News-Record.com

These comments came via e-mail this morning. They are re-posted in their entirety.

Read your editorial about the reaction to the story on wealth and
educational achievement. I've read enough of your columns to realize
that you're a fair minded person who sees two sides to issues. What

I'd suggest to you about the comments you quoted are that they aren't
a reflection of mean-spiritedness as much as fatigue with the issue of education.

When it is suggested that we have a "man to the moon" type approach to educational spending it ignores the simple fact that history shows
we've already made that effort and don't have the results to show for
it. Go back thirty years and look at the percentage increase in taxes
and the percentage of revenues that schools are absorbing.

We've made great sacrifices and neglected other needs, so it is hardly from a lack of caring that we are in the position we are in today.

All most of us are saying is simply that we need to put everything on
the table and see what works before going forward. The current
administration has not built trust among the public that they would
turn greater expenditures into results. In fact, having no children
in the schools and no axe to grind in any case, I can honestly say
that the current Superintendant of Schools and his administration come off as politically adept to an almost cynical degree, but managerially
inept.

I believe we need to examine the current situation carefully before
pouring more money into programs that clearly don't work. Magnet
schools and junk ciriculums need to be looked at carefully and pared
down to ensure that students can master a common core ciriculum.
Administrative costs should be reduced with dollar for dollar
transfers to class rooms. The community, and I mean that in the
broadest sense of the word, must come to an understanding of what
disciplinary requirements and policies will be and then they must be
uniformly enforced. And, I agree with you that disparities in funding > and facilities within a unified system simply cannot be tolerated.

But, having said that, it also needs to be understood that a first
step in correcting inequities may mean moving funds out of one school
to another before asking for more funding.

There are things we can advocate for outside the schools that would
help. I seriously believe that when the next cable TV contract is let out that we must insist that consumers have the right to exclude
networks promoting violent lifestyles like MTV from their basic cable
package. We need to raise taxes on alcohol to painful levels so that
students will go home to an environment that permits them to learn and grow. Raising funding for libraries and building new ones in poor
neighborhoods is something that cries out for action. Spending more
on child support enforcement is a a good place to invest that will pay dividends in schools. It is frustrating to see study after study that links births to non-married couples to poverty and see no consequences for the males who bring children into these situations.

New programs within the schools and new thinking might help. Maybe
the emphasis on a college track for all students is misguided. Why
not build trade schools that provide real useable skills for children
who won't go to college? Why not greater emphasis on life skills and
civic responsibility? Would dress codes or even uniforms diffuse some of the cultural conflicts and negative teen culture? Why not make massive cuts in administration and then put back only the parts that absolutely must be put back? And, why not make Superintendants sign a contract of expectations and incentives that they must meet to have their contracts renewed?

At the end of the day, all I'm saying is that it's short-sighted to
think that anyone who opposes a blank check to the schools doesn't
want students to succeed. Some of us just don't see what we're
getting from the investment and want new ideas and approaches and not
more tired rhetoric about "our children."

Dudley Bokoski