Global College Crisis is now leading to deaths

Global College Crisis is now leading to deaths

As many of you know from reading this blog I work in education, specifically at the community college level.  Now I can have worked at the four-year level but fortunately a lot of the students at that level would be successful in spite of our best efforts.  The few that wouldn’t were the reason I was there but they were too few and far between.  I decided to work at the community college level because this is where the rubber hits the road.  A high percentage of the students we see every day are educationally and financially disadvantaged, we routinely work with folks who utterly and completely let down by the secondary system, folks who have screwed up and are trying to make their life right.

In California where I work the budgets have been shit for the last three years and we have gradually cut and cut and cut in response.  Today was the first day of school and we had classes that seat 25 people with 28 extra people waiting in the hopes of finding a seat.  At the end of this week I have a department chair who will come into my office and tell me about the over 500 students who couldn’t get into classes in his department this semester.  At our community college alone, we will deny access to over 5000 students this semester.

My school is not unique, there are estimates that the 112 schools in the California Community College system will turn away over 670,000 students this year, that’s not a typo.  We cannot, world-wide, continue to tell young and sometimes not so young, knowledge hungry people that they cannot be educated because we don’t have space.  This is the type of problem that creates the knowledge and wealth gap, that creates the inequity that fuels the anger of the Occupy movement.

Where does this lead to?  Well we may have gotten a little bit of a preview in Johannesburg, South Africa where students trampled each other trying to be first in line to get to some of the few remaining seats in classes available, check out the link below: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/11/world/africa/stampede-highlights-crisis-at-south-african-universities.html

California’s Education System is being held hostage. Where’s our government!?!

California’s Education System is being held hostage.  Where’s our government!?!

So California as I’m sure you know is in horrible budget shape, over the last couple of years we’ve found ourselves billions of dollars in the red.  The state legislature for a couple of years has been kicking this problem down the road.  Last year when Jerry Brown became the Governor the state gutted the budget and they knocked it down to a measly 9 billion dollar problem.  Brown wanted to try to eliminate the problem last year by also putting a measure on the June ballot asking the good citizens of California to tax themselves to the tune of the remaining 9 billion or so over the next several years.  The Republicans refused to allow the measure to happen, holding up all of the budget processes until the Governor caved and didn’t do the tax initiative but instead cut education and services more deeply.

So now the Governor has taken a new tack, his initial budget comes up 9 billion short and already includes brutal cuts to services for seniors, children, the poor and disabled.  It also includes basically a flat budget for K-12 and Community Colleges.  However, this budget only works if the public agrees through a public ballot measure in November, to tax ourselves to the tune of 9 billion dollars.  If not, the Governor will further slaughter the disadvantaged and then cut the K-12 and Community Colleges to the bone.

Personally, I don’t object to a 1 cent sales tax to fix our budget woes.  However, I have a huge objection to having a metaphorical gun pointed at the head of our education system.  Now what the governor is banking on is that all of the folks working in the education system, to avoid the cuts, will strong-arm their friends, families and most importantly unions into backing and supporting this ballot initiative.

So if the measure doesn’t pass, somehow it is the people’s fault that our budget is screwed up, not the legislature’s issue.   Now maybe I was confused in my civics’ classes, but I thought we had a representative government in America.  You know a system where we elect representatives to REPRESENT us in government, and make the hard decisions on our behalf, taking the accolades when they are successful and receiving the brunt of the blame when it goes wrong.  If our representatives aren’t going to bother to do this, I say we don’t bother to pay them.

So Governor Brown, put the damn gun away, I and I’m betting a majority of the people in this state will not accept being threatened.  California State Legislators, DO YOUR FRACKIN JOB, or give up your damn paychecks, your perks and your damn pensions and GO HOME!  Have a little respect for the people of California and just a tiny bit of personal honor.

Political Hypocrisy Post 2: Liberals on education spending

Political Hypocrisy Post 2: Liberals on education spending

People on both sides of the political aisle seem to be in agreement that our education system in America is failing. We have seen math and science achievement decline when compared to students in other countries. Liberals consistently suggest that the answer is more education spending. The reality is that over the last 30 years, in currently adjusted funds we are actually spending significantly more on education than we have in the past. So if we’re spending so much more money and we’re not seeing success, than what is wrong?

Well first off our current K-12 system was designed to build good solid factory workers. The system is very good at teaching obedience, lack of independent thought, and repetitive activity. Of course nowhere in that list do you see the ability to critically think, develop creatively or do what we all here consistently at work is so absolutely necessary, the ability to think out of the box. In fact, for those of you who did think out of the box in high school I bet you weren’t rewarded for it.

There are schools that are succeeding and there are common characteristics among them. We know how to do education effectively and there are schools across the country that are proving this. The actual issue is however that most districts aren’t willing to incorporate new methods. This happens for a lot of reasons including tradition, administrators and teachers without the authority to make changes, the difficulty of involving parents, issues with tenure and then the natural resistance to change.

There are other ideas out there that don’t involve just throwing money at the problem, that won’t work.  Here’s a video clip that might make you reframe the way you think about this issue particularly if you think the answer is just money.

A little thing called science people: Global Warming, Evolution and the Moon Landing

There are three science topics that I hear discussed all of the time and it really irks me at one level and makes me completely sad at another as to how little understanding people have of science.  So let’s tackle the big three; Evolution, Global Warming and the Moon Landing.  Let’s be clear before you get into the details, all three have solid, solid evidence and for the record, evolution is occurring, the world is warming and man has walked on the moon.  These statements are based on the analysis of the data, not on my feelings, beliefs or political leanings.  The best example I can give you of what that means is this, I have felt fine and the normal indications of high blood sugar levels that include blisters on my feet, blurry vision, and getting up to urinate many times at night were not occurring, however, my blood glucose test came back showing my blood sugar is very high.  So regardless of my belief that it wasn’t high, the data shows otherwise, this is the case with these three issues.  Everyone would consider me an idiot if I were to say I don’t care what the data says, I’m not a diabetic or it’s just a conspiracy by the drug companies, you can’t believe the data.

First let’s look at Evolution, Charles Darwin is most often given the credit for the “Theory of Evolution”, that is incorrect.  Darwin was not even close to the first scientist to consider the possibility that species changed or evolved over time, he was however the first to put it all together and provide a mechanism, which he called natural selection.  Now there are almost no biologists and very few other types of scientists who don’t acknowledge that evolution is a fact.  Heck, the evidence that evolution occurs is so overwhelming that even creationists who disavow evolution typically agree the micro-evolution occurs.  The big argument for them is that species cannot evolve over time to create new species.   Contrary to what many of them claim, there is a ton of evidence showing the veracity of the evolutionary process.  There is still some discussion as to whether or not natural selection is the whole mechanism, personally I think it’s about 90% of the mechanism but that’s a much deeper discussion.  Below is a link to a site that will give you all the details on the evidence:

http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_3.htm

Next Global Warming, THERE IS NO DISPUTE WHAT SO EVER, THAT THE EARTH IS WARMING!  No one who can read a graph can argue with this, the earth’s average temperature has increased 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880.  I know, 1.4 degrees sounds like nothing, however that level of temperature change over the entire planet will soon:  leave Mt. Kilimanjaro snow less; has greatly impacted the glaciers of the Himalayas; and affected the arctic sea ice to such a level that Polar Bears may be facing extinction in the near future.    Here’s a link to the basics of what’s happening:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming.html

The only real question at this point is how much is human activity impacting the rate of warming, the evidence is pretty good, that it is significant.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1206_041206_global_warming_2.html

Now the one that really pisses me off, the idea that we did not walk on the moon.  I’m not the only one who gets angry, astronaut Buzz Aldrin once punched a famous hoaxer in the mouth after the guy harassed the hell out of him.  This idea has so much proof behind it I don’t even know where to start.  First, thousands of people had to have been on the conspiracy and not a single person has ever come forward with any proof that we didn’t walk on the moon.  All of the crap the hoaxers claim, the shadows are wrong, the flag is flapping, the footprints couldn’t be formed have all been shown multiple times to be false.  Probably the most entertaining way they have been debunked was on a Mythbusters episode dedicated to this very question.  Wikipedia has a surprisingly thorough discussion of almost every aspect of the hoaxers arguments and the rebuttals:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing_conspiracy_theories

Finally the most convincing evidence is the presence of retroreflectors on the moon.  These reflectors can be hit with a high power laser on Earth and return a high level signal from the moon.  This has been done literally over ten thousand times since the sixties.  So in order for the moon landing to be faked, there have to be thousands of conspirators at major universities all over the world participating in the hoax, I don’t think that’s happening, here’s a link to what the reflectors  are and do:

http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/lrrr.html

Sending your child to school is a crime in Connecticut

Homelessness is a serious issue in America and I don’t think many of us can imagine the difficulty of living on the street and having to work hard each day just to scrap by with the barest of essentials.  Now, imagine that same situation while being responsible for 6-year-old child.  It brings images of the Will Smith film the Pursuit of Happyness  

Most people in homeless situations have a lot of problems, for some it’s purely financial, for others it’s mental illness and for even others it’s drug and alcohol issues.  Given this reality, a homeless woman in Norwalk, CT, who has taken the responsibility to help her child get educated.  Because she needed an address to enroll the child she used her babysitters address.  Now, her reward for being a responsible parent is to be arrested for theft and her babysitter has been tossed out of her public funded housing for being an accessory to education I guess.  What the hell is wrong with this country?!

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?

This is a repost of something that has been flying around Facebook, I believe it was written by Meredith Menden.  I think it does a really good job of slamming the stereotype that teachers do nothing, get paid too much and get Summers off.  I think our elementary and secondary teachers are really doing community service and are severely under paid, but I’ve told I’m wrong they do just fine, of course the person has never been a teacher.  My credentials to make that comment, both of my sisters are public school elementary teachers and I served my time as both a student teacher and a long-term sub in the secondary system.  Hope you enjoy the post and thanks to the lovely Hannah for sharing.

Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.

That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours).

Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET’S SEE…. That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).

What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!

The average teacher’s salary (nationwide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student–a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!! Make a teacher smile.

 

Sustainable Sundays: Sustainability for Kids

The reality of the situation is this, if we are to see a greener more sustainable future, then we are going to have to not only change our behavior, but teach our kids better than we were taught.  Now, I’m not talking about full on hippy indoctrination, not even sure if I could handle that myself.  However, I think it’s important that kids have an understanding of what sustainability is and how their actions impact the environment.  The state of Oregon has done a great job of putting together a straightforward easy to understand page for schools with some basics and a quiz, it’s a great start and would be a great resource for kids and elementary school teachers anywhere.  You can find it at the link below:

http://www.sustainableschools.org/documents/Sustainability%20for%20kids%20070302.pdf

Changing Educational Paradigms

The following link is a very cool video (I love the way they do the animation) that really seems to hit the nail dead on the head concerning the core problem of our current education system, a very interesting look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=channel

The Current Trend in Prosperity Rankings for the United States

So recently the annual Legatum Prosperity Index rankings were released and I’m happy to say that the United States has ranked once again in the top 10.  The rankings are based upon a set of factors including: economics; education; governance; health; entrepreneurship; safety and personal freedom.   To take a look at the annual ranking you can click on the link below:

http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx

The disturbing thing however about the rankings is that this year the United States was number 10, a pretty good ranking.  However as you can see in the link below, in 2009 we were ranked 8^th and in 2008 we were ranked 6^th.  A trend that does not bode well for America and only part of the drop is related to our recent economic troubles.  I worry that this trend will continue in the United States as our government seems ever more willing to clip our civil liberties and increase our taxes.  Our current budget woes will cause local and state governments to make cutbacks to services over the next three to five years and I fear that these actions will cut ever deeper into our Prosperity Index ranking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legatum_Prosperity_Index

Waiting for Superman or how the United States has f*&ked up education.

Tonight I went to see Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim, if you don’t know the title the film takes a look at the secondary education system in America.  Now in a two-hour documentary you can only cover so much, but I think Guggenheim does a pretty good job of hammering one nail pretty well, in America, we are letting our children down.  The film is captivating and highlights several charter schools that have actually successfully changed the way they educate children and shown great results.  These schools are all in urban disadvantaged neighborhoods, the same places, teaching the same kids we’ve decided decades ago could never make up the achievement gap with upper middle class kids.  The movie focuses on the Kipp schools and schools in Harlem run by Geoffrey Canada and show that we can make a difference if we’re willing to step out of some of our preconceived notions about how things work.

Link to Kipp below:

http://www.kipp.org/?gclid=CKvFp7CZ3qQCFRBrgwodwwLEKg

Link to the Geoffrey Canada’s school:

http://www.harlemsuccess.org/apply-to-learn

As a teacher this movie really hit home and as an administrator it hit doubly including an interesting discussion on my favorite topic tenure, a really good idea when it was first created that has now gone horribly wrong but I can save that rant for another day.  Check out the link below about the movie and I’d highly recommend the film:

http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/?gclid=CLuA-OOY3qQCFRiAgwodPXDXlw