The Kringlesphere

JS Online:Editorial: 'No' on spending referendum

Our Milwaukee neighbor has weighed in on the upcoming referendum in regard to Racine Unified officials asking for more money to fund the educational and fiscal needs of our school system.

And their view is one that I wholeheartedly agree with.
"No" on more money!!

The reasons that the Milwaukee Journal puts out there are many, but in a nutshell the following two paragraphs stand out and I cant agree more with this editorial's reasoning:

From the editorial:
"We encouraged a "yes" vote in the June referendum, with the caveat that the district get its financial house in order and do more to rein in health care and other costs that were taking a steep toll on schools. We said then, "give the board the breathing space of a year to figure out how to meet its budget without asking voters for more money. And get ready to say 'no' if the board hasn't done these things and again pleads with voters for more money. Well, get ready"

As Journal Sentinel reporter Alice Chang pointed out in a May 28 article, the district has been making some progress but still ranks at or close to the bottom in academic achievement compared with peer districts. Truancy and dropout rates aren't anywhere near where they should be. This despite the facts that the district is third among peer districts for per-pupil spending and has the lowest student-to-teacher ratio. The district's tax rate is the lowest among comparable districts, but it ranks first for state aid and second in federal aid.Those numbers indicate two things: There is lots of room for improvement; there may be room for cuts that don't hurt students.

In a $236 million budget, $6.45 million may seem like small potatoes. But by saying "no" on Tuesday, voters can send a big message.

I myself have witnessed many instances of what I feel is an educational system here in Racine that does NOT work the way it should.

I have a student of the "Racine Unified system" who works for me. He has just graduated from 12th grade, and though he is on his way to secondary education this fall, it is probably not due to his teachers and advisors and to the quality of his educational needs within the system here in Racine. I honestly feel that his work place has done more to instill leadership qualities and positive guidance to this young person than any of the "professionals" in the Racine Unified system have in his 3 years of high school.

Teachers that can't seem to get a grasp on their student's needs (or who do not care) and students who do not seem to care about the things that matter most in life seem to be a common thread of what I have witnessed in my eight years that I have lived and worked in this district.

Face it folks, the educational system here in Racine is broken, does not seem to be getting any better as time goes on, and needs to be fixed.

The only way to do that is to look very deep within it's bureaucracy and really try to change the things that need changing.

More focus on teacher-student interaction, better lesson planning for it's curriculum and last but not least, a major focus on getting these young individuals ready to deal with the real world which they will eventually inherit as their own.

Click on the link below to read the editorial from our neighbor to the north:
JS Online:Editorial: 'No' on spending referendum

And for a few other views from our hometown newspaper and some views from other citizens of the area click below:
http://www.journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=6030

The last line on one of the comments in the above link made sense to me. We have one of the "highest per student spending ratios" but yet our students do not seem to be getting the education they deserve and need. I saw an article a few days ago (I can't remember where) and in that story, a teacher of this system told of using 'Ten year old history text books" to teach students about world history! No wonder the youth of today is so ill informed as to what is going on. What do these teachers do in the absence of current up to date source materials? Teach from the internet? That alone just blew my mind. In addition to talking about the old textbooks, the teacher mentioned that, according to the books she/he was teaching from, George Bush Senior was still the leader of our nation!

A good Monday to all.

posted by John @ 2:15 PM