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Maybe it's on account of the tedium inspired by the 1988 presidential candidates. It could be because people have lately begun to curse loudly whenever they talk about the weather. But for whatever reasons, education is now a hot topic.
Books like Cultural Literacy and The Closing
of the American Mind are best-sellers. William J.
Bennett, the U.S. Secretary of Education, has caused much
welcome discussion with his proposed James Madison High
School.
At this moment, the Colorado General Assembly wrestles with education. Republicans say we could be doing better, but a Democratic governor says there can't be any increased funding.
Anyone who calls for a tax increase for education is about as popular as a Redskins fan. We already spend $3,740 a year for each Colorado student, and what do we get after 13 years and $48,620? All manner of certified high-school graduates who have trouble counting change or reading street signs.
What we obviously need is a way to improve the quality of Colorado education without increasing its cost. And I think I've found one.
Like people engaged in any business, I have to get acceptable work out the door on time, or I don't eat. That's the American way, but it isn't the way our schools work. Certainly there are days when I wish I could operate like a school district.
Should I write a column today, or crank up the stereo and study the poetic patterns of popular music lyrics? Why should I care? If I were a school district, the money would come in anyway. Armed men would go out and seize the property of anyone who didn't pay me for whatever I felt like doing.
Should I head for the library and spend six hours in tedious research for a magazine article? And then try to line up some interviews, which will involve a lot of expensive time on the road and on the telephone?
But why don't I just fake it? What difference would it make? I have credentials galore and I'm as certified as a writer can get, so how dare anyone, especially some obnoxious editor (or even worse, a mere reader) question whether I know what I'm writing about?
I could go on, but you've got the idea. In the Real World, the reward (money) comes on the basis of accomplishment, rather than effort or credentials or good intentions. In the School World, the school system gets its money, no matter how meager or vague its accomplishments.
Now to reform. First, we establish some definable standards that high-school graduates must meet: read at a 12th-grade level, write a simple business letter which the recipient can understand, add and subtract well enough to keep a checkbook, that sort of thing.
Since many professional educators already say that they're doing this, making these standards formal shouldn't involve any more money. Of course the school district would have to guarantee, by posting a bond, that anyone who held one of its diplomas met the standards.
This won't cost us taxpayers any more than the $48,620 we already spend to send a student from kindergarten through high school. It will, however, require a minor change in the mechanism of school finance.
As it is, districts get their money for every warm body
in class, and the class can be anything from
Intercultural Appreciation During Life Experiences
to Comic Books as Literature.
As I envision it, the district will receive $48,620 for each graduate who meets the standard, and not a penny for anyone else. This will solve most problems in contemporary American education.
Time-wasting classes that concern fluffy or trendy
topics? When school districts quit getting money for such
indulgences, you won't see many more time devoted to
computer literacy
or rat on your parents while
you rap with the counselor.
Pay administrators $60,000 a year and classroom teachers only $25,000? Not when the district's income is based on having productive people in the classroom, rather than the deputy superintendent's ability to hustle federal grants.
Drop-outs and truancy? The districts will be scouring the streets and pool halls to make sure their students show up. The more students who graduate, and the faster that the school can teach them enough to meet the standard, the more money.
Many of us complain loudly about American education and insist that our schools should improve. It's time we put our money where our mouths are.
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