Leonard mentioned Michigan’s Education performance is very. poor but avoided stating the cause.
In 1989, the National Commission on Excellence in Education described American education “as a rising tide of mediocrity.”
They noted that “
it is not government that can reform education fundamentally,” REAL REFORM COMES FROM THE PEOPLE!
Education policies & programs increased federal authority over local control & Teachers unions became overly strong & began to advocate for teachers rights over what is good for the student!
Suddenly inner cities & suburbs alike, were faced with authoritarian teachers & administrators who denied parents their proper role in education!
The U.S. department of education, formally established in 1979 ballooned with administrators & programs & an out-sized budget. Moreover, the department exercised authority that reduced & gradually eliminated
states & local communities ability to implement programs responsive to the needs of student without government oversight!
States control most of what happens in schools but with the ever growing union membership plus engagement of private interest groups, they learned to wield power over Congress & extract more money.
Local Teachers unions have aligned themselves with the UAW & the coalition
has emboldened them to use their monies to influence state & federal legislators to create laws that usurp the rights of parents & all taxpaying citizens.
Together, they’ve enabled the local & state Boards of Education to make decisions independently, totally disregarding input from taxpaying citizens.
This has created a situation where elected public bodies are ignoring & dismissing citizens rights as guaranteed by the Constitution!
This is not merely a matter of over-reach!
Consider that Educators decided using Phonics - a proven & successful technique in teaching reading, is too time consuming. Through union influence, they were able to place the topic on the agenda of Michigan legislators, who ruled for teachers to eliminate phonics altogether!
Such actions allow legislators to decide curricula & parents are completely prevented from participating in any part of the conversation!
The decades between 1979 & 2022 were energized as Democrats encouraged numerous policy & curricula change & many were harmful.
In Michigan, union influence & power have increased the ability of educators to not only ignore & dismiss parental concerns, their efforts have spilled into policies that deny parents the time to review course materials!
They’ve even created policies that prohibit anyone who does not have a youth currently enrolled in a district from addressing the board of education!
Remember that taxpaying citizens, including parents, residents & businesses, are the source of funds for every aspect of operating the public school system! And they have been blocked from every process affecting American youth!
The entire system is now controlled by unions, educators & legislators!
Leonard did not project that he fully comprehends the extensive & drastic politically-left that collectively divide citizens-taxpayers,parents & even a business from addressing a board of education.
This is a flaming hot situation & constantly intensifying!
Effective policy-making is impeded by organizational structures & bureaucratic entities. State & federal courts will soon be asked to create institutional constraints.
President Trump, perceptive of all aspects of a decades long battle for control, ordered the dissolution of federal authority, acknowledging state preeminence in education. Therefore, the tyranny of educators, unions & the legislators who receive campaign monetary support makes it nearly impossible to begin any negotiation between the citizens, taxpayers, parents & the education bureaucracy!
The situation has evolved into a Constitutional civil-rights protest!
Please Dave, be a catalyst for drawing the Mackinac Center into this complicated ordeal.
You are almost right. Educators did not decide to throw out phonics. The State Board of Education---a group of non-educators dictated that. We fought like hell to keep phonics in reading. It was not something we chose. The new reading series coming in went to whole group teaching and threw out the phonics. In whole group teaching you lose 1/3 of the class. Any student that struggles gets lost. I don't know why we have a Board of Education not made up of educators. But then you get those educators who failed after their first or second year of teaching and became politicians to get back at the field they were not successuful in. You need people in the trenches who are actually trying to teach. Core Curriculum should NEVER have been implemented on a national level. Teachers are required to read word-for-word out to the teacher's manual to teach--the manual has always just been a guide with mulitple suggestions on how to approach any subject. NOW it is a teaching rule. You must ONLY follow the words exactly as they are written. So, little Sally doesn't understand. Her teacher can only read to her what is in the manual over again. Putting it in other words that might make sense to little Sally, is FORBIDDEN! This is wrong on so many levels and there is NO research I have found that supports this it's not funny. It's also ludicrus to expect a 6 yr old to sit in a reading class for 120 minutes with no interruptions. And we wonder why kids are misbehaving.
Every other thing you said is spot on and I could not have said it better. But your local teachers are not at fault. They are doing the best they can in a bad situation.
Local teachers told me to go home from a meeting if the board, saying I was “too old to be there.”
I worked many years with the late Philip Runkel, who insisted parents had a necessary role - ( teachers, administrators & parents each were one leg of a 3- legged stool.)
The district ranked in the state’s academic top 10. By the 90s it moved somewhere in the 60s percentile.
Many changes that made, were eventually researched & found to be critical to aspects of brain formation.
There are too many to detail, however the decades between 1979 & 2000, also experienced two parents with demanding jobs, causing less parental involvement in their communities.
This societal change figured into the growing distance & distrust between parents & the public education system.
By the way, I worked in D.C. for a short time & appointed to a panel to review Community grants by the education department. While far from expert, I have some experience regarding how things work at the federal level & in the education department.
Bottom line is the money for public schools comes from taxpaying American citizens & despite the lack of expertise in the field of education,they are guaranteed a legal, Constitutional role in the construct of a system they access for their family.
All entities must find a way to come together. The invasion of political philosophies has made enemies at every level & between every group!
We all have to accept the limitations of a country that mandates we learn to cooperate,negotiate & never dominate!
It’s tough but not impossible,as long as we accept the basic requirements of living & working in a country governed by mutually accepted terms of co-existence!
Any teacher that would tell you to go home from a board meeting is "too old". Parents have every right to have a say in what their children are learning. Parents were always the first people I consulted if I saw a change in their child. Parents know their children best. I only had them part of a 7 hour day. Honestly, I made a point to meet my parents and ask their concerns. Maybe it was different because I taught special education, but I firmly believe all education is special. I believe parents are the key to a child's success and if I am the enemy we have issues. I wanted my parents to feel they could drop in on my prep time, grab a cup of coffee and we could talk. Many even brought their own coffee. The point is there are three entities in a child's education, The school, The parent, and The teacher. They all need to be on the same page. I personally think the Federal Dept of Ed should go away, biggest waste of money around. Michigan's Dept. of Ed is a mess. My daughter worked there once. I read grants for them. I was once a certified grant writer. We need to go back to when I was a kid, right there with the dinosaurs. There was a system in place and every kid knew it God who saw everything you did, The teacher, because if you messed up in class it got back to your parents, usually before the teacher could call, and your parent, because if you screwed up in school there were consequences. Now there is no respect for anyone. Kids don't even respect themselves. I was a "too old" teacher in 2010 according to the State of Michigan. I wasn't really ready to quit teaching, but they made an offer and I didn't wait to be asked twice. In my district, the negativity trickled down from the top. There was no joy in working for them. The joy was the kids themselves. Even they picked up on the atmosphere of the schools. I've been retired 15 1/2 years. I cannot teach at a community college or a university. I am deemed too old because of my age. But, I still teach. I coach writers. I've been writing over 60 years. I've owned a small press for 6 years, and I'm working on book 18. I have a program I am presenting to the local school boards for a extra curricular writing program for students. Should I be able to get it off the ground, each student will finish with a manuscript ready to send to an agent , a publisher, or to self-publish. I am building a scholarship program with this course and one for adults, Those students who are seniors and complete the program will be eligible to apply for the scholarship. While I expect the first scholarships to be smaller, I am hoping we can grow the program and the scholarship fund.
Leonard mentioned Michigan’s Education performance is very. poor but avoided stating the cause.
In 1989, the National Commission on Excellence in Education described American education “as a rising tide of mediocrity.”
They noted that “
it is not government that can reform education fundamentally,” REAL REFORM COMES FROM THE PEOPLE!
Education policies & programs increased federal authority over local control & Teachers unions became overly strong & began to advocate for teachers rights over what is good for the student!
Suddenly inner cities & suburbs alike, were faced with authoritarian teachers & administrators who denied parents their proper role in education!
The U.S. department of education, formally established in 1979 ballooned with administrators & programs & an out-sized budget. Moreover, the department exercised authority that reduced & gradually eliminated
states & local communities ability to implement programs responsive to the needs of student without government oversight!
States control most of what happens in schools but with the ever growing union membership plus engagement of private interest groups, they learned to wield power over Congress & extract more money.
Local Teachers unions have aligned themselves with the UAW & the coalition
has emboldened them to use their monies to influence state & federal legislators to create laws that usurp the rights of parents & all taxpaying citizens.
Together, they’ve enabled the local & state Boards of Education to make decisions independently, totally disregarding input from taxpaying citizens.
This has created a situation where elected public bodies are ignoring & dismissing citizens rights as guaranteed by the Constitution!
This is not merely a matter of over-reach!
Consider that Educators decided using Phonics - a proven & successful technique in teaching reading, is too time consuming. Through union influence, they were able to place the topic on the agenda of Michigan legislators, who ruled for teachers to eliminate phonics altogether!
Such actions allow legislators to decide curricula & parents are completely prevented from participating in any part of the conversation!
The decades between 1979 & 2022 were energized as Democrats encouraged numerous policy & curricula change & many were harmful.
In Michigan, union influence & power have increased the ability of educators to not only ignore & dismiss parental concerns, their efforts have spilled into policies that deny parents the time to review course materials!
They’ve even created policies that prohibit anyone who does not have a youth currently enrolled in a district from addressing the board of education!
Remember that taxpaying citizens, including parents, residents & businesses, are the source of funds for every aspect of operating the public school system! And they have been blocked from every process affecting American youth!
The entire system is now controlled by unions, educators & legislators!
Leonard did not project that he fully comprehends the extensive & drastic politically-left that collectively divide citizens-taxpayers,parents & even a business from addressing a board of education.
This is a flaming hot situation & constantly intensifying!
Effective policy-making is impeded by organizational structures & bureaucratic entities. State & federal courts will soon be asked to create institutional constraints.
President Trump, perceptive of all aspects of a decades long battle for control, ordered the dissolution of federal authority, acknowledging state preeminence in education. Therefore, the tyranny of educators, unions & the legislators who receive campaign monetary support makes it nearly impossible to begin any negotiation between the citizens, taxpayers, parents & the education bureaucracy!
The situation has evolved into a Constitutional civil-rights protest!
Please Dave, be a catalyst for drawing the Mackinac Center into this complicated ordeal.
You are almost right. Educators did not decide to throw out phonics. The State Board of Education---a group of non-educators dictated that. We fought like hell to keep phonics in reading. It was not something we chose. The new reading series coming in went to whole group teaching and threw out the phonics. In whole group teaching you lose 1/3 of the class. Any student that struggles gets lost. I don't know why we have a Board of Education not made up of educators. But then you get those educators who failed after their first or second year of teaching and became politicians to get back at the field they were not successuful in. You need people in the trenches who are actually trying to teach. Core Curriculum should NEVER have been implemented on a national level. Teachers are required to read word-for-word out to the teacher's manual to teach--the manual has always just been a guide with mulitple suggestions on how to approach any subject. NOW it is a teaching rule. You must ONLY follow the words exactly as they are written. So, little Sally doesn't understand. Her teacher can only read to her what is in the manual over again. Putting it in other words that might make sense to little Sally, is FORBIDDEN! This is wrong on so many levels and there is NO research I have found that supports this it's not funny. It's also ludicrus to expect a 6 yr old to sit in a reading class for 120 minutes with no interruptions. And we wonder why kids are misbehaving.
Every other thing you said is spot on and I could not have said it better. But your local teachers are not at fault. They are doing the best they can in a bad situation.
Local teachers told me to go home from a meeting if the board, saying I was “too old to be there.”
I worked many years with the late Philip Runkel, who insisted parents had a necessary role - ( teachers, administrators & parents each were one leg of a 3- legged stool.)
The district ranked in the state’s academic top 10. By the 90s it moved somewhere in the 60s percentile.
Many changes that made, were eventually researched & found to be critical to aspects of brain formation.
There are too many to detail, however the decades between 1979 & 2000, also experienced two parents with demanding jobs, causing less parental involvement in their communities.
This societal change figured into the growing distance & distrust between parents & the public education system.
By the way, I worked in D.C. for a short time & appointed to a panel to review Community grants by the education department. While far from expert, I have some experience regarding how things work at the federal level & in the education department.
Bottom line is the money for public schools comes from taxpaying American citizens & despite the lack of expertise in the field of education,they are guaranteed a legal, Constitutional role in the construct of a system they access for their family.
All entities must find a way to come together. The invasion of political philosophies has made enemies at every level & between every group!
We all have to accept the limitations of a country that mandates we learn to cooperate,negotiate & never dominate!
It’s tough but not impossible,as long as we accept the basic requirements of living & working in a country governed by mutually accepted terms of co-existence!
.
Any teacher that would tell you to go home from a board meeting is "too old". Parents have every right to have a say in what their children are learning. Parents were always the first people I consulted if I saw a change in their child. Parents know their children best. I only had them part of a 7 hour day. Honestly, I made a point to meet my parents and ask their concerns. Maybe it was different because I taught special education, but I firmly believe all education is special. I believe parents are the key to a child's success and if I am the enemy we have issues. I wanted my parents to feel they could drop in on my prep time, grab a cup of coffee and we could talk. Many even brought their own coffee. The point is there are three entities in a child's education, The school, The parent, and The teacher. They all need to be on the same page. I personally think the Federal Dept of Ed should go away, biggest waste of money around. Michigan's Dept. of Ed is a mess. My daughter worked there once. I read grants for them. I was once a certified grant writer. We need to go back to when I was a kid, right there with the dinosaurs. There was a system in place and every kid knew it God who saw everything you did, The teacher, because if you messed up in class it got back to your parents, usually before the teacher could call, and your parent, because if you screwed up in school there were consequences. Now there is no respect for anyone. Kids don't even respect themselves. I was a "too old" teacher in 2010 according to the State of Michigan. I wasn't really ready to quit teaching, but they made an offer and I didn't wait to be asked twice. In my district, the negativity trickled down from the top. There was no joy in working for them. The joy was the kids themselves. Even they picked up on the atmosphere of the schools. I've been retired 15 1/2 years. I cannot teach at a community college or a university. I am deemed too old because of my age. But, I still teach. I coach writers. I've been writing over 60 years. I've owned a small press for 6 years, and I'm working on book 18. I have a program I am presenting to the local school boards for a extra curricular writing program for students. Should I be able to get it off the ground, each student will finish with a manuscript ready to send to an agent , a publisher, or to self-publish. I am building a scholarship program with this course and one for adults, Those students who are seniors and complete the program will be eligible to apply for the scholarship. While I expect the first scholarships to be smaller, I am hoping we can grow the program and the scholarship fund.