Poli-ticks

Hogwash! Poppycock! And other baloney!

By Arlene Violet
Posted 12/14/18

Rhode Islanders learned something officially which we knew all along: the school system is failing our children. In a demographic comparison, i.e. economically poorer areas to our economically poorer …

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Poli-ticks

Hogwash! Poppycock! And other baloney!

Posted

Rhode Islanders learned something officially which we knew all along: the school system is failing our children. In a demographic comparison, i.e. economically poorer areas to our economically poorer sections, etc., Massachusetts cleaned our clocks. Indeed, this was true of every metric. If the state’s school districts were taken as a whole, Rhode Island would fall in the bottom 10 percent of Massachusetts districts.

Needless to say this deplorable information was withheld until after the general election. Then, came the ridiculous excuses for the abysmal scores: Commissioner of Education Ken Wagner blamed the poor showing on the fact that we haven’t been doing the test for the same period as has Massachusetts. Hogwash! It was he who capitulated to the teachers’ unions and abandoned the use of a standardized test as a high-school graduation requirement. Now, the commissioner is acting as the “beard” for the same unions by diverting his failure and that of educators onto the backs of parents. Look! The testing compares the same demographics per community and Rhode Island fails. Period.

Rather than come up with an action plan to revamp the public schools the commissioner, governor, and other supposed leaders like members of the General Assembly whose silence is deafening, are just wringing their hands. The fact is that they are all a bunch of cowards. They are intimidated by the power of teacher unions whom they don’t dare cross.

For example, where was “Weepy” Wagner when earlier this year the Providence superintendent announced a 5 year "plan" to cut chronic teacher absenteeism (defined as 11 or more days absent) from 58 percent to 54 percent? How can children have any continuity of learning when the teachers don’t show up? Yet, with the teacher contract on the line, Providence Mayor Elorza also wimped out with generous salary increases.

With all the money spent on education, how can we as a society even tolerate the injustices in Providence whose many students are behind the eight ball? I know teachers who do care and who want a sound educational plan but they are thwarted by the status quo. The unions are only interested in getting higher salaries for as little work as possible. The teacher unions are also succeeding since in places like South Kingstown they are getting union honchos on the school committees so they have allies on both sides of a negotiation.

It is time for Commissioner Wagner to get the heave-ho if he doesn’t resign in the face of this utter failure. The governor is also to blame. She is a puppet of the unions and acts the part of being concerned about education by proposing $1 billion in fixing school buildings and free tuition at CCRI. Fixing up the buildings is all well and good but it is what goes inside the building that matters. CCRI is swamped with ill-prepared students so the investment is another boondoggle and actually a sop to the unions since it creates more jobs.

Pray tell, when will somebody with guts emerge to lead the reform in education? Right now, nobody is on the horizon. The Commissioner is hedging his bets since he obviously knows what happened to one of his predecessors, Deborah Gist, when she tried to set standards. He cares more about retaining his job than doing it. Forrest Gump was correct: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

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