Achieve Escambia Visits the BCC

Achieve Escambia is a local group working for positive changes in our community to foster greater achievement from “Cradle to Career” for Escambia County youth.  I listened with great interest as Jennifer McFerrin gave the BCC a presentation/update about this group at this past Thursday’s Committee of the whole.  When it was appropriate, I asked questions and chimed in with my view as a 10-year member of the local school board.  

I was cut-off at one point by my colleague Grover Robinson, and another counterpart disagreed with much of what I said.  But the fact of the matter is that much of what we are doing is not working and I strongly believe that we need to take a different approach. Once again we are loaded down with 5 “F” Elementary schools and a raft of “D” schools throughout our local public school district.  The point I desperately tried to make was that we must stop dumping money into the same programs over and over that do not work.  

We must stop demoralizing and beating up the teachers that are working themselves into early graves giving all they have in order to help students that have abysmal home-lives.  We must, in my opinion, take a different approach.  

Focus on Families.  Remove discipline nightmare students.  Apply for a school of hope grant for a public charter boarding school to help the students in our community that live in extreme social dysfunction. Eliminate social promotion. Focus on rigorous academic programs for reading in grades 1-3.  These are the priorities.  Because if we can get to the students who want to learn—we can make a difference.  But first we must have some difficult conversations…..

Social Dysfunction and Poor Choices Destroy Communities and Socially–Dysfunctional Communities Create Low-Performing Public School Districts

Whether we’re talking about facilitating neighborhood trash clean-ups, enabling neighborhood property improvements via low cost loans and grants, setting up summer work programs for community youth, building sidewalks and parks, or giving all students county library cards--a local government can do things to help make communities better.  Our County spends millions of dollars every year providing services that enhance our community.  But this, in and of itself, does not make a great community.

Our local public school district provides all students access to educational 

What is it That's Really Holding Us Back?

To solve a child's fear of the dark, the first step is confronting and removing, not ignoring, the monster living under his bed....

Two education-related articles recently appeared in the local press.

These two articles got me thinking.  One article laments the lack of diversity among the ranks of teachers locally and points to this phenomenon as a significant hindrance to educational progress in our schools; the other touts a lack of pre-k readiness as one of the biggest issues that affects educational outcomes and graduation rates in Escambia County.

But are these really the causes of the issues of poor academic achievement— are these knee-jerk, ready-made, and convenient explanations really the causes or are they actually red herrings that sound like they should/could be the problems?  Are they actually the convenient and politically acceptable explanations?

If I want to solve my child’s fear of the dark, knowing there is a scary monster living under his bed, I have to confront the monster under the bed.  What good does it do to my son and his problem if I go into the room and ignore the monster under his bed while simultaneously proclaiming that by removing the clown dolls, installing a brighter night-light, and painting the walls a brighter, lighter color of paint I can solve his fear of the dark?! 

"Faux Monster"Kindergarten Readiness as the Big Reason Graduation Rates are Low…

Kindergarten readiness is a big buzzword these days-but it wasn’t too long ago that kindergarten didn’t even exist in American public schools!  Preparation for primary education was the responsibility (and still is) of the family.  But kindergarten was designed and implemented to help students and families be prepared for primary school.  At great expense to American taxpayers.

Next came pre-kindergarten, to prepare students for kindergarten.  And now comes the huge push for universal pre-k funded by the government to prepare students for kindergarten.

What comes next, pre-pre- kindergarten, paid for by taxpayers to help families prepare their students for pre-kindergarten?  What follows this-- do we take babies directly from the maternity wards of America and prepare them for pre, pre-kindergarten?

When does the lack of parental action to prepare students properly become cited as the real reason

Universal Pre-K: Myths and Reality Part II

I've discussed this issue plenty on this blog.  Universal Pre-K, funded by tax dollars, touted as an "educational program" panacea that will benefit students throughout their lives, is a myth. It is an expensive one, to boot.

But these programs enjoy broad bipartisan support from politicians of every stripe that love the money these programs inject into their jurisdictions.  Everyone loves money, right? And if it funds a program "for the children"---- it becomes all but  unstoppable, a juggernaut.

Even if the best, most well-constructed studies debunk the lofty claims Universal Pre-K proponents espouse (lifetime benefits,7 to 1 ROI, value to communities, etc, etc. etc.) --these  ideologues married to the notion that the government must fund these programs will never stop proclaiming their view of the benefits of these programs, intentionally disguising the fact that these programs are job creating entitlements, not long-term, effective educational programs...

Earlier this week US News and World Report ran an article on this same subject.  From the report:

"Pre-K for all” has become a rallying cry for progressives, underscored last week by Hillary Clinton’s speech at the Center for American Progress' discussion on “Expanding Opportunity in America’s Urban Areas." In her seven-minute talk, Clinton emphasized the “overriding issues of inequality and lack of mobility” in America, and praised New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s universal pre-K program as a model for helping the struggling middle class. There’s no question that the rapidly growing cost of child care has become a huge burden on middle-class families. Since 2000, the cost of child care has increased twice as much as median income of families with children..Pre-K advocates