Guns don't kill people

 Guns don’t kill people…

 

Once again we have heard the rallying cry that guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  Well that would be correct but how about keeping guns away from people, particularly the ones who have a tendency to kill.  As Dr. Angelou said, “when people show you who they are, believe them.”  But I digress.

Once again this past week there has been a mass shooting in the U.S.  We are the most violent country among the world’s developed nations.  This time it was another school where innocent children were not simply killed but had their heads and faces blown away by an intruder bearing a multi fire assault weapon so that DNA was required to identify the victims.   Yes there was an SRO (school resource officer) in the building. Yes police officers arrived but as at Parkland didn't go in the building.  Some folks are suggesting that one SRO is not enough, we should arm the teachers as well.   We do love our guns.

In spite of the horrendous happenings this past week schools do continue to be among the safest places in our society.

Presumed Constitutionalists will tell you the second amendment gives us the right to keep and bear arms.  It makes one wonder if they have read any other parts of the Constitution.  How can some elected representatives continue to refuse to limit the purchase of weapons meant primarily for wartime combat?  They are not used for hunting because as with the little children this past week, they would destroy the animal.  

One of the most onerous things almost every politician will tell you they have to do is raise money.  Left, right and center- regardless of political orientation- raising money is hard and not fun.   In rides the National Rifle Association, it provides both money and voters to politicians who do as they are told.  If you are an elected official and you want its support you will tow the line they tell you to tow. 

We are a nation grown up from the wild west.  And many of us are still there.  This week there have been lots of prayers, lots of “we won’t forget these victims”, lots of broken hearts.  But the truth is these victims, like many before them, will be forgotten within the next news cycle.  The survivors will be left to mourn, to cry, to try to repair not just broken hearts but lives forever broken by the loss and by what they saw.  

Can our elected officials do something to mitigate all horror?   Sure but then how would they get the money and the votes the NRA provides.  This issue isn’t about the Constitution, the Second Amendment, it’s about keeping their jobs and getting reelected.  

Guns don’t kill people, but cowardly politicians sure enough have a hand in it.

When is an IEP, not an IEP?

 When is an IEP, not an IEP?

 

There are these documents called Section 504 Plans.  These plans are developed under the 1973 Vocational Rehabilitation Act.  Essentially Section 504 of the Act requires schools that receive federal funding (almost every public school does) to create plans for individual students so they are not discriminated against because of their disability.  These plans are sometimes called IEP Light.  These plans are instigated by a child’s family.  The plans describe ways in which accommodations will be made for a student with disabilities short of providing special education services.

Here is the good news and bad news about the plans.  The good news is that a child does not need to be formally assessed as a child with a disability as defined by IDEA.  Services provided by 504 plans are generally considered less likely to identify the child as having learning issues.  So, some of the accommodations might include, longer time for test taking, having a reader for some standardized tests, being able to do work or take tests in a separate, more quiet place.  School systems strongly encourage families to go with the 504 plan rather than seek an IEP by saying the student will be less known as a child with a disability by his/her peers.

However, there are some strong drawbacks to a 504 Plan compared to an IEP.  The most prominent is that the 504 Plan is an agreement between the family and the school.   It is not a contract for service.   Therefore, a school district can fail to deliver the agreed upon services because they are short of staff, don’t have the funds, or it is just not a priority.

Whereas, and IEP is a contract for service and is federally and state guaranteed once it is entered into between the family and the school district.  The IEP team must include a staff member who has the authority to commit the services of the school district.  If the IEP calls for 30 minutes of speech therapy each week, then the district is required to deliver that service. Failure to do so puts the district in jeopardy of losing its federal funding.  Most recently the Los Angeles Unified School District was forced to enter into an agreement with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) for its failure to deliver a free and appropriate education (FAPE) to students with special needs during the COVID pandemic.  The OCR made it clear that students learn best in person and that the additional federal funding during the pandemic needed to be used for that purpose.

The IEP is the gold standard for the delivery of special education services.  Section 504 Plans are nice but they don’t begin to offer the services of an IEP and there are no guarantees.

Why do we go to school?

 Why do we go to school?

 

So much of what we have our kids in school spend time on is a complete waste of time.  Just think of how much content we “learned”, memorized, and forgot right after the test. Was that content ever useful?

In these times of high test state mandated test taking and shaming of schools/students who do poorly on the test, it is time to ask why are we asking kids to learn this stuff anyway.

Students need to learn to read, use mathematics to do their personal finances and home maintenance, know enough about government to be an informed voter and know enough history that we won’t peat and repeat past mistakes. They need to learn to evaluate information, particularly in this day of so much misinformation.   If we really taught these things there would still be time left for other important issues.

Social-emotional learning comes under regular attack for not being rigorous academic work.  It is VERY important learning.  On a regular basis we learn of some disturbed individual shooting up a school, a house of worship or most recently a grocery store.  Most often the people who are doing these things are filled with hate of some other group.  Somewhere along the line the opportunity to teach these people to live with others was missed.

The very subjects we are quick to delete when budgets are tight or priorities are mixed up are the very ones that kids need the most.

Students should have more time in physical education.   Not to compete but to learn to work cooperatively.  They need to learn the meaning of a team effort with everyone working toward the same goal.

Music is a place where kids can strive and thrive together and learn about each other’s cultures in a non-threatening way. Through music they can learn to appreciate other cultures far beyond our recognition of the month.  Studio art allows children to express themselves in non-verbal ways and to work out aggression in an acceptable manner.

Think about how kids spend their school days.  The days are structured and that is good.  But they are alive today, and yet we consistently tell students that what they are learning they will need when they grow up.  What would happen if we allowed kids to spend their time in school learning things that they need right now.   Maybe then kids would know why they go to school.

Do we really need public schools?

 Do we really need public schools?

 

Public schools cost a great deal of money.  In fact, in most local jurisdictions schools use the majority of local funds.  In addition to all the local funds, there are also state funds.   And in Maryland, we now have the Blueprint for the Future that is going to plow in millions more over the next few years.

Is all that money worth it?  State testing, community colleges and 4-year post-secondary institutions all tell us that students are nowhere near grade level.   Well over half of all students entering community colleges must take zero credit remedial courses for which they pay tuition.   Statewide test results tell us that only a minority of kids is performing on grade level.

So, what exactly is the taxpayer getting for all that money.  Some schools are better than others, mostly in the high rent districts.  But even in those areas, many families opt to go private.  In the northeast, public schools spend just  under twenty thousand dollars per student.  McDonogh School in Baltimore County Maryland is generally considered one of the most prestigious private schools in the country.  Their tuition averages about thirty-one thousand a year.  Class size is under ten students.  The average class size in a public school in Maryland is supposed to be 21.  Try and find that.

The question is could the taxpayers get a better deal for their money and could kids get a better education?

In Maryland the state pays to build school buildings.  The biggest cost to public schools is human- teachers and administrators.  Under the Blueprint teachers with no experience and just an undergraduate degree will start at 60K.

One of the drawbacks of doing away with public schools is that who would start a school in the worst of the worst neighborhoods besides public schools.  We already know that schools in these neighborhoods have the worst and least experienced teachers because the unions won’t allow the system to put the best teachers there.

What if, just what if, we did away with public schools BUT kept public financing for the education of kids.   First off, we would do away with unions.  We could also cut costs for lots of administrators.   Suppose we retrofitted the buildings, offered per pupil funding to proposal writers to run their own schools.  That was the idea behind charter schools before unions got into the act and made sure teachers were union members and met state certification standards.  What if those charter schools could establish their own curricula and taught kids what they NEEDED to know and not what some summer work committee thought they SHOULD know?  What if schools were measured by how successful kids were once they got out of school not by how successful they were at test taking?  Using real kids and real metrics?  What if we went back to where it used to be when schools were established by communities and not part of some monolith bureaucracy that is increasingly being used for political purposes.

What if schools really served kids and not the unions, the administrators or the politicians?  What if there were no more public schools as we know them?   Just asking for a friend.

 

Stay in your lane

 Stay in your lane

 

Being a politician is tough.  No sooner do you win an election then you need to start raising money and campaigning for the next cycle.  No question, it is hard.  And let’s face it, the reputation of politicians is not one to inspire confidence.  Then there is the issue of getting noticed. Name recognition is critical to being elected.   But still there is a right way and a wrong way to do business.

And getting ahead on the backs and best interest of kids is the WRONG way to go about getting reelected or being mentioned for higher office.

For some reason, this seems to be open season on kids who are LBGTQ.  As if they didn’t have enough on their plates trying to feel safe and figure out who they are, now they have government on their case.  We have states where teachers are being threatened with punishment for discussing issues related to gay or trans youth.  In an era of teacher shortages, doesn’t seem to make sense to threaten to take away a teacher’s free speech.  Not to mention depriving kids of one of their most trusted allies in time of stress.

In most schools, mornings begin with a pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.  Most of us remember the part where we pledge to the “flag of the United States of America, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all”.  Whatever has happened to that indivisible part?   What is the problem with politicians wanting to divide us by race, faith, gender, and ethnic background?  Leaders are supposed to lead by bringing people together not tearing them apart.

Middle school is the toughest time of a kid’s life.  They are transforming into adult bodies in fits and starts, some ahead of the race, others lagging behind.  There is huge pressure to be like everyone else at a time when no one is like anyone else.  Teachers can help sort these issues out for kids.  Teachers can explain how we are all going to get to the place called “grown up” just not at the same time or in the same way.  Teachers can sustain a child’s self-esteem until that child can sustain on his or her own. Politicians need to stay out of the school business.

Their lane should be busy enough, stay in it.   You don’t know what you are doing in our lane.