Mr. Nesbitt Doesn't Get It

My comment to an opinion piece in  The Oregonian (http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/12/tim_nesbitt_finding_the_balanc.html#incart_river): Public K-12 education in Oregon is underfunded. The so-called, " 'largest investment ever made' in K-12 education," was still hundreds of millions of dollars less than what the Quality Education Commission determined was required to adequately fund public schools. There is no point in pretending that it is possible to hire more teachers and other education professionals and support personnel and to increase the number of school days without significantly increasing the level of funding that is available. It is the responsibility of the state legislature to provide this level of funding. It is mandated to do so by the state constitution, but it shirks its responsibility. If we value public education, then we must pay for it.

Imagine if Classrooms Were Staffed Like an NFL Team

My favorite National Football League team is the Green Bay Packers. There are 53 players on a National Football Team. 46 suit up to play a game. 11 Packers at time are on the playing field. The Green Bay Packers have 18 coaches.

There are 30 students in my classroom. Everyone of them "suits up" each day. All 30 are "on the field" at all times. I am usually the only "coach" in the classroom. One or two teaching (coaching) assistants are in the room at various times during the day.

The NFL coach to player ratio is 1:3. A public school classroom "coach" to student "player" ratio is often 1:24 or greater. If well payed adult professional athletes require such intense coaching to be at the top their game, how can we expect public school students to succeed with inadequate staffing levels?

I do not hear people complain about coach to player ratios in professional sports. Heaven help us if anyone were to suggest similar teacher/instructional aide to student ratios in public education. Yet, if we are serious about reforming, no, transforming public education so that the needs of every child are met, then those are the required ratios. This will cost large amounts of money, so it won't happen.

We pay for what we value. We do not value public education. We would pay its true costs if we did.

Enabling Educators

Educators are enablers. There will be no real reform of public education in the United States until educators stop enabling an ineffective system. My reference point is as a classroom teacher.  I work beyond my contracted hours, take work home, and pay for necessary resources with my own money.  Until the public demands that government at all levels provides adequate funding for the personnel and resources that are necessary there will be no real reform. The public will not demand this as long as educators keep picking up the slack. When will I have the courage of my convictions, to take the risk to work only my contracted hours? If the federal and state governments and the school district for which I work want me to meet the needs of my students and to fulfill the many other professional obligations that they have placed on me, they have the obligation to provide the time and resources required. They do not and they will not so long as I allow them to get away with it. I am an enabler of an ineffective educational system.

$6.55 Billion is Insufficient

The Oregon Senate approved  $6.55 billion for public schools (The Oregonian, K-12 budget, on second try, passes Oregon Senate). The Oregon House of Representatives is expected to follow suit.

The Oregon Quality Education Commission in its Final Report of August 12, 2012 determined that $8.755 billion was needed to fully fund public education according to the Quality Education Model. Recognizing that this level of funding was unlikely, it provided a plan to phase in full funding over a ten-year period. The amount required to achieve this for the 2013-2015 biennium is $6.895 billion.

Article VIII, Section 8. Adequate and Equitable Funding of the Constitution of Oregon mandates that, "(1) The Legislative Assembly shall appropriate in each biennium a sum of money sufficient to ensure that the state’s system of public education meets quality goals established by law, and publish a report that either demonstrates the appropriation is sufficient, or identifies the reasons for the insufficiency, its extent, and its impact on the ability of the state’s system of public education to meet those goals."

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that this section of the state constitution is unenforceable. 

Even so, the Oregon State Legislature should fulfill its constitutional obligation.

It Must Have Been a Joke, but I'm not Laughing

 The Oregon State Legislature passed SB 1581 in 2012 establishing the position of Oregon Chief Education Officer. Governor John Kitzhaber issued a statement that outlined what could be accomplished by this officer. Rudy Crew was hired to be that officer. Now, Mr. Crew is leaving less than a year after taking the job. No one should be surprised by this development given the record of Mr. Crew's previous employment. There must be a good joke in this situation, but I don't have the wit to create one.

Mr. Crew's departure is no loss. He barely made his presence felt as an advocate for the adequate funding of K-12 education. I also don't think that I've heard anything from Deputy Superintendent of Public Education, Rob Saxton, about K-12 funding either. Is this due to the fact that the governor is also the Superintendent of Public Education? Perhaps Mr. Crew and Mr. Saxton did/do not have the freedom to advocate as they might have wanted to since they essentially serve(d) at the governor's pleasure. The last elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, Susan Castillo, was hardly effective, but she had some measure of independence since she was directly elected by the voters of Oregon.

Here are a couple of suggestions for action now that Mr. Crew is leaving:
     1. Do not fill the position of Chief Education Officer.  The state legislature should go further and eliminate the position entirely. It is a superfluous job that can be handled by the Deputy Superintendent.
     2. Make the office of Superintendent of Public Education an elected office. This would restore the possibility of having a state superintendent who could act as an independent and vigorous advocate for K-12 education responsible to the voters, not the governor.

Now I have two closing remarks:
     1. I am ready to accept an offer by Governor Kitzhaber to be Chief Education Officer if he decides to fill the vacancy. I can promise that I would stick around to do the job since my wife and I have no desire to move out of state.
     2. I'm prepared to throw my hat in the ring if and when the office of Superintendent of Public Education  is made an elected office.

I'm not joking.

Here is my comment on OregonLive.com to the story "Oregon K-12 budget is back on the Senate's docket".

"$6.55 billion dollars is $$340 million dollars less than the $6.895 minimum level of funding for Oregon K-12 education for 2013/15 recommended by the Oregon Quality Education Model Commission in order to phase in full funding over a ten year period. According to the QEM Commission, $8,754,971,481 is the amount needed for full funding for the 2013-15 biennium. (Quality Education Model Final Report 2012) The Oregon Constitution requires the legislature to provide an explanation as to why it did not provide the necessary funding. I am sure that the legislature will ignore this constitutional provision just as they have in previous years. So, when the legislators do pass a K-12 education budget there should be no self-congratulations since they will not have met their obligations as voted by the people of Oregon by a nearly 2-1 margin in 2000 (Measure 1)."

.333 Is a Good Batting Average in Baseball...

Election results are in for the St. Helens School Board.

Kellie Smith wins with a plurality of nearly 38%  in the most closely contested race, Position 1. Jeff Howell and Gordon Jarman win with 53% and 52% majorities  for positions 3 and 4 respectively.

Mr. Howell is the only candidate for whom I voted that won in these races. That's batting .333 for me.

Incumbents Matt Freeman and Alan King were the third-place vote-getters in their respective races. I was surprised that Mr. Freeman was defeated so soundly as Ms. Smith did not strike me as a particularly strong candidate and Mr Briggs has not been active in school issues since he last served on the board, to the best of my knowledge. There was clearly anti-incumbent sentiment in the electorate.

Mr. King's defeat for Position 4 is not as surprising to me as that of Mr. Freeman for Position 1. The winner of Position 4, Mr. Jarman, is a former long-time educator with the St. Helens School District. Name recognition certainly helped his candidacy. The same is true for former St. Helens teacher Mr. Howell. The nearly identical number of votes that they received could indicate that they had many of the same supporters.

Even though two of my candidates did not win, I am not disappointed by the results. I think that Ms. Smith, Mr. Howell, and Mr. Jarman can be effective school board members.

I would have been disappointed--and worried--if Traci Brumbles had won election. During her campaign she expressed concern about "indoctrination" in public schools. She was not able to provide any specific examples of institutionally sanctioned indoctrination when I asked her about this in an email. Ms. Brumbles has concerns about the Common Core State Standards. I have concerns about these as well, but not because I think that they will be used to "dumb down" curriculum as she expressed at the April candidate forum. These two positions reflect a view of educational issues that I think might be shared by current board members Ray Biggs and Marshall Porter who are members of the Constitution Party. I don't know if Ms. Brumbles is a member of the Constitution Party, but she said at the candidate forum that she had its endorsement in this election. I am glad that we will not have a majority of St. Helens School Board members who are proponents of the positions of the Constitution Party.

Melissa Dueck for St. Helens School Board Position 4

Position 4 is the position for which I had the most difficulty deciding who to vote for in the race for St. Helens School Board. This is the strongest set of candidates. My vote will go to Melissa Dueck.

Ms. Dueck presented herself at the April candidate forum as an analytic thinker, already actively engaged in school activities and issues as a parent and volunteer. As she does, I believe that the residents of the St. Helens School District must look beyond state and federal sources of funding to restore and grow educational programs. I was concerned that Ms. Dueck and two of the other candidates had joined to create campaign signs and posters that featured all three of their names. My first (negative) reaction was that the three candidates shared an "agenda" and  if all three were to be elected, they might try to enact that agenda irregardless of the views of district administration and other stakeholders. Ms. Dueck and the other candidates stated at the forum that his was decision to share campaign publicity was primarily a financial decision to minimize expenses. I take them at their word.

Jeff Howell for St. Helens School Board Position 3

Jeff Howell will receive my vote for St. Helens School Board Position 3. He ran a write-in campaign for a board position in 2011 and he has participated in school board and school district budget committee meetings since then. He presented himself well at the public forum in April by providing focused and concise responses to the questions posed. I think that he can bring an important perspective to school board deliberations due to his experience as a long-time teacher. While this experience is sure to make him sympathetic to the positions of teachers, Mr. Howell impresses me as having the integrity not to make decisions based only on what teachers want.*

Although I will vote for Mr. Howell, I believe that Kellie Smith could also serve as an effective board member.

I cannot say the same for Tracie Brumbles due to what I believe are her unfounded and unsupported concerns about "indoctrination" in public schools. Further, while I think that there are aspects of the Common Core State Standards that can be criticized, I do not share her concern that they are a "dumbing down" of academic standards. Finally, she claims not to be beholden to special interests, yet she claimed that she has received the endorsement of the local Republican and Constitution parties. I thought that school board positions were non-partisan and I am troubled that political parties would involve themselves in this election.

*I served one four-year term on the St. Helens School Board, two years as board chair. For one-and-a-half years of that term I was training to be a teacher and for the last year of the term I was a teacher in another school district. The district and teachers union negotiated a contract during this time period. I put my responsibilities as a board member above my inclinations as a teacher while negotiating.

Matt Freeman for St. Helens School Board Position 1

I am casting my vote for incumbent Matt Freeman for Position 1 of the St. Helens School District School Board. I do not agree with all of his positions, but I believe him to be a well informed, thoughtful, and conscientious member of the board. There is no reason to replace him.

It's Time to Tell the Truth

Many, if not most, people in positions of educational leadership lie. The lie that they tell is that we must and can meet the needs of every student with the resources that are currently available. No, we won't and we can't. Of course, no superintendent, principal, instructional coach or anyone else who is in a leadership position will admit this. They would lose their jobs, but they would have spoken the truth.

Vote in Local School Board Elections - Revised May 2, 2013

I mistakenly referred to position 5 rather than position 4 in the original post.

Democracy works only when the demos (common folk) are active participants in the political process. Inform yourself about the qualifications, positions, and views of your local school board candidates....and vote.

There are three school board positions being contested in St. Helens. Three candidates are running for each position. I have made up my mind for Position 1. I am leaning toward one of two candidates in Position 3, having definitely deciding against the third. I am having difficulty choosing between two of the candidates for Position 4.

I will name names and my reasons for my decisions after the ballots arrive in the mail.

Why I Don't Believe That "Reforms" in Education Will Be Effective

The main reason that education reforms will be ineffective is that the money necessary to implement them will not be allocated.

This post has scans of a document that filled me with hope as a parent as I anticipated the entry of my children into the public school system. The contents of this document inspired me to be actively engaged in the education of my children as a classroom volunteer, site council representative, school board member, and to become a teacher. The document is a summary of  HB 3565: Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century. It was passed in 1991. The goals of this 21st Century Education Act were not met because the Oregon State Legislature failed to provide adequate funding to implement it.

Read it and weep for what might should have been.

Crew Has NO Business Moonlighting

I read in Willamette Weekly that Oregon Chief Education Officer Rudy Crew is thinking about "moonlighting".

Mr. Crew has no business seeking to supplement his income by engaging in work that will distract him from the job that he was hired to do in Oregon. His full attention and efforts should be given to ensure stable and adequate funding for public education in Oregon. If Mr. Crew is unwilling to do this, Governor Kitzhaber should immediately remove Mr. Crews from his position. Then the position of Chief Education Officer should be left unfilled as it was poorly conceived and unnecessary in the first place.

A Modest Proposal for Preventing American Public School Students from Being a Burden and for Making Them Beneficial to Society

Jonathan Swift, I apologize.

I want to make it clear at the outset that I am not proposing that public school children be harvested as a food source to reduce class sizes and to generate revenue to hire more teachers. 

My proposal is this:

Declare all public school students to be "enemy combatants". 

Congress will be sure to act with alacrity to appropriate hundreds of millions, nay, hundreds of billions of dollars to address this threat to homeland security by finally fully funding federally mandated educational programs.

Public education. If we value it we must pay for it.

Middle School Breakthrough

I had a breakthrough with middle schoolers while subbing today. I lost the anxiety that I've experienced in the past with this age group. Were the students different than others for whom I've subbed? No. The difference is in me. Two experiences within the last month have contributed to this. 

The first was a nine-day assignment at a high school before spring break when I had to put the Serenity Prayer into practice.* ("God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference." Reinhold Niebuhr) I realized that I was not in a position to expect students to change behaviors for me if the behaviors were acceptable to the teacher for whom I was subbing even though I might dislike the behaviors. There are harmful behaviors that must be addressed. Most of the adolescent behaviors that "bug" me are not harmful.

The second experience was participation in a two-day Oregon Intervention Strategies (OIS)  training.  OIS advocates the use of positive behavior supports (PBS). PBS requires that adult educators interact with students in ways that contribute to student quality of life and that means affirming students for who they are in their "biopsychosocial" (biological, psycholological, social) development. 

Middle schoolers will be middle schoolers. I'm not going to change that. I can change how I interact with them...and I did.

*Even though I'm neither a pray-er nor a believer in a deity.

Oregon Legislators Must Do Their Job

If we value public education then we must pay for it.

Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon State Legislature need to have the courage and integrity to make the difficult decisions that they were elected to office to make. Even though the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that the legislature cannot be sanctioned for failing to do so, state legislators are mandated by the Oregon Constitution to adequately fund K-12 education or provide an explanation as to why they do not.

The above thoughts are in reaction to a March 17 article in The Oregonian .

What Should Be the Role of the Federal Government in Public Education?

Here's a recent headline from The Huffington Post: Sequestration 2013: How Many Teachers Could Your State Lose? This leads me to wonder about the role of the federal government in public education. What should it be? This is a question that deserves to be pondered with careful deliberation. This most recent federal fiscal crisis does not provide the opportunity for that discussion.

My Email to Betsy and Brad

This is the text of the email that I just sent to my Oregon state representative, Brad Witt, and state senator, Betsy Johnson:

Betsy and Brad:

The 2012 final report of the Quality Education Commission states that $8.755 billion should be appropriated to fund Oregon K-12 public education in order for the QEM model to be fully funded for the 2013-15 biennium. It gives a figure of $6.315 billion as the minimum amount to avoid a "loss" of funding from the current level. The lower figure is absolutely inadequate if Oregon K-12 education is to meet the minimal needs of Oregon students and it seems impossible that the higher figure is attainable at this time.

The QEM Commission proposes a third figure that will begin to close the gap between the minimum and the required funding levels: $6.895 billion. I encourage you both to use this figure as the minimum level that you will accept as you work to adopt a state budget this year.

I understand that his will require sacrifices in other programs, including funding of PERS. As a public school teacher and future recipient of PERS benefits, I am willing to accept a possible reduction in those benefits as other changes such as the closing of some tax loopholes are made as well.

 

Thank you for your consideration of my views.

An article in The Sunday Oregonian indicates that there is the possibility of beginning to stabilize K-12 education in Oregon. Please contact your Oregon state representative and state senator to fund Oregon K-12 public education at a minimum of $6.895 billion for the 2013-15 biennium.

Amen and amen!

From "Letters to the Editor", The Oregonian, February 16:

Funding education

Oregon chief education officer Rudy Crew wants to "fix" our schools by changing their "educational architecture" and buying a lot of new technology ("Call for new 'educational architecture' in Oregon," Feb. 11).

Our present model doesn't serve students well, he says, completely ignoring the effects of years of inadequate funding on the schools we have. Remember the state's Quality Education Model? In every biennium, the gap between what the QEM has established as resources needed and actual funding has grown. That gap was $1.64 billion in 2007-9 and is projected to be $2.44 billion in 2013-15. This reminds me of G.K. Chesterton's words: "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."

In Oregon, stable, adequate and equitable funding has been found difficult and not tried. Instead, our leaders continue to take resources out of classrooms, spending scarce education dollars on bureaucracy, consultants, testing and expensive technology. Let's focus on the basics: students and teachers working together in schools that are supported with the wherewithal for learning.

Until we try appropriately funded schools, we won't know how effective they can be.

WENDY SWANSON 
Southwest Portland  
Swanson is an education instructor at Portland State University and has 31 years of elementary teaching experience in Oregon.

Oregon Education Official Advocates Wage Theft

When Oregon Chief Education Officer Rudy Crew states that educators must meet higher goals and standards without providing the necessary funding and resources he is essentially advocating wage theft. 

A Proposal for Teacher Action During the Upcoming Oregon Legislative Session

I have often thought that the best way for Oregon teachers to get the attention of legislators, bureaucrats, and the public would be for ALL teachers to work only their contracted hours. Further, they would not take any work home, nor would they participate in any school activities for which they do not receive financial compensation. Legislators, bureaucrats, and the public might then see to what degree teachers subsidize the public education system through "donated" labor and how much the public education system relies on teachers to donate time to accomplish all of the tasks asked of them to meet the educational needs of children. What better time to do this than while the state legislature is in session and deliberating on how much it will spend on K-12 education? If the legislature funds K-12 education at the minimum level recommended by the Quality Education Commission, then teachers can go back to "donating" additional time if they like. If the legislature fails to meet the funding level determined as minimally adequate by the QEM they should continue to work only the hours they are bound to by contract and for which they are financially compensated. Teachers have been enablers for too long.

Repurposing of Existing Resources Is Inadequate

Oregon Chief Education Officer Rudy Crew advocates that the closing of the achievement gap can be accomplished, "mostly by repurposing existing resources," according to Susan Nelson in The Sunday Oregonian. Crew's belief is absurd. It can't be done. Mr. Crew's principal role at this time should be to lobby state legislators to fund K-12 education in Oregon at the the base level recommended by the Quality Education Commission.  Deputy Superintendent of Public Education Rob Saxton and Superintendent of Public Education Governor John Kitzhaber should be doing the same. (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/susan_nielsen/index.ssf/2013/01/susan_nielsen_for_rudy_crew_to.html)

Bonus Pay: Elitist and Inequitable

Responding again to the article in the January 25th The Oregonian.(http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2013/01/tying_teacher_pay_to_test_scor.html#incart_m-rpt-2)

Teachers do not teach in isolation and they can't succeed without classified staff such as instructional aides, custodians, secretaries, and cooks. Any financial bonus system for student success is inherently inequitable if it excludes classified staff.

Equitable Funding before Bonus Payments

The headline story in the January 25th The Oregonian reports about the payment of bonuses to some teachers in some school districts in Oregon. (http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2013/01/tying_teacher_pay_to_test_scor.html#incart_m-rpt-2)

I believe that it is wrong to even consider paying performance-based bonuses to educators in some schools until there is equity in funding for all schools.