With all the debate about the education system in the world, a lot of talk is about how much money to give them. In fact, a lot of the talk is about how much MORE money to give the schools. What if they are getting too much money already? In this article, Ben Chavis claims that schools do not need more money. Ben Chavis was the principal at American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, CA.
He claims that the stats do not back up the money. In the article, he claims that some Oakland, CA schools have a $602 million budget for there school year and more than 90% of their students fail. Mr. Chavez turned his school around with less than $8,000 per student. (This seems really high by itself) By using the motto, "If you act like a winner, you'll be treated like a winner. If you act like a fool, you'll be treated like a fool." According to Mr. Chavez, the school excelled in everything including physical fitness.
I love it. It is a great motto to live and teach by. Many times in the education world, we teach students that no matter how badly or inappropriately they behave, we are going to do anything at their beckoning call. There are no consequences for their actions, and we would NEVER call someone a FOOL. Students need to realize the direct connection between actions and consequences. If you are responsible and respectful, you get more privileges and opportunities. If you are a fool, you can not be trusted.
"The American public has been conned into believing that public schools need more money." Chavez is on to something here. We need to understand that money is not the answer to all of our troubles.
One thing that I disagree with is the negative flavor that the article gives to administrators when it comes to money. I do feel that people receiving stimulus money should be held accountable, but private companies have proven to spend the money foolishly and need to be monitored closely. Of course administrators always want more money, but for the most part, it is for the kids. They are not getting personal gain out of more money for their schools. This article may change the focus off of the money issue and change it to more improvising with the money the do have. Maybe by being held accountable, schools will be pressured into spending their money wisely as well.
Philip
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This past year, my childrens school district had a to cut 4.5 million from their budget. That does not seem a lot compared to Mr. Chavezs, but we are a smaller district (only 1 high school, 1 middle school, and 3 elementary schools). There were dozens of teacher cuts. This means that my childrens classes are going to be larger. I was happy that our new superintendents salary was frozen for a year, thats a start. I do feel that it is one of the responsiblities of the state to back the schools. With largers classes, how much learning is truely being learned? Our children are the future of Minnesota. Our district is asking the community to vote another refrenedum to increase our taxes. They want this to pass so they can make class sizes smaller, improve technology, and purchase new curriculum. This is the second time we are voting for a tax increase for the schools. The first time both my husband and myself voted yes and we will vote yes again, but when will it end. I feel that the state and government need to step in financially for some districts. Our children are our future.
ReplyDeletePhillip--What an interesting article!! Like you mentioned, nearly every article or buzz is regarding the need to get more money into our schools--to suggest that the schools may be getting TOO much is almost taboo!
ReplyDeleteI don't think that schools right now are getting too much money but I think that if the money were distributed differently within the districts, many would have a completely different look, feel and in turn, a higher number of student successes! I agree that all too often administrators get a bad rap for "getting more money" but this money does not dump directly (or indirectly, for that matter) into the salaries of them or their employees.
Thanks for the great read!
Phillip,
ReplyDeleteI love your article choice and I absolutely agree with you 100%. We live in a society where we are so afraid to hurt a child's feelings that we are not holding them immediately accountable for their actions. We do a great job in praising our students, but when it comes to doling out consequences we become tentative. I am one of those teachers who is not afraid at telling a student what they need to hear and handing out swift consequences (last year I was written up for telling a student he was acting like an idiot).
As for schools getting too much per pupil funding, I have to agree and disagree. On one hand I believe that we are not getting proportionate results out of increasing school budgets, but I also feel that our government is spending money on a bunch of other superfluous things when that money could be going into educating the future of this country. Our district does fine with limited funding (we are below the $8000 per pupil that the principal in the article mentioned) and I believe that is because we brought in an outside consultant to audit our schools performance in relation to operations and found several areas that needed to be fixed. We tightened our belts and righted the ship and we are now doing fine.
cheers,
ct
Phillip,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find your article you referred to, but I did find the AIM website and Dr. Chavez's ideals were listed there. It is simply amazing that his school has turned around on such blunt force of common sense and dropping the political correctness. I'd be proud to be a part of any community and school that teaches with no nonsense approaches such as those offered at his school. If only all schools, segregated or not, would subscribe to this ideology we'd have a safer America. When fools are fools, we treat them like it and expect them to be winners.
I think when you separate race, it's not something that will benefit society, but when you separate the political mumbo jumbo from education and political correctness is revealed as the fool that it is, we would be onto something. As a racially mixed district, we do not have the ability any longer to discipline someone of another race without being called racist. It's happening across America starting with President of the United States and his "Beer Summit" and trickling down to our Kindergarten classrooms. Dr. Chavez doesn't take crap from Affirmative Action representatives or hand-outs. He doesn't allow anymore than one psychologist and one administrator on campus at a time. He expects students to actually complete upwards to 2 1/2 hours or more minimum school work a night, which is something teachers at my school don't think helps at all. As a matter of fact, they have argued to eliminate homework all together.
I am going to consider buying his book, Crazy Like a Fox. I don't doubt that his insight on how we should incorporate common sense into the schools would help eliminate wasted spending.
Thanks for the topic.
Randy B.
When you begin to talk about money, people get itchy. They believe that it is a subject best left alone. However, I think there is a huge problem with money. The issue is not how much money, but the distribution of the money. Most of a school system's money comes from the tax digests of the county they are in and state funds. Federal funds only come from certain programs designed to help low-income schools or grants systems have received. The distribution of this money is what is causing so much trouble. There are some high schools near where I live whose football athletic budget is bigger than the entire middle school's budget down the street. Importance is placed on "winning" athletics, scholastic programs, and not evenly distributed. It is awarded to those who succeed, not those who need it most. Money can be the root of all evil and I truly believe that in education, those at the top should be the first to lend a helping hand, not the ones to take the biggest chunk of salary out of the budget. If you look at every state school budget, more than 60% of it is for salaries. Maybe we need to structure salaries better to reflect who is really having an impact on students.
ReplyDeleteI teach in a rather low income area in which most students receive free lunch. Our school district operates off of very little money and though we squeak by we would greatly benefit from more money. I teach technology and I have 13 computers for classes of 30 students. Our rooms are overcrowded with not enough supplies to go around. For someone in my situation, I have to say I thought the article was a little offensive. I get paid less than many of the surrounding counties in my area and I work large amounts of overtime making sure my students have what they need. I often spend my own money to make sure my students have what they need for my class. I have been furloughed three days already this year and I am already expecting four more starting in January. My school system is desperate to find ways to stop teacher cuts and find more ways to benefit students. Though I agree that some school districts have more than enough, it is not just to compare all school systems to the one in California.
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