To the editor:
Residents who wish to understand the gradual deterioration of Rhode Island’s public school system need only contrast school committee meetings addressing two issues: teacher contract negotiations and abysmal standardized testing results. The passion that sets the auditorium on fire when adults’ high pay and lavish benefits are threatened with mild budgetary restraint is nowhere to be found when, say, only 25.8% of eleventh graders prove proficient in science (down from 30.5% the year before).
In Tiverton, that’s 115 students, out of 155, whom we have not adequately prepared to deal with something as fundamental to modern society as science, and on a recent Tuesday evening, the response of administrators was, to paraphrase: “We’ve started all the necessary processes to evaluate our processes so we can start processing our evaluations. And by the way, we don’t have enough money.” The response from the angry parents in the audience was ... well ... there were no angry parents in the audience, except me, and I didn’t see much to be gained by solidifying my status as Tiverton’s leading vocal nutcase.
Of course, I wanted to stand up and shout that there are students receiving inadequate educations right now. That by the time evaluating processes progresses to processing evaluations, the very same students who’d scored so poorly would be graduating, perhaps to head off to colleges and universities that would put them in lifelong debt to repeat the lessons that our multimillion-dollar investments failed to instill.
Meanwhile, the school committee and superintendent have ensured an initial million-dollar shortfall in the next budget by, first, succumbing to last yea’'s contract-driven histrionics and, second, spending every dime of this year’s federal windfall. Everybody involved with the schools should be guilt-ridden and worried to the point of losing sleep over the damage that the up-and-coming generation is suffering at their hands.
Moreover, everybody in town not directly involved with the schools should be ashamed at their own lack of concern. Most of us aren’t even going through pro forma motions. If we’re paying attention at all, we shake our heads and, if we have children, research the tuition rates of nearby private schools. We throw up our hands because, when it comes down to it, we don’t trust those for whom we vote or whom they hire to do any better with more money, and we’re even less inclined to invest time than taxes.
The way forward through this mess is not a mystery, but the subject of communal denial. The students need expanded programs and more-targeted attention, from full-day kindergarten to programs for gifted students to student, teacher, and even parental mentoring. Moreover, the district needs to secure the additions without simultaneously expanding the cost of payroll. That means that the remuneration of teachers and staff must be held constant so that incremental budget increases can flow to programs and resources. And we should make the most of that stark necessity by giving teachers the opportunity to earn more based on merit and effort.
Honestly and truly, we have the capacity for a miraculous rebirth of Tiverton’s education system that will bring other Rhode Island cities and towns to our door in five to ten years pleading to know how we accomplished such an astounding turnaround. Unless we change the way we do things, though, our future is one of continuing erosion.
Administrators are going to have to start losing some sleep. Teachers are going to have to tune out the insidious whispers of union agitators. And the rest of us are going to have to start paying attention.
Justin Katz
Tiverton
It is so terribly exasperating when the adults in the system fail to act on the obvious. School committee members need back-bone! Tip-toeing around with rhetoric and process is no different then the union strategy: bog it down with rhetoric and process. Disgusting.
It seems school committee members are posturing, trying to appear informed while letting time slip away! And all at the expense of the very people they are responsible for educating!!!
It is enough to make you want to scream.
i think a big part of education is parents working with their kids at home. parents need to be more involved with their kids work, helping them with homework, makng sure they do it right instead of them just blowing through it so they can play video games or go on the computer. i think parents rely on the school system too much to teach their children and then they blame the school system when their kids are failing. i know there are parents out there that do work with their kids and it shows and i know the RI school system is very far from perfect but if you are a parent with a child in the school you need to be working with them after school if you want them to be successful. the schools arent gonna fix themselves its time to get involved instead of standing back and shaking your heads
Response to Flannelman
Very true my children were read to constantly at home helped with homework aswers to questions and explaination on anything were given, If the answer was unknown the were shown how to find it themselves in books or the internet when it became an information tool.
My home was open to many kids over the years and still is though most are adults no around 20 to 25. they still stop by they send cards are very respectfull. From the time these kids were just becoming teenagers they came to my home to watch pay per view to play music in the various bands they were starting.
I'm not talking about a few kids it have been well over 60 of them over the years. Their parents were allways met by us as a requirement for them to hang out here. in all the kids only 2 ever started smocking and having a beer as of yet. No smoking or beer was ever allowed at this home by these kids.
They never left hungry I cooked many huge sunday morning breakfeast for sometime 10 or 15 at once. If they were ever hungry they new they need only ask. Yes it was good to be here do to the exstensive music knowledge available here and equipment that could be used and borrowed. there are many bands playing around new england with members thats started here.
The vast majority of these kids have gone to and are graduates of colleges. and have jobs. They also were required to contribute to the electric bill here as it was enormous well over 10,000 watts of power cost a lot. LOL When I moved here 22 years ago I went to every neighbor within a few thousand feet and informed them that music would be played here and when my kids who were babies at the time would continue it and all kids obeying rules would be doing it for years to come. Any complaints I would handle personally all that was required was a call to me or my wife not the police.
Do I think we shaped young minds and helped many parent who did not want to cope with a lot of this, yes I do. Every kid who came here from all three towns new my life story which I will not go into but it was one of shall we say very colorfull and education was no priority for me, Personally I think that scared a few of them and finishing school was stressed as a priority to them so as not to go through what I did. Every kid is a graduate.
When you say parents need to be involved you are correct in that it is paramount, but with the 2 parent working system it hard for parents to do. Fortunatly for 25 years I worked 24 hours one duty and 24 hours off duty. every 7 days of work which took 2 weeks I had 3 days in a row off. so this allowed me to be home a lot, my wife worked a regular job be we allways made these kids well come morning noon and night.
This society needs to have help from everyone that can like this Parents can not do it themselves in every case and a neighbor that has oppertunity to help I would reccomend it it fells good to see the results. I and my wife are not perfect and have same problems everyone else has at home with kids over the years but we try to do the best we can with what we have had.
If more off this was done the young would be better off and hopefully develope the same values we decided to have and it is decide by the individual you just have to show them it works and is the right thing to do. Education is of little use with out a life experience and the knowledge of success and failures being known to these kids especially those of the family history of the parents.
I could go on on this never ending but I think you all get my point of do what you can for your own and others this society has become laced with stupidity and challenges that these kids will allways have trouble overcoming and it is only going to get worse. The uncaring attitude in these school system can never be overcome when there are to few that do care in it. So help your kids and neighborhood kids it is a good thing to do. not all will learn not all will turn out well but if you try at least you can say you tried not wtched from the sidelines and blame others.
Jack
For those who complain about me pasting the same post I right on stories that concern the same type of things I will be doing that to this it takes to long to keep typing all the time and I spell like crap. and the grammer is even worse most times. LOL
Jack
1) THE EAST PROVIDENCE TEACHER'S UNION WILL FIGHT AND SQUEEZE AND COMPLAIN AND TRY TO INTIMIDATE THE EAST PROVIDENCE SCHOOL COMMITTEE TO GET MORE MONEY AND BENEFITS FOR THEIR MEMBERS. THEY WILL ALSO INTENTIONALLY MIS-LEAD THE PUBLIC REGARDING THESE ISSUES. ALL THEY WANT IS THEIR MONEY $$$$$$$$$$.
2) WHERE WILL THIS ALL THIS MONEY COME FROM THAT THIS GREEDY UNION IS ASKING FOR?
3) IT WILL COME FROM THE ALREADY HIGH ANNUAL TAXES PAID BY THE HARDWORKING EAST PROVIDENCE TAXPAYERS.
4) IF YOU WANT TO PAY HIGHER ANNUAL TAXES IN EAST PROVIDENCE, THEN SUPPORT THE GREEDY TEACHER'S UNION DEMANDS AND THE POLITICAL CANDIDATES THAT THEY SUPPORT AND WANT TO GET ELECTED. YOU WILL THEN PAY HIGHER TAXES IN THE CITY OF EAST PROVIDENCE.
I GUARANTEE YOU THAT!
5) IT'S REALLY JUST THAT SIMPLE !
You know improveEP Posting in caps same exact post day after day just makes people ignore your post. and not adding some sort of explaination to explain your post is not helpfull either.
"Just a thought"
Jack
I recently read that U.S. school kids rank 13th in the world, in reading. How tragic that our Nation agruably became the most prosperous in a very short amount of time historically, to a country that whose kids canNt even read. Is there any question that these damnable teachers unions are the cause of this?
These 'legal' extortion artists so often like to say, 'it's the law' when questioned about collective bargaining. It's time tto start using the law on our side, and create an avalanche of civil law suits against the teachers unions.
Every single parent, citizen, taxpayer, etc should file a suit. You don't need a lawyer, can find information via the internet how and where to file, and the filing fees, which are generally low.
The beauty of it is, the union will have to pay attorneys to defend each & every claim, hopefully bankrupting and busting them. Then we can get back to properly educating our kids.
>>>Is there any question that these damnable teachers unions are the cause of this?
Of course, there is a LOT of question to that......
Poverty in this country as well as homelessness and real wages have gone down. This destroys the family and the middle class....no home, no good education.
For someone who claims to advocate responsibility, you are very quick to hand it all off to someone else. News Bulletin - Florida pays their teachers horribly......and kids learn in mobile trailers. The result is a poor education.
Vermont, on the other hand, pay teachers well, provides access to medical insurance and a social safety net for EVERY resident of the state, etc.....and, guess what?
They have the best education in the USA.
I'm sure they have teachers unions in VT.
response to craigmass
Why do you always pick something that is apples and oranges to compare. Vermont has a smaller population, the business there is still Lumber which they have a lot of. Smaller towns, Less class students in classes. There are mant reasons you cant compare them to R.I.
And by the way they are in finacial hardship also and are cutting everything and starting to tax everything. And the Teachers Union there is allready screaming about that for 2010. So lets see what happens then.
Vermont: $278 million or 25 percent of its budget
Compared to the other states, Vermont's $278 million shortfall might not seem like much. But then again, this tiny New England state doesn't really spend much, so the shortfall actually takes up a large portion of the budget.
After a special legislative session last month, Vermont lawmakers approved a state budget. But the state's financial woes have translated into cuts across many sectors.
Lawmakers tapped money from the state's education fund to pay overall expenses, resulting in a loss in state aid of about $18.4 million to the Education Fund for fiscal year 2010. Lawmakers also enacted a provider rate cut from 4 percent to 2 percent for contracted healthcare services, impacting mental health providers, sign language interpreters and rehabilitation programs for children.
The state is also taking cuts that could impact its environment, a major selling point in its important tourism industry.
Vermont eliminated approximately 10 percent of the jobs in its Agency of Natural Resources, a state department dedicated to protecting the environment. Most of the job cuts were made among the agency's solid waste management staff.
Vermont now charges a sales tax for digital music downloads and liquor, has raised tobacco taxes and will shut down several highway rest areas
Jack
Nice work on the cut and paste job Joethro. Now please, as best as you can explain your point if you had one.
Oh by the way Vermont and Conneticut are in the top 10 worst financial difficulty in the country. Others are New York, New jersey, Alaska due to oil revenue shortfall, Arizona Nevada, Illinois, Washington, and Oregon.
Vermont state is hardly a great example when they are going down the tubes worse thatn we are.
Jack
Opps forgot California, Delete alaska they just have a large revenue short fall LOL
Jack
Yes craigisass/Socialist....what say ye, class clown/traitor?
A 5th beatle was the manager but in actuality it really was stu sutcliff who was a friend of lennons and died of a brain hemorage in hamberg. Barry cowsill the one that passed in orleans I met a few times.
On another note I was surprised R.I. wasnt in the top ten. Wonder if a republican governor had anything to do with that, LOL
Yep gonna hear it for that one.
Jack
She plays in Newport evey summer the last few years at yauting center. Damn cant spell big boat oh well cant afford it anyway craigmass took all my money for heathcare for the illegal aliens LOL
Jack
Yes its a joke geeze
I think the state has finally broken it's back and there is a lot worse coming down the road. If healthcare does pass the Country will break its back and this state will be one of the first to go into bankruptcy in my opinion.
Jack
