[CSPS] reinventing public schools

[Jonathan Coopersmith]

In the halls of academe


Funding (and reinventing) education

By Allan Saxe

Special to the Star-Telegram

Once again, Texas must find new ways to fund and structure public education.

Good grief! Not again! As the saying goes, "Been there, done that." Yet 
here we go again with another legislative special session, court deadlines 
and various opinions on what should be done.

There is a simple way to have funding equality with no Robin Hood. It would 
require a state constitutional amendment. We need to eliminate all local 
school property taxes and substitute a statewide property tax.

The state would collect the money and redistribute it on a per capita basis 
to every one of our school districts. The districts would become merely 
administrative units of the state.

The state -- required by the Texas Constitution to be the main purveyor of 
public education -- would essentially run all public education, set 
standards, choose texts and certify teachers.

Local school districts, nearly 1,200 of them, are superfluous and 
duplicative. Their sole administrative function would be to plan new 
schools, hire personnel and be completely creatures of the state.

The local districts would respond by saying that they are still needed 
because there are so many differences throughout the state. This may have 
been true years ago, but today just about every school district faces the 
same problems and issues; they are bound by state and national goals and 
guidelines. Many students today are mobile, moving rapidly from one school 
district to another.

Is there any chance of having what really would amount to one statewide 
school district? Not likely -- local districts are political powerhouses 
and would lobby legislators strongly to keep the present system in place, 
with, of course, more money for "the children."

But far more important than financing is how to teach the many students 
with their various needs and desires.

We need to emphasize more vocational training and quit demeaning various 
occupations that can provide a good livelihood and pride. Frankly, not all 
students need the same academic subjects now required of them. The subjects 
should be more tailored to their own desires.

An interested student will make a much better citizen, and be easier to 
educate, than one who is treated like a force-fed goose. Let's make many 
subjects and courses available, but not mandated.

Students today go to school for 13 years, including kindergarten. This, 
too, is a relic of the past. (But it does keep our young off the street for 
many years during daylight hours.)

Stop making public schools mini-penitentiaries. Many of our schools 
resemble (from the outside, at least) jails -- uninspiring, functional 
buildings. Make the schools pleasant and attractive, with trees and 
foliage, and keep them small.

Huge high schools with thousands of students may make for terrific football 
programs, but they also make bad education.

And stop talking about self-esteem. Self-esteem is made real by 
accomplishment, not by some psychobabble about telling everybody that they 
are so wonderful and can do everything.

And whoever came up with the idea of bumper stickers saying, "My 
son/daughter is an honor student at Blah-Blah Elementary School"? A bumper 
sticker does not make an honor student.

The best sticker reply I have seen said, "My Cocker Spaniel is Smarter than 
your Honor Student." And there's the one that says, "My son can beat up 
your honor student." (No violence, please, but doesn't that show that many 
people/taxpayers understand the ridiculous extreme to which self-esteem has 
been taken?)

The Legislature will meet soon in another special session and come up with 
some new version of our tax structure. But what it really needs to do is 
radically re-invent public education, both in the financing and teaching modes.

Then perhaps we can see some meaningful bumper sticker that states, "My 
son/daughter can read and write, knows history, can do basic math and 
realizes that the Earth does revolve around the sun."

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/13319257.htm

Jonathan Coopersmith
Associate Professor
Dept. of History
MS 4236
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas  77843
979.845.8584
979.862.4314 fax

Secretary
History & Philosophy of Science Section (L)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
aaas.org 
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