Public Forum:
Race to the Top?
Arne Duncan, U.S. Department of Education; Tony Evers, Wisconsin superintendent of public instruction; Greg Thorton, superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools and Michael Bond, Milwaukee School Board chairman, are responsible for collapsing the school systems in this country and in this state.
One hundred billion additional dollars were given to the Department of Education through the stimulus bill to prop up our failing educational systems. MPS applied for $45 million in school improvement grants for troubled schools through the state Department of Public Instruction. In order to receive this grant, MPS had to do one of the following: fire the principal, send in a management company, close a troubled school(s) and distribute the students to better performing schools. So what will this do? Education reform takes time. Education reform requires vision.
To improve schools? Improve curriculum and instruction. Our school systems fail because they lack education values. Duncan et. al do not get it. Money is not the solution. Our schools will not improve if elected officials intrude into territories they know nothing about. The decision on how to teach and what to teach should be determined by professional educators acting with the authority vested in them by school districts or states.
Gov. Jim Doyle increased the cost of education for taxpayers while working to deny parents and our children access to successful educational options. Doyle and Evers refuse to address declining enrollment, however they allow billions of dollars to be wasted on bureaucrats, special interest groups and public employee unions. MPS continues to discriminate against our children by employing old policies that will only allow teachers to teach if they reside in the respective school district. This policy deprives the best-of-the-best teachers produced in our Wisconsin colleges to teach our children. It needs to go away.
It is time to bring back to Wisconsin educational standards. Standards that will engage our children to perform academically, socially and morally.
What will Scott Walker and Ron Johnson do to reform Wisconsin educational systems? They will hold all teachers, administrators and superintendents accountable to our most valuable assets: our children. Teach the children and the money will follow. In November we can make this happen.
Nancy Kormanik
Brookfield
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