like you are jealous of teachers and their perks, etc… My question is this: Why then are you not a teacher?
You can’t equally compare a salary for one sector that works the entire year w/ another that has summers off. The only way to create a somewhat representational comparison is to take total annual compensation and break it down to an hourly rate. If you object to that then I’d say you also ought to toss the endless complaints made by teachers in which they compare themselves and their salaries to private sector employment with like educational requirements. Your suggestion that teachers have no control over the way the school systems are structured also leaves me “scratching my head” as not sure what that might have to do with anything. Gosh…if you go to college and major in education you are aware are you not that public school systems usually give teachers the summers off? Not sure who thought they’d get rich from what basically amounts to a public sector, part time job.
Money I love how in one post it is 240 days and another it is 245. beside a teacher is contracted for 190 days! 180 the kids go 3 before the year starts, 2 at the end of the first quarter 2 at the end of the second quarter, 2 at the end of the third quarter and 1 after the kids leave (as if anyone can pack up a room in one day or unpack it in one day. a teacher earning 60K is not unless you have been teaching for 12 years and have a masters.
My warning is this if you think work done at home should not be considered than do not be suprised when you can not find people to work from home for free.
2 personals taken at any time during the school year are also part of your contract.
It’s really between 240 and 245 since the number of vacation days aren’t fixed in the private sector. 365 days/yr, minus the weekends (104), minus set holidays (9), leaves 252 days…allowing for 10 or so days of vacation.
I think that is the issue. Since HCPS strategically removed its payscale from the HCPS site (it is there, but you have to dig), the average person thinks that teachers start out at extremely high salaries and get regular pay increases to the point where they are making upwards of 80K. So untrue and so far from reality. No one in the classroom approaches 80K…those salaries are reserved APs. Principal salaries are much higher.
When you look at the nations with the highest education rankings, you have to consider that there educators are paid at higher rates per capita than the U.S. In Finland, educators are paid as well as engineers. Oh, I know that the far-right nutjobs will say that Finland is one of those scary European socialist nations with high taxes. Yada, yada, yada.
The sad reality is that the pay is decent, but not exceptional. The even sadder reality is that teachers make less with Harford’s strong tax base than they do in Cecil County. We are 7th per capita, 21st in teacher pay. We are very lucky to do as well as we do as a system. However, you are seeing Harford County being a “fall back plan” rather than a graduating teachers number one choice. Why? Pay.
no you do not have to take the personal days (which is three BTW) and it is not my contract. should we deduct the personal days from the private sector? I have a friend who gets 20!
What the HCEA REALLY needs to explain is, where is all of HCEA’s money going! Can we please get an accounting of HCEA’s balance sheet and income statement before we let the bandits in Annapolis pass that bill extorting union dues from everyone in the system. Please.
They do to the members. Frankly for a non-member it is none of you buisness what they spend money on. If this goes through those paying the rpresentation fee will be allowed to know what that part of the money was spent on.
HCEA should open the books and remove all suspicion.
If the balance sheet is as HCEA wants us to believe, it will support a 68% negotiating rate. More likely, the percentage will be moved downwards and Mr Burbey would have some egg on his face to go with his trademark smirk.
It does not have to be 68% it could be. You didn’t read!
Families have more to do with getting a good education than anything else. Kids who are encouraged by parents with thrive no matter how bleak school funding, etc. I am a graduate of Edgewood High, in addition to family support, I was fortunate to have some great teachers – Michael McAvoy (rip) and John Holzworth (social science), John Low and Phil Hitchingham (science) and Millie Meyers (music). Our physical facility back then was old – but it didn’t matter – we had good teachers and great activities. So it’s plain wrong to think HCPS didn’t do / doesn’t do the job.
I too remember the good ones. Will never forget my history teacher – he’d literally make it come alive. His enthusiasm and fascination was infectious and I hung on every word. Sad to me that these memorable teachers that shape our lives and create lifelong memories for the kids lucky enough to get those classes are treated in terms of salary the same as the other ones we remember as barely caring enough to keep us awake.
The point I’m trying to make is this is not just about teachers getting a raise. Those who think HCPS is a bloated system may have been right at one point in time. This is no longer the case. I have seen the budget and looked at it closely. It is published on the HCPS website. Anyone can view this. We are coming to a very critical point where programs will be cut, teachers will be rifted and classroom sizes will increase. There is even rumor that certain schools may have to consolidate to save money. We are at a critical point when it comes to funding education. I fear that many people will not realize this until it is too late. I love Harford County and care very much for the community. Funding education is the right thing to do for the community. It is the best way to promote others to stay in the county instead of moving away. I will give David Craig credit for bringing business and revenue into the county. We are growing and with growth we have funds to invest into education.
You are correct. The school system has reached a critical point. Was anyone paying attention at the last BOE meeting when Mr. Frisch said that cutting programs, which means sports as well as academics, closing some schools, and more teacher and support staff reductions are serious considerations? Some people can squabble about teacher working hours and complain about how their pay is determined. Is was obvious to me that the BOE decided they had to fund a salary increase out of existing budget because HCPS is loosing the very teachers everyone wants to keep in the system. Harford County is getting a lot closer to our own education cliff than most are willing to recognize. Unfortunately students will be the biggest losers, paying a price measured in limited education experiences and future opportunities.
Yep. I was waiting to hear the plan for 2 things: (1) getting a top notch administrator in here to straighten out the mess; (2) cutting the waste from the budget so the right stuff can get funded at the right levels.
Hints on the topic of waste: we presently have the following issues in HCPS and many school systems. Too much overhead administration. Too much IF and pseudo-administrators doing nothing more than putting up roadblocks that frustrate good teachers. Too many – and one is too many – teachers that need to be re-deployed into the private workforce. Too many really good teachers that need to make a little more money. Principals that think they are the dictators of their school and are allowed to act like it. Too few parents that will demand that their kids get a quality education that includes actually learning something including life skills in addition to how to think. Too much emphasis on athletics for a few rather than fitness for many. Too much coddling of the disruptive student who must be made to sit down and shut up or leave the school and be sent to another school where he or she will be made to sit down and shut up. Too many students whose parents allow them to miss too much school. Too much chasing of the latest educational pseudo-theory rather than just using the approaches that have always worked and getting the job done. Too much ego because people have a degree or two. Too much interference from the Federal and State government. Too much ego and arrogance at levels above the classroom. Too little common sense.
Folks, the stars, if there are any, are in the classroom educating kids. The rest of the crowd are just support staff and hangers on.
Now that is the Alex R that has been MIA far too long. I can’t say that I disagree with even one word of it. On point!
What in the world is an IF? Why do we have them and what do they cost? Alex, I am with you. The school system should be teachers teaching kids and a few people to oversee a school, keep the lights on and the HVAC running, getting payroll done, etc. Who are all of these ‘extras’? I bet any of us could go in and cut a ton of money that is currently being spent using the common sense you mention. How in the world did we get in to this mess?
Meeeeeow!
Yeah! Catgirl! Get hired as an administrator and then go in there and cut a bunch of waste! I’m sure you are qualified just by dint of your having some “common sense.” I’ve got that too. One thing I’ve never been able to figure out, though, is where to put that on my resume…. does it go in the “relevant skills” section? It’s not really a skill. How do you prove you have it? By posting on the dagger? If so, you sure are qualified! But wait! you could eliminate waste just by firing yourself, because you would be an administrator! That job is too easy for someone of your obvious huge amount of common sense.
It’s reflected on my CV under the Accomplishments section. See, loudmouthranter, in the real world potential employers are always looking for executive leaders with a documented track record of doing more with less and doing it more effectively and efficiently. That leads to an increase in profits which leads to an increase in shareholder satisfaction. It You are familiar with the real world, right? And when I said anyone with common sense did that include you or are you clueless?
Oh, and loudmouthranter, as to your suggestion that I get hired as an administrator. Let me say that first, my 2 post undergraduate degrees would intimidate them. Second, they can’t afford me. Third, and finally, my CV would send a clear message that I don’t suffer fools and hypocrites. Not for a minute.
If we are talking central office administrator on the business side of the house, then you probably could be successful with your CV that is loaded with accomplishments. That business side of the shop operates under what you call “the real world” and should be managed by someone that focuses on the bottom line.
If we are talking school-based administrator (Principal, Asst. Principal, Instructional Facilitator), then your CV wouldn’t mean squat. The business model of effectiveness/efficiency and increasing profits doesn’t gel with how schools function. The two worlds just aren’t comparable when talking about what happens within the classroom walls.
Except at HCPS there is no bottom line. The more accurate term might be bottomless pit. Their approach is “just give us more money because we want it and don’t worry about why we want it or what we will spend it on because it’s none of your business”.
Bloated overhead including people whose sole job is to get in the way of real teachers.
You flaunt such statements like “just give us more money because we want it and don’t worry about why we want it or what we will spend it on because it’s none of your business” like their isn’t a year-long budgeting process with open meetings, multiple presentations to the Board, and full publication of the budget and quarter financial reports.
The county doesn’t simply hand over $450 million without knowing where it’s going.
There can be a discussion about overhead and waste, but don’t make it sound like “smoke and mirrors” when everything is out there in the open for all to see.
So if I, as a citizen of Harford County and a Harford County and State of Maryland resident and taxpayer wanted to examine the HCPS books, except for confidential salary information for individuals, they would be okay with that? Not the budget but the actuals. Is that what you are saying? If it is, you have not sipped but actually guzzled the Kool Aid.
And there can’t be a discussion about overhead and waste because according to HCPS and the BOE there is no waste and the overhead is appropriate. It takes two to have a discussion. That’s why the public generally doesn’t get too excited about giving HCPS more money.
How come schools weren’t closed today? It was cold and rainy, too unsafe for children.