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The New Hampshire Education Model
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| DaveSZ |
With all this talk about the European education model, I think we should take a look at some of the problems here in the US.
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/t...pt304_full.html
ANNOUNCER: And connect to NOW WITH BILL MOYERS online at pbs.org.
Find out what conservatives are saying about the deficit. Learn more about global warming. Tell us what issues the politicians are not talking about that matter to you.
Connect to NOW at pbs.org.
BRANCACCIO: The other day I left messages for a bunch of people I know in the state of New Hampshire with this question: Who do you know who has a point of view, who is engaging, who is eligible to vote in the primary contest next week, but who does not answer to the description of "pundit"? You know, a down-to-earth citizen who doesn't spin for a living.
Well, one answer came back with the name and phone number of the principal of a New Hampshire public school.
Meet "Citizen Boyd": Marc Boyd, who runs Maple Avenue Elementary School in Goffstown, just down the hill from where they held last night's Democratic presidential debate.
New Hampshire principals named Boyd 2004's Elementary School Principal of the Year.
BOYD: Timmy, who are you going to vote for?
BRANCACCIO: It's an honor he has earned, it is plain to see, without striking fear in the hearts of his students.
BOYD: Raise your hand!
BRANCACCIO: There are about 500 students here from this mostly white, mostly middle-class former mill town due west of Manchester.
A couple of things you need to know about Mr. Boyd: he's a registered Democrat in a state that's gone Republican in 7 of the last 9 presidential elections. Boyd has two grown children and owns a home he bought two decades ago for 30-grand. He's also the proud holder of season tickets for a team in the Superbowl…you guess which one.
A couple of things you need to know about this part of the world: in New Hampshire, the state motto "Live Free or Die" translates into zero income tax and zero sales tax.
Maple Avenue Elementary is funded by local property taxes. And we mean local. Under New Hampshire's system, school funding varies greatly depending on the value of a community's property.
Mr. Boyd is running a citizenship exercise at the school next week in which kids vote for President.
BRANCACCIO: Well, Marc Boyd, welcome to NOW.
BOYD: Well, thank you, David, thank you.
BRANCACCIO: Now as we've been following you throughout the school today, you've been asking some of the students about the big vote next week, haven't you?
BOYD: Yes, I have. I'm a principal, I wanna know everything.
BRANCACCIO: What are you hearing? Any political patterns emerging?
BOYD: Well, I'm surprised. Goffstown is really a strong republican area. So you already assume that President Bush will get the majority of the votes in Goffstown. What is surprising me is a Democrat issue. Because right now, when I'm asking, I probably asked about 70 percent of the children. I'm getting an enormous landslide for John Kerry.
BRANCACCIO: For John Kerry?
BOYD: Yes, and you know it's funny because, you know, in New Hampshire, we're very proud of the primary. You know, we're Live Free or Die. And our primary is so important to us, I think we have a law that no one else can have a primary. We can always have ours a week before anybody else's primary.
So Iowa comes out of the woodwork and says well, we're gonna do a caucus a week before. And there was a lot of resentment from it. But now I think the people of New Hampshire love it. Because what happened in Iowa the other day has made the New Hampshire primary even more important in a democratic primary.
BRANCACCIO: When you're walking to the school corridors earlier today you came across one of the elementary school students who's talking about the mock vote that they're gonna do next week.
BOYD: Kids vote.
BRANCACCIO: Kids vote. And you said, "Who are you gonna vote for?" And the boy suggested he might write in his principal, Marc Boyd for higher office. All right. If we were to draft you for write in candidacy for the Presidency here in New Hampshire, give me a sense of your platform. Education is a given. What else?
BOYD: People are concerned about their safety. I think after 9/11, there's a lot of concern about homeland security. And this is Marc Boyd, the world according to Marc Boyd, I believe the next issue, the foreign issue. What is happening in Iraq? What's happening with the young men and women who we're sending over there? Then I think we come back to domestic issues with the country. How are we doing? Are there enough jobs? Where do we stand economically? The value of the dollar.
BRANCACCIO: How's the economy right here in your community?
BOYD: I think we're more stable right now than what we have been in the past. I judge that by our free or reduced hot lunch program. I think our numbers are coming down. I still don't think it's strong. I still think we have a long way to go.
BRANCACCIO: But homeland security is something that is a clear and present issue in small town, New Hampshire. It doesn't seem remote?
BOYD: I think it's all over the country. When I started ten years ago, when a first grade parent would bring their child to school, and they had no idea about this school, and they're very anxious, and they have their question, ten years ago parents would come in here.
And their first question would be about the curriculum. "What type of program do you have? What will you be offering my child? Will my child be able to progress?" People are coming to me now. And the first question is, "Will my child be safe in your school? If I bring my child to your school, are they gonna be coming home?"
And this is an offshoot by what's been happening in this country over the last five or six years, the Columbines, and the other tragedies that you hear so much on in the media, that this is what parents are concerned about.
BRANCACCIO: It's very, very interesting. It's a homeland security issue. But it's also a school violence issue.
BOYD: Oh, it goes a whole gamut. I mean, our society right now, it's scary in some senses. And you wonder is it scary because it's what actually happened? Or is it scary because we have news 24 hours a day?
BRANCACCIO: Every principal must see kids who are acting out, occasionally have to call in the parents. Give me some sense of what might be at the root of some of this.
BOYD: A major issue we have right now is the war in Iraq. We have five children right now, who have - and they're all fathers now, last year we had mothers and fathers who have been called to active duty. And you see with the child issues arise.
Because it in many cases when a parent is called up, it has economic impact to the family. Because there's a salary that's not coming in that they're used to living on. So, you have financial issue.
You also, in this case, have a single parent, who is dealing with the loss, the temporary loss of a spouse who is away, and trying to raise the children. And then you add to the anxiety and fear of what could happen to my husband, my father, being overseas every time you pick up a paper. And, we had our 500th fatality in Iraq last week.
I mean, there's anxiety. Parents can deal with it. They're mature. A six to a ten year old child, it's very confusing.
BRANCACCIO: A successful candidate for you might highlight which issues? Ones that would resonate with you personally.
BOYD: Personally, I guess the major issue I have, and I'm a Democrat, I think most educators are. I'm painting with a broad brush there. I wanna see somebody who could beat President Bush. I think that's the major issue right now. I look at the seven remaining candidates and they're very similar.
And what I'm looking at - who stands out among the crowd that I feel could give the good fight to the current to President Bush. And hopefully win the election.
BRANCACCIO: Why would an educator have a beef with the President. He has this major initiative. It's called No Child Left Behind. This major education reform. And heaven knows we need some education reform in this country. I think you would agree. Why such a high priority on the switch at the top.
BOYD: Did you see the movie JERRY MAGUIRE?
BRANCACCIO: I sure did.
BOYD: And the famous line. "Show me the Money." You know the President has come out with a tremendous, you know, education reform movement in his mind, No Child Left Behind. But we don't have the funds to support it. It's like you giving me a winning Powerball ticket.
And I'm in New Hampshire. And you say, "You have to get to New York City within four and a half hours." And you give me seven dollars for gas. And I'm gonna get to Connecticut and I'm gonna be two hours away and I have no way to get to New York City.
BRANCACCIO: So in this extended metaphor, you're being offered perhaps some support. But the journey to get that support is pretty arduous.
BOYD: We're being given a challenge. This is what we have to do. We're not getting the resources to adequately meet the challenge. And it's weighing hard on education and on educators.
BRANCACCIO: Somebody told me this once, on a long ago visit to New Hampshire, but I'd forgotten it until today. It is not required for public officials to fund kindergarten in New Hampshire? I thought that's a national rule or something?
BOYD: It's a sad commentary on New Hampshire. We are limited.
BRANCACCIO: Do you have kindergarten here in Goffstown?
BOYD: No, we don't.
BRANCACCIO: There's no public kindergarten.
BOYD: We're working real hard for it. We have a warrant article on this budget where we hope to pass a public kindergarten.
BRANCACCIO: Have you tried this before?
BOYD: Yes, we have.
BRANCACCIO: What happened?
BOYD: Last year we lost it by 15 votes.
BRANCACCIO: Let me get this straight. So you here at Maple Avenue Elementary School, when you get your first class in through here, you get first graders who may never have been to school before?
BOYD: There's 17 school districts in the whole country that have no public kindergarten.
BRANCACCIO: And they're all in what state?
BOYD: New Hampshire. It's finances. Again, it comes back to the property tax. I mean how much can a citizen in Goffstown or the other 17 communities pay, you know, afford to pay.
BRANCACCIO: You know there are probably limits to that. You just can't keep taxing property higher and higher.
BOYD: Absolutely. And therein lies the problem. We need to look at how we're funding public education. And what's sad in New Hampshire is the people who made the communities in New Hampshire are growing old.
So you have your lifeblood, the people who would develop a community, who gave their heart and soul to the towns who are now retired, are living on fixed incomes. And they probably had their houses paid off. But they have this incredible tax bill. And they have to come across every year paying thousands of dollars for the property taxes to fund public education.
DAVID BRANCACCIO But let's look away from education for a moment, to talk about Marc Boyd's reaction to the political circus going around right now in New Hampshire.
Some other New Hampshire residents I've been talking to, and they've had people come to their door at night. They were trying to have a quiet breakfast at a diner the other day. Kucinich walks in. Someone else was trying to trade naval oranges for votes at a stoplight the other day. This isn't happening to you?
BOYD: No. The standard joke in New Hampshire is a reporter will go up on a street, and get a New Hampshire citizenship. Are you going to vote for John Kerry? And the person will look at them, and say, "Well, I'm not sure. I've only met him five times so far."
So, that's New Hampshire. That's New Hampshire. It's the only place where you can walk, and meet someone in a living room, and have a cup of coffee.
BRANCACCIO: So, let's say one of their staffers is watching this right now. What would you tell 'em? In other words, how should they re-craft their message?
BOYD: What I would tell them, they should make a coin with their candidates face on both sides. And they should be handing them out as people walk into the voting areas. Because I really believe what's gonna happen next Tuesday, people are gonna make their decision in the in the voting booth.
Everyone, people I'm talking to now are still up in the air. What are we gonna do? So, they take that coin, they flip it, and they're gonna see the head of their candidate no matter how it comes out. And they're gonna vote.
BRANCACCIO: Marc, people you talk to? This sounds like you.
BOYD: Well, no people. These are people I know. And I've been this way. I've gone through three campaigns now. I started out with supporting Howard Dean. Then I moved over to Joseph Lieberman. Now I'm in the Kerry camp. Heaven knows where I'm gonna be on Tuesday.
BRANCACCIO: You mentioned about how you were inclined to make your ultimate choice on who you were gonna vote for as a strategic decision. Do you worry sometimes about that strategy of trying to figure out who is most likely to win?
BOYD: I think you have to look who you're working with. We have seven candidates right now. And of the seven candidates, there's probably five, four or five, you know, who have an opportunity to make a good run for the Presidency. There's a couple other candidates who I think they have a snowball chance in Hades of doing it. So, right away you, in my mind, I'm taking these people off the table and looking at the five who I view as viable, and making that choice. And I and people I have talked to, I think they're doing the same thing.
BRANCACCIO: Now, a close second to politics in New Hampshire this particular time of year is professional football. I think there's a New England team that's going to the Super Bowl.
BOYD: Yes, they are.
BRANCACCIO: Now, you've noted this?
BOYD: You know who was ingenious? It was President Bush. He gave the State of the Union address the other night. He had so many guests he could invite. But you know who they invited?
BRANCACCIO: Who's that?
BOYD: Tom Brady.
BRANCACCIO: Tom Brady.
BOYD: Tom, the quarterback of the New England Patriots. If a Democratic candidate wanted to win this election hands down, all they need to get Tom Brady to support 'em right now.
BRANCACCIO: Well, Marc Boyd, thank you so much for spending this time with us on NOW.
BOYD: Thank you, and welcome to Maple Avenue Elementary School. |
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| Arbiter |
It is impossible to tell whether or not schools around the country need increased funding or not because they all operate with such a grotesque degree of inefficiency that it's difficult to quantify just how much money they really need in order to do a good job.
The problems that needs to be fixed before we can really look at adjusting the educational budget are fundamental ideological flaws in the way education is carried out. Since these flaws need to be fixed anyway in order to optimize the education process, and since they would have large, but fairly unpredictable effects on the expenditures of all public education systems, the budget shouldn't really be adjusted beyond what is absolutely necessary to keep the schools operating until these changes can be made.
Of course, no-one seems to be interested in fixing the many inherent and fundamental philosophical flaws in our public education system. I've heard so much garbage from politicians who purport to support education reform, and they almost always are advocating one of two things:
1. Increased standardization in the form of standardized examinations.
or
2. Throwing money at schools with little (or no) regard for how it is allocated.
Both of these ideas are actually counterproductive and make our education system worse, which is one of the reasons it has become a persistent problem.
The following are what I consider to be the main problems with the current public education system (in the U.S. foremost, but many other places as well):
1. Public education fails to adequately account for the broad spectrum of attitudes and aptitudes of students, attempting to force them all into the same curriculum rather than creating individually optimized educational programs. This is by far the most far-reaching and serious problem.
2. Public education overemphasizes the arts at the cost of inadequate science and math programs.
3. Public education expends excessive monetary resources to facilitate sports and other extra-curricular activities which are of little practical value in actually educating children.
4. Public education excessively employs teaching methodologies which are wasteful and inefficient with the expressed intent of making education more interesting, however rather than stimulating the interest of students, these methodologies typically prolong learning and thereby ultimately generate boredom and ennui. Examples of such methodologies would be having students create posters, put on plays, or engage in group discussions in situations where there is nothing to discuss (since the material is purely factual).
5. Public education attempts to serve the dual function of educating children and providing them with an environment in which to develop social skills. However, in the context of our present culture, these two goals are in direct conflict with each other, resulting in absurd and unnecessary inefficiency on both fronts.
6. Public education overemphasizes short-term memorization of factual information rather than developing strong logic, reasoning, and critical-thinking skills.
7. Public education curriculum is excessively redundant at low grade levels, students are frequently exposed to almost identical course content in successive grade levels.
8. Public education frequently ignores accepted literature regarding the biology of learning. Examples would be starting high school as early as 7:00 AM when over 80% of students' biorythms will simply not allow for optimal learning, disregarding the concept of saturation, inadequate or dated heating and cooling systems, and the widespread use of fluorescent lights which produce a myriad of effects detrimental to learning.
9. Public education overemphasizes grades and other evaluation to such a degree as to impose an unreasonable amount of stress on students which serves as a distraction from the actual process of learning.
10. Public education fails to provide short-term motivation to students beyond the mere desire of the students to avoid reprimand. As a result, students typically view their education as a waste of time and are no apt to apply themselves to the learning process.
Note that increased standardization and the allocation of larger budgets does little to solve any of these problems. In fact, standardization is actually a strong detriment to solving problem #1.
If I can find the time, I'll write part 2 later in which I discuss what changes actually do need to be made to start the path towards fixing these problems. |
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| imokruok |
Well, once again PBS is out campaigning for Kerry, which is no surprise, but here's my take on the matter.
Nothing's ever going to change in this country. Schools are a "government program," and as we all know, you can't change or kill a government program without reaping a whirlwind of vitriolic attacks. Things have to change one step at a time. Competitive options like school choice will take decades to work their way into the system.
So, I've resigned myself to this position: Public education isn't really as bad in the long run as it's made out to be. The 'cream always rises to the top,' and those who are destined to be good students will end up being students in the finest collegiate system in the entire world. The ones who do not make it will fill the lower-level jobs in society. (And these jobs need to be filled by someone.) |
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