>>Valley Patriot>>
|
Schools to Parents:
Don't
Worry, We'll take care of everything
Dr. Chuck Ormsby
 You
see it in the news nearly every day from January to June.
Our public schools are starving. Available revenues fall
substantially below budget requirements, even for
maintaining the same services that were provided the
previous year. Woe is us. The world is about to come to
an end.
As North Andover Finance Committee members are fond of
telling us, “The wolves are at the door!” That
is, when they are not saying, “The public is not
paying attention” or “We told you so.” Of
course, when they “told us so” in 2002 they
also provided a cure for the problem: Raise taxes $10
million per year and compound that at 2.5 percent every
year thereafter. They also said that their cure would
only be temporary because, even with the suggested tax
increase, costs would continue to outrun revenues and in
2006 — this year — we’d need to raise
taxes all over again.
Thank god for the voters who had the good sense to say
“Hell no” and so far have saved almost $42
million, or $17 million based on the more timid $4
million override that actually made it to the ballot. It
seems that it is the FinCom that is “not paying
attention” because the public told it in no
uncertain terms: Hell NO!
The reasons that cost increases are outrunning available
revenues – along with solutions that will
permanently eliminate the annual shortfall — were
detailed in this space two months ago (see The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse, February issue of The Valley
Patriot, available at www.valleypatriot.com).
The key to the solution is to note that four decades ago
our public schools did a better job educating our
children while consuming less than half the budget (in
today’s dollars) that our public schools spend
today. This didn’t happen in another universe or
under a different set of physical laws. It happened in
Massachusetts with real schools, real teachers and real
children.
It is possible for this to happen again, but it requires
us to re-examine and correct the policy decisions/errors
that our society has made over these four decades. You
have to ask yourself, “What did we change that is
driving up the costs of public services at double-digit
rates?” It is the policy errors that underlie our
current problems, not any pre-destined or inevitable
change in circumstances.
For four decades, the special interests that comprise
public education — school administrators,
teachers and other employees of local schools, union
personnel, our colleges devoted to training teachers,
specialty schools and professionals that serve special
needs students, state and federal bureaucrats, etc., have
all sold us a bill of goods. They have told us that they
are selfless workers toiling away for the benefit of the
children. The budgets they produce, the programs they
invent, and the policies they support are all based on
serving the best interests of — guess who? —
the children. That’s a crock of baloney!
Now here is the shocking part: Of course it is a crock of
baloney! What do you expect? These people are just like
the rest of us; maybe better in some ways and worse in
others, but, on the whole, very much like you and me.
They prefer to work less, be paid more, have more
benefits, have great job security, and a guaranteed hefty
retirement package. Don’t blame them. Don’t you
want these things too?
The problem comes when you not only want these things,
but you conspire to take them by force … with the
help of the legislature, of course.
Every business would like a monopoly. If GM and Ford
could have a law passed that prohibited foreign carmakers
from selling or manufacturing in the U.S., they would
love it. If GM could eliminate competition from Ford by
having a law passed, it would do that also. If French
workers could guarantee their jobs by outlawing the
firing of employees, they would do that also … oh, I
guess they did do that!
What our public education employees want is no different:
monopoly schools, compulsory unionism, compulsory
bargaining, tenure, rules forbidding competency testing,
mandated special needs spending, teacher certification
requirements, work rules, guaranteed health and
retirement benefits, etc. Every one of these policies is
designed to eliminate competition, give those “in
the system” a legally enforced edge over others
willing and able to serve our children at a lower cost,
and to guarantee jobs/income/benefits irrespective of the
quality of the service provided.
While that is a large chunk of the problem, there is at
least one more piece of the puzzle.
What we need to realize is that those who work in public
education, whether or not they have the special
advantages conferred by the legislature, are in business
to sell us services.
They are selling … we are the buying.
They are the car salesmen … we are the car buyers.
They want to sell us more features than we need. They
want to sell us more services than we need. They want to
grow their “business.”
We, the buyers, need to determine what we really want and
what services are appropriate, given that resources are
limited and we are spending public tax dollars.
Which gets us, finally, to the title of this article. The
public education special interests want to provide –
and declare essential – every possible service.
Returning to the car salesmen analogy, they not only want
to sell us the car — they want us to finance it and
pay interest; they want to sell us a maintenance
agreement; they want to sell us oil changes every 3000
miles even though the oil is perfectly good for 5000
miles; etc.
This is called “mission creep” and it leads to
two problems. First, it exacerbates our financial
shortfall because it adds additional budget requirements
on top of the costs for the services our children really
need. Second, after the dust from the budget battles
subsides, it results in reduced attention and fewer
resources going to the services that really are
essential.
Unfortunately, the tendency for mission creep is even
worse in the case of public education than in the private
sector. One reason for this is that the extra services
are advertised as free. Of course, they are not free to
the taxpayer but they appear to be so to the consumer
(e.g., parents of toddlers).
So, unlike the maintenance contract your car dealer tries
to sell you which has a hefty price tag attached, parents
are told that these services are part of their birth
right as Americans and that their children will be
deprived (possibly even depraved) if they are denied
these essential services. In fact, they are told that
their children will be maladjusted or subject to some
horrible disease (social or physical) if deprived by
tight-fisted taxpayers.
So what are these “mission creep” services?
When you hear that the schools are responsible for
ensuring that students are well rounded– a red flag
should go up.
If you hear that “academic, social, and
emotional” developments are equally important –
a red flag should go up.
If you hear that teaching children how to socialize, meet
new friends, and play nice are needed, or that we need to
add programming to address adolescent issues – a red
flag should go up.
Programs to address discipline problems, ADD, ADHD,
ADDHDADD, “bullyism,” or sex education, or
drugs – more red flags.
The special interests want to sell you the Platinum
Package … you give birth, we do everything else. You
have no responsibilities … leave it to us.
It is a bad deal in every respect.
Message to parents: These are YOUR jobs … they are
not the jobs of the schools or the responsibilities of
the taxpayers. If your children are maladjusted, give
them the needed adjustments. If they are irresponsible in
their behavior, straighten them out. While the public
schools can and should re-enforce generally accepted
good-character traits, character development is primarily
your responsibility and not the responsibility of the
school department.
In monetary policy there is Gresham’s Law, which
states that bad money drives out good money. In
education, there is Ormsby’s Corollary, which states
that: When the public schools take over responsibility
from parents, parents divert their focus from that
responsibility, then things get worse, and finally costs
go up.
It is time for the public schools to re-focus their
resources on providing opportunities for academic
achievement. Incorporation of art, music and enough
physical exertion to clear the brain — 5 miles of
jogging before the opening bell each day should be
sufficient — is probably warranted, but no more.
Discipline, courtesy, table manners, sex, drugs and rock
n’roll are the parents’ responsibility …
not the taxpayers.
Nothing will deter the public education establishment
from trying to sell you more — it is merely an
expression of a natural human compulsion. The voters, and
especially parents, need to get their priorities
straight. Do we value education or babysitting? Do we
want to divert precious education resources to relieve
parents of their most fundamental responsibilities?
A special note of thanks: I’d like to thank my
parents and the adults of the 1950s and 1960s for
fulfilling their parental responsibilities and,
therefore, focusing school resources on providing
educational opportunities. I was well served. Will
today’s children be able to say the same, forty
years from now?
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The May, 2006 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 8,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover, Methuen, Haverhill,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury and Lowell.
|
Valley Patriot Archive
Prior Columns by Dr. Chuck
|
