I Hate to be a "I Told You So", But.....

     Here we are in the beginning of a new fiscal year and the end of another contentious state budget process. What was accomplished during this budget development process? The Governor and both Republicans and Democrats claimed they were held hostage (via a state shutdown that no one wanted) by the 'other side'. Winners and losers. That's the way our society views success now. Pitiful.

     In an Oct. 29, 2016 post, I expressed my doubt about the success of the then pending vote on Referendum Question #2 which would levy a surtax on the wealthiest Mainers and dedicate the use of that money to public education, specifically money to be allocated to direct classroom instruction. To be clear, I supported, and still do, the notion that public education should be adequately funded.  The PICUS report, which I detailed in that October post, concluded that Maine underfunds public education by millions of dollars. Further, Maine citizens passed a previous referendum calling for the state to fund 55% of public education. I questioned whether passing another referendum would make any difference since future legislatures and governors can choose to ignore voters' wishes when developing the budget.

     So here we are in July of 2017, eight months after Maine voters supported Referendum Question 2. And after the current legislature voted to again ignore the will of the voters regarding funding of public education. Governor LePage offered a draconian education budget in which he simply would not fund ANY system administration costs statewide. Luckily, there were a majority of both Republicans and Democrats who recognized that fatally flawed plan and worked to restore some of the funding public schools need to operate. However, many school districts' budgets were reduced. And the 55% state funding of education costs? Not yet. The surtax on wealthy Mainers which would have been dedicated to classroom needs? Ignored. Many school departments statewide have had to year after year make difficult choices about what to fund and not fund in their schools. Many towns/cities held their breath while developing a budget with no idea of the amount of state funding coming their way, causing great conflict between local property taxpayers; pitting those who could afford to pay more property tax against those who truly couldn't afford rising taxes. Turmoil at the state level. Turmoil at the local city/town level. Turmoil within the schools when parents and kids realize a program, a service, an extracurricular option has been defunded or eliminated.

     Please tell me who was really held hostage during this legislative session?  Governing by referendum is not ideal. Governing with the ideology that taxes should be done away with is not conducive to promoting the 'common good', which public education is an example of. Everyone benefits from public education. And everyone loses when public education is further eroded.

    

 

 

Stability

  

 

Recent news accounts reporting the deportation of a respected coffee farmer illustrates the hardship some children face in public schools. This adult farmer had been brought to the US by his parents from Mexico when he was a child. In the interim, he married and had two children. He built a respected coffee farming business in Hawaii. He has been cooperating with immigration officials and  waiting for 10 years for his citizenship paperwork to make its way through our court system. There is no reported evidence that he has committed any crimes while in the US. But his time in the US has come to an end, he involuntarily left for Mexico and his family has been torn apart. Why? How will his children fare during this time of separation? When will they be able to see their father in person again? He is not allowed back in the country for 10 years. This just seems cruel.

Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump's travel ban can be applied very narrowly, but also the justices ruled that people with close ties will be allowed in this country. Doesn't this send a message about immigrants already in this country? How can having 2 children with American citizenship not qualify for 'close family ties'?

Children learn best when their lives are stable. Many factors can negatively affect children's lives and learning- poverty, illness, learning challenges, moving from place to place, family instability to name a few. Let's think about this farmer's deportation order. Our government has initiated an action which could very well challenge these children's education. How will the family make their living? Can they continue to operate their coffee farm as efficiently without their father? Will this cause a slide into poverty? Will the family need to move and thus necessitate the children to leave their current schooling situation and begin anew somewhere else? Schooling transitions usually produce academic challenges. Most importantly, we all hope the family can weather this stormy time of instability and continue to maintain the ties that bind them together.

     Where will Trump's policies, and those politicians who help pave the way, lead us?  

  

???

 

     By now we have all seen the photographs of the world leaders at the recent G20 summit meeting. One was very revealing. It showed all the leaders lined up. Our President Trump was on one end, with an awkward distance between him and all the others. His facial expression and body language was totally different from all the other leaders. It appeared that there was just no emotional connection that he was 'left out' of this important group of men and women. It seemed like he was out of his element. The 'art of the deal' mentality was not going to be an effective tool for him during this meeting. His superficial charm hasn't seemed to win over any of these leaders. Has he, or will he, just shrug off the real reason he was disconnected - he has said and done things that have made interacting with these leaders difficult. He really is personally responsible for the things he has said and done that have been upsetting to world leaders, but it doesn't seem like he is disappointed. He will just continue on his path. He will not admit any guilt, never has. In fact, it is likely he will concoct some fake news story (lying seems to come easy to him) that will lay the blame on someone else and probably display a bit of an angry tantrum while tweeting out the lie. But he will continue on his narcissistic way as if he is the center of the world that will again reveal his true nature.  The US had made a commitment with the Paris Climate Agreement, but Trump seems unmoved by commitments.

 

     Here's to hoping the good citizens of America can salvage our world reputation.

 

     

 

Problems Maine Does Not Need

 

 

     In a previous blog, I have written about New York's education system. In that post I discussed their regional school units which are led by superintendents who work part time for the local areas and part time for the state commissioner. Last year Maine's Blue Ribbon Commission studied ways to improve our schools and reviewed New York's regional system of education. During one of the Commission's meetings, a representative from New York responded to a question asked about the availability of effectiveness data. He said that the effectiveness of the NY regional system of governance had not been reviewed/tested. It appears all is not well with New York's statewide system of education. A group of parents has filed a complaint with the State Commissioner of Education against New York City alleging the city is not following the mandated class size law. In 2007 the DOE developed a class size reduction law pledging that class size for kindergarten through third grade shall not exceed 20 students; fourth through eighth grade classes shall not exceed 23 students; and high school core classes shall not exceed 25 students.  Rather than reducing class size, the DOE has allowed class size to increase since the 2007 law was enacted. The New York DOE data shows kindergarten through third grade class size has increased 18%; fourth through eighth grade class size has increase 6%; and high school class size increased 1.5%.  Many parents have shared their personal stories of their elementary school aged children in classes far above these maximum limits claiming their children's education has been negatively impacted.  Here is a link for more details: http://dianeravitch.net/.

     Where was the "local superintendent" during annual budget development? Surely class size, among other things, was discussed when determining the number of teachers needed each year to teach the total student population?.  Oh yeah, recall.....their superintendents work part time advocating for local needs and part time working for the state commissioner.  Mmmm.......

 

     So, as Maine has just completed a contentious state budget development process, let's remember that one sticking point that dragged the process out and caused a short state government shut down was the amount of funding for public education statewide. Not only did this cause the state government shutdown, but EVERY town/city in Maine faced the daunting task of building not only balanced school budgets, but also town/city budgets with little information regarding available state revenue for the coming year. Governor LePage and some Republicans had strongly advocated a pilot statewide teacher contract as an integral part of the budget. In New York one of the components of the regional system is a variation of a statewide teacher contract.  For Maine to open the door even a crack to a statewide teacher contract, would be opening the door to a regionalized system of governance and the kinds of problems that New York is facing. A regionalized system of governance for public education compared to Maine's historical local control/school board system concentrates the decision making and power further and further away from the classroom and closer and closer to political ideology.  Our toxic political climate destabilizes public education, the social institution that professes to build knowledge, skills, attitudes that are foundation for opportunity for a successful future and our democratic society. 

 

 

Reflections: How Children Learn

 

 

     I have been thinking about all the negative tweets coming from the President lately. Perhaps it isn't worth thinking about, but I wonder where it will all end. If ever. I wonder if he intentionally engages in his negative tweets to deflect attention away from the other investigations about him. I wonder if he purposely and calculatingly is trying to destroy the press as we know it. I wonder if he is just plain addicted to tweeting, can't stop himself and his tweets are a reflection of his personality and everyday way of life. There is plenty to examine. Exactly what an effective teacher would wish for when teaching children effective critical thinking skills. An experienced teacher could help children examine the President's tweets from many different angles and consider the tweets 'a teachable moment'.

 

     One perspective that might have children engaging in question after question when reading these tweets might be from the rules most schools are required to have regarding harassment. Many schools have policies regarding the kind of behavior expected in schools. The rules regarding harassment apply to everyone in the schools: students, school staff, and even extends to contractual workers when performing any kind of work for the schools while on school property.  I would offer that these rules would apply to the President if he were to visit any of these schools. There is even strong debate about schools' responsibility of enforcing behavior expectations during non-school hours, off the physical location of school property when students use school issued laptop computers.

 

     Let's consider a hierarchical definition of harassment. It is the rubric that the Brunswick School Department uses to help students and others understand behaviors that are unwanted and might be considered harassment. The rubric consists of 3 levels: Level A offers examples of behaviors that might be considered harassment: dirty looks, 'annoying behavior toward others'. These  behaviors call for common courtesy to just stop if you are engaging in purposely unprovoked annoying behavior that others dislike and they can't just leave the area to avoid the person annoying them. Key words: common courtesy.  Level B offers examples of behaviors that most people would consider general harassment: "teasing, name calling, spreading rumors, posturing, socially excluding others, threatening". These behaviors demand intervention and consequences in order to maintain an environment where students can learn, teachers can teach. Level C offers examples of behaviors that would very likely be legally harassment: "stealing, offensive physical contact, negative comments toward another person because of their race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation".  I would add 'gender' to the rubric's Level C behavior - it is a legally protected status in our state and nation. These behaviors are examples of behavior that violate the law and invite law enforcement involvement in addition to the school administrative consequences.

 

     How would you evaluate the President's tweets? Are they aimed at specific people? Do they fall into any of the above categories that our nation's schools are required to prevent students and staff from engaging in?

 

     I am glad to see some of our lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, publically offering their views of the President's tweets. Children are learning from this....but just what are they learning?