Hearing on school-budget cuts tonight

I agree with Dave that class size makes little difference. I went to school in the 60’s and 70’s and, while things were not perfect even back then, we had larger class sizes than you see in CCPS. The difference is that more kids are not learning to read in K-2. They are frustrated because these kids know that they are bright kids and have the ability to read. Because schools refuse to use PEER-REVIEWED, research-based reading instruction as defined by Reading First and NCLB (it’s also called phonics by us old-timers) but instead use whole-language (now hiding behind a new fancy term called balanced literacy which does have about 3% phonics included only if teachers feel like including that part). Even though, everyone knows that children learn to read, decode, when they are taught the “code”, schools continue fail to teach kids to read but instead teach them to memorize a few words and “guess” at the rest or “look at the pictures to figure it out”. Almost all children enter Kindergarten wanting to learn to read but public schools destroy this thirst and motivation by making them feel “dumb”. The lamp is extinquished at an early age. So what do kids do to pass the time?  They cut up through the rest of their school careers. They bully others. They are bored to tears and can’t sit still. They get angry and frustrated. They want to learn but reading is the gateway to all other subjects, all other learning. If they could read, they would be kept too busy in school working, reading, learning, writing, doing math, and would have no time to get into trouble.

So why are we pouring more dollars into a faulty system? 

From Joel Turtel’s book, Public Schools, Public Menace a good illustration he gives it this. Suppose you take horseback riding lessons, and you pay for one-on-one instruction but the teacher teaches you to ride by making you sit on the horse facing backwards and tells you to hold onto the horse’s tail, and ride backwards. Will you learn to ride the horse this way? You are getting 1:1 instruction. Class size makes no difference if your methods are ineffective!

It’s all about keeping funding, even if it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars.

It’s government bureaucracy. Government shouldn’t be in the business of educating children just like they shouldn’t be in the business of doing anything that can be done in the private sector.

Just my opinion..