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Proposed Education Reform
California has both an education problem, and a budget problem, and it is necessary to break some rice bowls to solve both of them.
I have tested these ideas on Blogs, and have read most of the objections from P. E. teachers and Special Ed teachers – and I am certain there have been others as well, all arguing that THEIR particular “special interest” is more special than other’s special interest.
I have heard how expending money now will save so much later, but then I remember that I could have saved a ton of money by buying a Rolls Royce on graduation from Annapolis and keeping it forever rather than facing the depreciation attendant to buying new cars throughout my life. The problem is, I could not afford to buy a Rolls Royce on graduation – but I sure could have saved a ton of money “in the long run.”
Let me tell you where the money could come from to pay GOOD teachers a MINIMUM of $100,000 a year they deserve (if they are willing to give up tenure.)
1.) Abolish school-oriented sports, and sell off the HUGE real estate devoted to ball fields and school stadiums. (Fly a private plane over schools, as I have done many times, and look at the amount of land devoted to academics, and the amount devoted to various sports! Land is the single most expensive cost in California)
2.) End all "transportation" to and from school, except on a pre-paid monthly pass situation
3) End all non-academic school activities, i.e. band, P.E. (sell off the gyms. Here I would make an exception for "Speech and Debate,” only.)
4.) Reduce the administrative staff to the ratio of the average of the private schools in the County
5) End all printed school book materials, and rely on only CD/DVD textbooks
6) Abolish all school libraries except for CD/DVD/On-line reference material
7) Build all schools as multi-story structures with a single plan without architects, to diminish land use and building costs. When was the last time you saw two multi-story school buildings?
8) Eliminate “Special Education” classes – theirs is a societal problem, not an educational problem. If you must retain Special Education classes, limit expenditures to 2X per student, and do not mainstream students who hold back regular students
9) Test all incoming students at every grade for English proficiency, and segregate those not ready to stay with the class, academically, until they are proficient.
10) Increase the rigor of the CBEST test for incoming teachers until at LEAST 10% are PERMANENTLY eliminated. (In Massachusetts, the failure rate is 24%!
11) Eliminate tenure: Good teachers don’t need it and bad teachers don’t deserve it.
12) Eliminate cafeteria – offer the franchise to competitive bids between Soup Plantation and any competitor.
13) Eliminate multiple-choice quizzes, and institute essay questions
14) Institute school uniforms
15) Increase, and encourage Charter Schools
16) Have a state-subsidized, but diminishing five-year program to expand Little League, Pop Warner, Youth Soccer, etc. to accommodate community-based sports.
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