Does your child go to a religious school?

 Does your child go to a religious school?

 

Since 1962 the Supreme Court has bared prayer in the public schools.   In the not so good old days, kids read from the bible and said the Lord’s Prayer as part of the opening of school each day.   Whether it was the protestant or Catholic version depended on the politics of the region.   Then came Madeline Murray, a Marylander who also happened to be an atheist.  She resisted and out of that resistance came the Supreme Court decision.  Although not a party to the case, her reasoning that prayer in public schools violates the first amendment to the religious establishment clause of the Constitution became part of the decision.

Now come the new found religious conservatives.   Legislators in Tennessee, Texas and Louisiana have passed legislation that would require the 10 Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom in the state.   In 1980, there was a similar law in Kentucky and it was struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of the Establishment Clause.

Recently, Louisiana thought it might give the idea a chance.   But the federal appeals court struck down that law.

But hey, nothing succeeds like “let’s give this another try”. The effort is very appealing to the conservative religious right.   Sorry, last week the Appeals Court also struck down a new Tennessee law for the same reason.  Do these folks even pay attention?   Because days after the Tennessee law was struck down, the Texas Governor signed an almost identical bill requiring that the 10  Commandments be displayed in every classroom in Texas.   More than likely opponents of the legislation in Texas will also raise the issue of the Establishment Clause and separation of church and state.

So why do these bills keep passing if they are consistently struck down?  The answer is pandering to the conservative base.   The governors of these states and their legislative majorities knowing full well that what they are doing violates the US Constitution can tell their constituents that they tried.  The can blame the left wing courts that struck them down.  Thing is the courts in these states could hardly be called left wing.

Religious schools are a good thing for those who want to send their children to a school with those belief systems.   Folks sending their kids to public schools, for whatever reasons, need to know that they did NOT chose a religious school and their taxes shouldn’t be supporting one.   Says so in the First Amendment.

Time for a Break- What do Teachers want?

 Time for a Break- What do Teachers want?

 

By this time in June, most teachers are on summer break.  It’s a time to renew and refresh. We know that 3 out of 5 teachers leave the field in the first five years of teaching.  The dropout rate for special education teachers is even higher.  Education Week interviewed teachers from all across the country to try to discern just what it is that teachers want.

Teachers still feel that becoming a teacher is one of the greatest privileges and responsibilities to have.  But it’s very important to think about ones’ individual values and the values of the school or school district where you serve.  A misalignment serves to erode both your personal confidence and your enjoyment of the profession.  Teachers would tell new teachers that they need to be brave because there will be many days when you will need to put on your big-girl and big-boy boots.

Teachers see the field of teaching changing and not for the better. They note that since the pandemic, more teachers have left the field and with them goes a great deal of experience and wisdom that younger teachers can’t lean on.  Teachers are also upset about the amount of technology- what they have to learn and how their students are using it for instruction.   They are particularly concerned about the student use of AI.

Politics are coming into schools at an alarming rate.  Teachers in areas strongly impacted by the immigrant raids worry about keeping their students safe as well as explaining to the other children why safety is not accorded to all children.  Some teachers are concerned about expanding their students’ social experiences.  

Most of all, it seems the principal makes a huge difference.   Teachers acknowledge that the principal’s job is truly difficult.  It is middle management.  Their control and power are limited.  Teachers and families blame them for what is going wrong; yet their power to make changes is controlled by the central office.  Teachers feel that principals need to lock in at least one thing that is special about each teacher and to let that teacher know.  In this time of outside control of curriculum and what can be said in a classroom, now more than ever principals need to recognize the individual expertise of teachers and to honor that.

What do teachers want?  A great deal, but then again we are asking a great deal of them and entrusting our children’s future to them.

 

 

Now it's a federal case

 Now it’s a federal case!

Learning to read is a funny thing.  Everyone thinks they have the one and only road to heaven.  Over the years that road has frequently changed. Resulting in different kids being in the third reading group.  Yep, like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.   Now the highway runs ONLY to the Science of Reading which is a primarily phonics-based approach.  

In years past, Lucy Calkins developed an approach that is called “balance literacy”.  It emphasizes student choice in selection of reading materials, reading comprehension and meaning.  Students are encouraged to use a variety of strategies, such as picture clues and sentence meaning to figure out unfamiliar word. Techniques that closely align with mature reading skills.  New York City at one time used this approach for all of their schools.  Critics argue that there is not nearly enough explicit instruction in phonics which causes students to have difficulty decoding words.  The program was developed at Teachers College in Columbia University.  Recently, they have added more phonics to the program.

The Fountas & Pinnell programs use phonics and phonemic awareness but not to the exclusion of fluency, vocabulary development and comprehension.

Well none of that was any good for the “true believers” in the Science of Reading.  So those folks did what any  red, white and blue blooded American would do, they went to court in Massachusetts claiming that these other methods were not backed by sufficient research and were making false claims to the extent that the consumer protection laws should be applied to stop school districts from using and promulgating these alternative methods.

The judge in the US District Court declined to be a warrior in the reading wars.  He said, “The court cannot find defendants’ research inadequate…without delving into the merits of the defendants’ approaches to literacy education”

So there we are, left in a world where differing approaches to teaching reading can still co-exist.   You can’t even make it a federal case.

 

 

Pay now or pay later

 Pay now or pay later

Medicaid pays for a lot more than your neighbor’s visit to the ER or your visit for a well-baby check.  In the next several years, the bills passed by the House of Representatives will cut 687 billion dollars from the plan.  What does that mean, on the ground?

That’s a great deal of waste, fraud and abuse.  This is one of the biggest cuts to Medicaid in history.  Community based services for people with disabilities are not federally mandated.  But these are the services that allow people with disabilities to remain in their communities and to thrive.  Over 700,000 people are currently on waiting lists for these services.  With cuts this list can only grow.  Sixty-nine percent of the agencies providing these services are already declining new clients.  A third of the agencies are considering closing.  Without these community based services, people with disabilities will need to be served in more costly residential placements.

The new regulations are more complicated and require frequent eligibility checks.  Those will create administrative costs that will be subtracted from funds that can be used to care for people.  And more complications mean slower processing and more opportunity for error.

What will people do if they can’t get medical services from their local provider?  First of all, many will probably wait until they are a lot sicker.  Then they will seek medical care in their local ER.  The ER can not turn them away if they can’t pay.  But the service must be paid for somehow, some way.   And it’s the rate payer who will ultimately bear the burden as their health insurance goes up to cover the hospital costs for all of those unfunded ER visits.  And managing short term virus in a physician’s office is a great deal cheaper than the same service in the ER.  ER facilities are already overwhelmed meaning long waits.

The question isn’t so much will these services be paid for, it’s more who will do the paying and how much more will they cost depending on the provider.  So when you think the cuts in Medicaid don't impact you because you have private insurance, think again.  The piper must be paid and you could be the payer.

 

 Robbin’ the Hood and Standing Tall

Most people remember the tale of Robin Hood who took from the rich to give to the poor.  We have our own version of Robbin’ the Hood today.  A recently enacted budget bill in the House of Representative will cut Medicaid benefits for about eight million people.  This is a number estimated by the Congressional Budget Office which is a non-partisan group that advises Congress on the cost of legislation or on the savings of legislation.

Approximately 22.7% of those with disabilities are employed.  It is probably safe to assume that a large portion of the remaining 77.3% are using Medicaid for their health care.  The coverage for Medicaid and eligibility varies from state to state.  In all states you can qualify for Medicaid based on income, household size, disability and family status.

In states that have expanded Medicaid coverage, you can qualify based on income alone.  If your household income is below 138% of the poverty level you qualify.  Maryland is one of the states that elected to have expanded Medicaid coverage.   That expanded coverage came with more federal assistance.

The recent budget bill claims to be one of the largest tax cut bills in history.  And that is correct, especially if you are a billionaire or a multi-millionaire but not quite to the billions yet.  The US has one of the largest budget deficits in history.  It is moving towards 4 Trillion dollars.  The tax cuts will increase that deficit.  The cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps) are meant to reduce that increased deficit a bit.

Because people with disabilities tend to have lower incomes, they will disproportionately be impacted by these safety net funding programs.  The coverage for medical services for people using Medicaid is capped.  Consequently not all medical providers will take Medicaid patients.  It is hard enough being an individual with a disability.  Getting the medical care you need should not be thought of as “gaming the system”.  

Robin Hood would have been quite upset with today’s version. Robin Hood believed that no one stands so tall as when he stoops to help the vulnerable.   Today we are “robbin’ the neighborhood” to provide benefits to the rich.  Maybe we need a few more of us to stand tall.

Are teachers paid enough

 Are Teachers Paid Enough

Well now that depends on who you ask.   Of course, the teachers’ unions don’t think so.   And they aren’t likely to feel any sense of responsibility to the whole.  Baltimore County is going to renegotiate its 3-year contract with the Union because it isn’t getting enough money from the County to meet its commitment.  Administrative positions have been reduced, instructional materials, and maintenance, but it still isn’t enough.  The Union doesn’t want to hear that.  In fact, teachers in school districts with unions earn roughly 24% more than districts without unions.

The Union has said, “low pay limits the ability to attract and retain quality educators in the profession amid a looming educator shortage and sagging educator morale due chiefly to low pay and poor working conditions.  In Maryland, the Blueprint requires that starting teachers earn at least $60,000.  Some districts are funding that increase by limiting the salary increases for 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th year teachers.  Maryland is the 6^th highest paying state for teacher salaries.  The average teacher salary in Maryland is $82,877.  Maryland is behind California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Washington DC and Connecticut.  All of these states have a much higher cost of living than does Maryland.

Public school teachers in Maryland work, at most, 190 days a year.  Ten of those days are for professional development or days to do end-of-quarter grade calculation.  The average non-teacher employee works 236 days a year (that number excludes 14 federal paid holidays and 10 vacation days).  Lots of folks don’t get all those holidays.  Teachers work 6.5 hour days.  They have 20% of their day non-teaching for lesson planning and collaborating with peers.  Good teachers spend extra time at home.  Remember the average non-teacher bear already works an 8 hour day.  You will notice that the Union seldom mentions actual dollar salary when they ask for a percentage increase.  The new State license regulations do not even require a Masters Degree.

So you decide, is low pay really the reason folks don’t want to be teachers?

Why do you care?

 Why do you care?

 

There is a movement afoot to ban books.  Not just any books but any books that discuss diverse populations such as LBGQT, English as not the first language, people with darker skin tones- all of these books are considered divisive and discriminatory against folks whose skin is light colored and who speak pretty good English and seem to not have any disabilities.

Maryland is listed as one of the states with the most banned books.   That is odd since Maryland is true blue and has a law AGAINST school systems banning books.   The consequence of a school district banning books is that the Maryland State Department of Education is supposed to withdraw monies for libraries for that jurisdiction.  In fact, Carroll County public schools has banned so many books that that county alone has caused Maryland to be one of the states with the most banned books.  None of the other 23 school districts has banned books.   As yet, the MSDE has failed to provide the consequence to Carroll County schools.  The State Legislature might need to pass another law requiring the MSDE to obey the laws it has already passed.  

The Naval Academy has also removed over 350 books from its library because they discussed diversity, equity and inclusion.   Odd since one would think the Academy would want its midshipmen to understand the diverse population they will swear to give their lives to protect.

One of the purposes of education is to get students to think for themselves.   In a democracy it is very important to have informed citizens.  In fact, that is the prime reason we have education funded by the public.  Probably everyone would say they support the notion that students should think for themselves; we just don’t like it when their thinking for themselves differs from what we want them to think.  So the solution to that challenge seems to be to limit the ideas kids get to read about so they don’t have the opportunity to think thoughts that are unlike the ones we want them to come to “independently”.  

As a child my parents were all in favor of my education through reading.  Our financial situation did not allow for the buying of books.  So I got to go to the public library every week and take out a stack of books.   I could pick anything I wanted and frequently picked biographies of famous people.  Some of those famous people were diverse in background.  Although at that time, there were no LBGQT books around.  I learned a great deal about other worlds of other people.  Today our nation is much more diverse.  Why would we want to deny our kids the chance to peak into the windows of other cultures?  They will be richer.

Martin Niemoller a famous Lutheran pastor wrote:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

And this is why you should care.