Non-funded mandates in education

For all you folk who think too much money is being spent in schools and therefore their education programs can afford a cut, here's something you need to think about. Education gets a ridiculous dose of non-funded mandates they have to follow. People with no work experience in education get put in legislative roles, and in their infinite wisdom, they pass mandates with the idea of helping and improving education. It's a nice goal, but they have no idea what they are doing. Here are just a few examples of NONFUNDED mandates:

1. A law was passed just recently saying that water fountains have to be within so-many-inches of the entry to the cafeteria doors. What if the water fountains are not within said distance? Well, they need to be moved or a new one needs to be installed within the guidelines. Who's going to pay for that?

2. Duty free lunch. This is not a big deal in middle or high school, but in elementary, it sure is. Those teachers are working with little ones all day long - and it's nice to be able to catch some sort of break. Yes, teachers don't mind eating with children, but sometimes there really is no chance to digest lunch when you're opening ketchup packets, helping the students maneuver those straws into the juice packets, cutting open those Go-Gurt packs, scanning the tables to be sure the children are eating and not picking apart their chicken patty into a billion pieces. etc. A duty free lunch is a great idea - but it surely doesn't address the supervision piece. You can't let little ones eat alone...there is always a risk of choking, a child with a peanut allergy being exposed, all sorts of safety issues. In the passing of this mandate, there was no funding provided to allow for hiring of personnel for supervisory purposes. As a result, there are schools in which the teachers have voted to NOT have duty free lunch. Can't the teachers have a break?

3. A law that was more recently passed is the "multiple birth law". This means that a parent of twins, triplets, etc. can request the children be put in the same class and the request has to be offered. This works out beautifully for some sets of multiples, and is a complete nightmare for others. In this economy, parents are forced to work - so it's much easier for them to have the children in the same classroom for consistency's sake. However, often one twin becomes the "smarter" one, or the multiples become reliant on each other and don't build social skills, or they have such different personalities that one becomes labelled as a "troublemaker" because he/she couldn't be placed in a classroom that was a good fit.

4. The North Carolina Legislature passed a calendar law. This law, again with good intent, was passed without the benefit of listening to people employed in the education field. This law moved the required days of instruction from 180 to 185. On the surface, that looks great - giving the children an extra week of instruction. However, there is another law that says that school cannot start before August 25, and not end after June 10. With those restraints and with holidays and all, that gets to be pretty difficult. Some school systems applied for waivers. Waivers were granted saying the additional 5 days of instruction were not needed for students; however, those 5 days had to be strong, solid staff development to improve teacher quality.

That all sounds good on the surface, but once again, there wasn't thought put into this. First of all, the date constraints make it impossible to add days, so the five days that are taken for this purpose were previously teacher workdays. Contrary to popular belief, a teacher workday is not a break. During that day, they have grade level meetings to plan for the next several weeks, complete documentation on interventions, write PEPs, attend IEP meetings, grade papers, plan units of instruction and assessment, have parent phone calls or conferences, and have administrative meetings. (The big perk to teacher workdays? They get to have lunch..). They get caught up and get to plan ahead. Without workdays, that doesn't happen...so you'll see increased absences by teachers...and who suffers? The kids.

I think that when I grow up, I'm going to be a politician on the platform of helping education with a bit of knowledge to back it up. These efforts to "improve" are anything but.

The US credit stuff.

How is it.....that we were so silly to elect people who fight about money stuff, just to make a point? Really, our government can't settle things about the debt until the last possible minute, the country's credit rating goes down...and what do they all do? Argue about who is at fault.

I bet - I could have given the debt problem to one of my third grade classes and they would have solved it, with minimal arguing and name calling.

It's embarrassing. I love my country, but stuff like this makes me want to hide a bit.

Welcome to my blog...

There is no purpose behind this blog, really. I am just finding that things in the news lately are really peeving me. Most of it is due to lawmakers who are just as bright as a damp washcloth. Instead of this stress culminating in a heart attack, I'm best putting it in a blog for someone's entertainment.