Well yesterday I ripped over to the Capitol and signed up to testify before the Senate Ed. Committee, but so did 150 other people ahead and probably that many behind me. I waited for three hours and they didn't get to me. It was interesting to listen to, but made for a long day.
Came home and got ready for my Primary Presidency meeting. I've chosen wisely and I'm so thankful the for the ladies who'll be serving with me. It was 10pm when we convened, but we accomplished at great deal.
Gave it one last shot at testifying today and finally got to go. There are so many issues, but if they hear the same comments repeatedly, maybe something will sink in. The best speaker of the day was a girl in the 6th or 7th grade. She talked about her typical and day and ripped off all these technology-related activities she did throughout the day including over breakfast and she was very funny. Her point was significant. Kids get technology. At one point she said, if anything my mom is trying to detoxify me from it. She makes me get off my computer and tells me I have to go outside and play. Ugh! It was so cute. You could tell she meant it. Even the Senators were laughing. She really did make a point though. Throwing a laptop at them isn't going to make them equipped for the world and makes the assumption that schools and kids aren't already tech-savy.
Another kid gave an example of a friend who got ticked at his laptop and took a baseball bat to it. He said, "We found out the warranty didn't cover that either." This is a point of emphasis because there are many concerns about who will handle the servicing and repair of the mandated laptops and where the money will come from for the infrastructure (internet access) in every district across the state to make the laptop fully functional. So many questions and they all require money-- something we don't have.
So I gave my talk and I will just share a little bit of it:
I told about the story of a king who had two women brought before him because of a dispute over a child. Both mothers claimed to be the mother of the child. Both women claimed to care more for the child than the other. The wise king said he could solve the problem-- he'd cut the child in half. At this point the real mother stepped forward and said the other woman could have the child. This proved to the king who the real mother was.
I said the child is education and the two mothers are the Democrats and Republicans.
This wasn't a popular analogy, but I hope it forced them to decide which one they are and to put aside party line to vote against the bad portions of these bills. Many people called for collaboration and time to form a better solution and though the Senate said they are still listening, we are all afraid it'll be railroaded through despite the overwhelming testimony against it. It's been a landslide at all the public forums and hearings-- not even close.
Still they can go vote whatever they want. We are particularly opposed to the government mandating that two of the students' classes have to be on-line every year and the on-line provider can't be housed in the building. There's an on-line provider that contributed to Luna's campaign.... go figure.
We are also opposed to laptops for every freshmen for several reasons:
1) I thought we didn't have money -- let alone "extra" gadget money
2) Freshmen are responsible?
3) We don't have internet in our classrooms (infrastructure problems-- who pays)
4) Who pays if they are lost or broken?
5) Play cards, surf the internet, or listen to the teacher? Hmmmmmm
6) Porn anyone?
The other big point is classroom size.
Luna's proposal would increase each class by 4 students. He arrived at avg. class sizes being 18 (which they obviously are not) by what we now call "Luna Math". He divided the number of students by the number of certified staff (including the principals, school counselors and psychologists, etc.) Had he divided them by the number of classroom teachers, they have now determined the avg. class size is 25 in smaller schools and 28 in larger schools. Some larger schools have class sizes in the 40's already though. Many schools, including mine are looking at cutting classes as well as teachers next year.
There is legislation currently being proposed that offers both sin tax and "pleasure" tax options to increase revenue as well as other ideas such as taxing internet sales, and hiring more staff to collect on unpaid taxes in our state. Then there's Luna's "program funds" that the schools can't touch. Did I mention the paper just reported his office's 12% budget increase for HIS department? Must be nice.
Finally- -there's the teacher stuff. We don't care about tenure. Teachers are fine with just having a one or two year contract-- whichever one the board chooses to offer you. They just don't want to step back 30 years to no collective bargaining and to eliminate the clause about contracts being able to be broken after Oct. 1st. If there's no funding for that position-- don't hire for it until Oct. 1st, but don't let a teacher move her family and then two months later say, sorry, our numbers are wrong, you're fired! Contracts have to go from Aug. to Aug. It's too hard on districts, students, and teachers.
Overall, it's just not very well researched or feasible. It's a train wreck.
On a personal note this whole process has been quite exhausting and I need a break. I have done my part, but I know the vote is out of our hands. I have one last player to lobby and he knows me quite well. For that I need to go to bed, bow my head, and close my eyes.
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