Say "Adios" to save schools

Everyone in NJ is talking about their concerns regarding Governor Chris Christie's budget, its impact on education, and in turn our homeowner's taxes. I am not one who voted for Christie, nor do I seem to be a big fan of his delivery and many political views; however, as a former member of the "business" of public education, I agree that something needs to be done. YES, it is a business, and I believe we need to start treating it like one instead of a public service or municipal service. I am not saying that the police, public works, town halls, and fire departments should not be viewed as businesses, but today I am only commenting on the statewide uproar by parents, teachers, and administrators with regards to the impending budget difficulties.

Those of you who have been loyal readers and have provided me with AWESOME feedback, (both critical and supportive) probably expect that I believe I have the solution. I don't think it is as drastic as making Wyoming the "Welfare State," but it is dramatic.

There is a lot of waste in education, and I find that there are three areas that could help district get through there budget woes. These fixes are long-term, moderately timed, and short-term in nature.

Long-Term fix - ABOLISH TENURE: In what other industry are people guaranteed jobs after three years and one day? The removal of a tenured employee can cost a district hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a result, most districts will hide an ineffective tenured teacher instead of doing what is right by children and replacing them with a more dynamic and usually less expensive replacement. I liken it to a professional baseball. In their prime, superstars like Bernie Williams made $15 million a year. As he aged and it came time to resign him, he was offered a dramatically different deal that was appropriate for his deteriorating skills. He chose to go home and start a new career as a jazz guitarist.

I believe that teachers should not get an automatic raise and get paid more because they have seniority. Those who continue to excite children, develop innovative instructional models, and continue to improve on their abilities as a teacher, should get the higher salary. I will dedicate a later blog to the life-cycle of a teacher, but for now I will say - TENURE BREEDS MEDIOCRITY. Why pay for mediocrity? Pay a teacher what he/she is worth, not some bloated salary earned through the marking of time, not the inspiring of children. When they fail to inspire children, they should go find their own careers as "jazz guitarists."

This doesn't have to be a long-term fix, however, the unions will make this type of real reform difficult. Proving that they have lost sight of the purpose of education. Education was intended to prepare our children, not offer paychecks to burned-out teachers (most of whom are the local union officers).

Moderately-timed Fix - Regionalize Small Districts: The amount of money spent on the management/administration of a school district is staggering. The bloated salaries of a superintendent, assistant superintendents, business administrators, and in some cases human resource directors are insane. Add to that the assistants that they have and the budgets required to maintain their nicely furnished offices, lunch meetings, etc. There are small K-8 districts and there are small regional high school districts, that each have central offices. Each are duplicating budgetary numbers - taxpayers' funds. As a student I was part of the big city model of Newark, as well as the regional model of East Hanover/Hanover Park Regional. Currently, we live in a K-12 district, which we purposefully were looking for. One district, managing 8 schools, from K-12.

In a K-12 district, your curriculum, administrative staffing, and tax dollars go to one articulated program that directs the learning and development of its students throughout their pre-secondary education. In the Hanover Park Regional District, which is made up of two high schools, it is fed by the East Hanover, Florham Park and Whippany/Hanover Twp/Cedar Knolls districts. The high school superintendent is in charge of two (2). . . yes TWO schools, who have principals really managing the buildings. He also has an assistant superintendent and a business administrator, and buildings and grounds department for. . . . . TWO schools. The other districts have the same administrative makeup. Each district is probably spending, and this is a conservative number, an average of $900,000.00 per year. Over the region, that is in excess of 3.6 million. If there was only one crew to handle the region, not only would the curriculum be articulated - which it currently is not - and the high school program would be stronger, but each district would save nearly 700,000.00. That is without considering the reappropriation of the administrative office space back to instructional space in each district. The result, a stronger instructional program and a more fiscally responsible regional district.

Obviously this is the mid-term choice because we would have to figure out who gets to be superintendent, business administrator, etc. It would take a transition period and plan to make it work effectively. By the way, the students (who are the important ones here) wouldn't need a transition period, it would be the fat-cat administrators that would need it - because they do NOTHING quickly. Otherwise, we could realize that savings NOW.

AND NOW. . . THE OVERNIGHT SAVINGS!!

REMOVE WORLD LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION FROM CURRICULUM.

Nothing is more ridiculous to me than forcing students to sit through two, sometimes three years of a world language requirement. How many of us remember any of the Spanish, French, Italian, or German that we learned in high school, and subsequently were forced to take again in college? We probably remember silly phrases that we were taught but not enough to converse with someone in that language.

I do not want to hear that it makes us more culturally responsible or "classy" to study a world language, or that if we don't we will fall behind the rest of the world.

The rest of the world is taking two languages and LEARNING ENGLISH. Do you know why? Because it is OUR native language. It is the International language, proof by the fact that ALL air traffic controllers, worldwide, must know how to speak English.

Why have a world languages department? We can offer extension courses in world languages online for those who are truly interested, and those could be extra-curricular at the expense of the student - proving true interest. Maybe a revenue generator for a district or a savvy start-up.

INSTANTLY you pick up the budgeted numbers of a FULL DEPARTMENT, including the supervisor's bloated salary. With an average of 8 teachers per department and a supervisor, we are looking at a savings of 500,000.00 right there - plus the classroom space, budget for instructional materials, benefits, etc.

Yes, I realize these people lose their jobs. If they are qualified teachers, they can teach at the university level, they can be part of the new industry we just created by getting rid of their departments (online world language institutions), they can get work as interpreters , or they can get re-certified and teach something of worth, like English, Math, or Science.

So I say, stop crying about the budget decrease and say goodbye to tenure, administrative fat, and world languages.. . .or should I say. . . "ADIOS" =)