Mr. Enlow.

OK. Third time's the charm. You're crazy, man.

I don't think “swish” means what you think it means. ;)

Seriously though, I have come to believe that Tony Bennett's plans for reform are one of the best chances Indiana residents have had for serious education reform for a very long time.

The current paradigm seems to rest on some basic assumptions that are no longer valid, and really haven't been for quite a long time. If we, as taxpayers and parents, really want to get more “bang for the buck”, then something has to change – radically.

The biggest problems I see are that groups like yours have yet to convince enough of the stakeholders in the process that your proposals are significantly better than the deal they have now. Administrators really don't have to be overly accountable to school boards, parents or taxpayers. Teachers unions fear a loss of a hard won equilibrium against capricious administrators. Both groups likely fear a diminishment of power vis-a-vis other political establishments. Then, there are the politicians. This group I just don't know enough about to comment more than I worry about too many of them being overly involved, as I have concerns about their activities in a group setting (the Legislature).

Perhaps I'm wrong about the problems above from your perspective, but if nothing else, the perception that those are significant problems that need to be addressed does exist (at least for me).

I do agree that we do have a shot at educational reform in the next few years. And, I appreciate you taking the time to publish your opinions in this forum.

Interesting post. Hyperbole aside, it invites open discussion and is full of some good thoughts. And some craziness.

The voucher crowd has got to understand one thing: you'll never get vouchers nor should you.

That said, transparency, better PRACTICAL teacher training, and accountability are all great goals. In fact, we should be screaming for it. But here's where the problem rests, and always has: local school boards.

Those boards have the power to jerk a superintendent into reality, and make him/her perform or seek other employment. But almost all boards have this cozy lapdog relationship with their superintendent. And Indiana's laws make it almost impossible for anyone to become a school administrator, EXCEPT those indoctrinated in the stall-and-win mentality that permeates those ranks.

One reform would change this instantly: allow successful persons to become school administrators, with a nominal up-fit in school budgeting, etc. A three -month certificated course would be sufficient. Hell you could probably do it in three weeks.

The semi-retired Army colonel, or a 20-year ER nurse administrator, could easily run most Indiana school corporations with proper support. Same for an experienced insurance agent, small business owner, Indy500 race team manager…you get the drift.

We are hopelessly mired in this murky world of school administration that throws more money on the ground than it spends wisely.

If we'd also cap central-office expenses at, say, 7% of a school corp's budget–you'd see more money flowing into classrooms, where it' needed. We have most teachers this month spending their own money on paper and crayons and pencils. Which is damned near criminal. When their central office admins drive around supervising mediocrity in large SUVs.

No, it's not vouchers. It's overly-expensive and decades-old mentalities in our central offices, that are harming education. That system is bloated and almost guaranteed to repopulate itself with offspring its belches out every year. There is precious little new thought in those rankls.

Tell me–what successful business could operate in that mental vacuum?

Do these things, and we could save millions, and increase productivity, and recharge our school systems. Tomorrow.

OK, 'You're crazy.'

We get upset when $15M is doled out to NBA BILLIONAIRES.

We get upset when $100s of millions are doled out to NFL BILLIONAIRES, too.

We get upset when public schools spend 10's of millions on wasteful extravagance in their building designs.

We get upset when our protestations are labelled as some sort of out of touch, fringe-ish, annoying rumble from the hicks in the sticks.

We get upset when they forge ahead and do these things anyway.

We are merely annoyed by a few thousand in unnecessary tuition grants.

I'm singing with the choir as loud as I can for simplified, undertandable education accountability and budgeting. I don't think it's “nuts” to have the money follow-the-child if facilities and special needs are also factored. Being a school “administrator” (admittedly, a catch-all) shouldn't be as impenetrable as a 15th degree Mason- especially to the taxpayers paying for it. Overall theme: Where's the money going?
.
Why is there a better chance of getting your teenager to roll the car windows up than getting a cross-district comparison of job descriptions, head-counts, salaries, and what we're paying per child? Whether it's the district or local media, it's like a damn secret society that everybody but you knows must remain secret. If they do share budgeting data, after studying the hand-out for ten minutes, you realize it would be more comprehensible in Chinese. Public education's as forthright and consumer-friendly as government writing a 1000 page page of legislation (not that any come to mind), and saying, “Trust us”. You wonder why people are a tad short-fused in town halls? I go back to earlier post:
.
1) Taxpayers that permit abysmal parenting and school boards.
2) Administrations that place stats and self above children
3) Unions that prioritize seniority above competency
4) Too little core academics relative to global competition
5) Poor teaching (not as big a problem if you fix 1-4)

Good questions, Robert. You're probably aware of her already (considering your role), but I'll refer you to Charlotte Iserbyt for a few answers to your “why” questions. Charlotte was Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), US Department of Education, during the first Reagan Administration. She's performed some comprehensive work in understanding why our educational system has been transformed into a failure – especially within our larger cities. Listen to her in context and you'll understand how we've reached our current position, and why.

I've added three links of various durations:

9 1/2 minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDyDtYy2I0M

29 minutes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDlwMatZE9Y

51 minutes:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-202221...

Unelected boards & public corporations are the precise architecture of unaccountability; designed to profit, self-serving, “elite” insiders & their crony pocket protectors, whose skill sets or self images, are apparently overwhelmed by the transparency & demands of the free market. Systems of accountability have been replaced with the architecture of unaccountability. Pointing the guns of state (poor policy, tax abuse) at your customers (citizens) and forcing them to pay; that's the one-way, fee market of tyranny.

“Public schools” are evidence that government can do what; take over our health care system? Public schools are only proof that government can morbidly grow itself, beyond purpose. More, of what?

Dear Varangianguard,
Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I don't think you are wrong about the problems at all, and you have certainly pointed out one of our biggest challenges, educating the public and stakeholders about the need for change. I am not convinced, though, that we will ever get some of the stakeholders involved, particularly the teachers' unions, until the incentives in education are realigned. Urban Administrators tenure is about 3 years and good educators are more often in the classroom not lobbying the legislature. I also think it is silly that we hold school board elections at a different time than general elections. This only serves to keep those interested in the status quo in power.
Thanks again.
Robert Enlow

Dear Think Again,
I love your ideas for school board reform. We shoudl do those things and more. Some of the good research on teaching quality suggests that two of the top criteria for a good teaching is content knowledge and communication ability. Here's an idea. Make sure teachers know their subject and send them to all the public speaking and communications courses possible.
As for your voucher comments, I “thunk again” and still believe that vouchers are a good thing. That's because for me vouchers are equally about markets and social justice. Tell me why, in America, we force children to attend poorly performing public schools simply because their parents don't earn enough to move to a school district with better schools? Milton Friedman's concept was also never called vouchers; that is a term that some use to demonize the concept. His idea was simple – separate the government financing of education, which we all believe in, from the government running of schools. Did you know that we are the only western country that not only publicly funds schools but that forces children to use those public funds exclusively in state run schools? Could you imagine if we did this with grocery stores?

Dear Taxpayer,
Love it. I think you can make a great start at fixing all of your points if we allow parents to go to any school, public or private. It is amazing what a little competition can do to stimulate real change.

Thanks. I konw of Charlotte. I particularly liked her comment in the first post about how her job was to go and get the naysayers on boards and panels so that they will feel important and stop being critical of the establishment.

How about real school choice.

Since the state is paying for education, and the funding is now being directed to the student not the school district anymore, why are parents restricted to sending there children to public schools within artificially designed townships if the parents are willing to provide transportation?

“Public schools are only proof that government can morbidly grow itself, beyond purpose.”

I agree, with the exception of the last two words. The purpose of our education system is very clear: Complete, Total, and Utter Failure. If you demonstrate success you are not eligible to participate.

In my opinion, there are only two options here:

1. Leverage your freedom of choice (while you still can) and move your kids out of public schools.
2. Leverage your freedom of speech (I won't say it…) and get loud and public about what's going on in our schools – and get to the meat of the issue rather than talking about the symptoms – the meat is policy related.

I've opted for number 1. If I was unable to choose that option you can be certain that my wife and I would be VERY unpopular with the school board.

I quibble about “stakeholders” unless it would be those willing to drive stakes thru the vampire's heart. At what point should a stakeholder lose his stake? Are we not decades past that point? If we begin with the end in mind (and defined) then the means of getting there should all be on the table and open to reasoned discussion. That would include vouchers ala Capitalism and Freedom and ought to exclude any narrowminded sorts who would want to foreclose that option. In the real world, stakes are lost, gone, not recovered, painful to those who lose. In government schools, in contrast, the losers are kids, parents, taxpayers. Were we to begin with the end in mind we would never come up with the organized failures that we now have. And, there is little reasoned debate as to why we continue decade after decade to throw good money at bad schooling. Newspapers have a business model that does not work, it seems clear to all. Government schools began on the basis of lying and they must continue that practice even to the point of denying that their model works no better than newspapers.

Amen Pascal.

My guess is modesty may not permit, but I think varaniganguard would also be an excellent guest commentator.

Dave–school boards are elected, not appointed. Still, it takes a lot to change the school corporation's course.

Enlow: vouchers haven't worked, won't work and you can repackage the idea any way you want it. You can't even write about it without slamming teachers, which, frankly, got old with Milton and Rose, God rest their souls, and it gets old with anyone else, too. Most teachers know their content. They're too busy trying to weed out the kids who can't, won't or inhibit learn(ing). And too often, they get zippo help from principals. Who are busy trying to become supers, because that's where good money is, and, honestly, less work. Because supers have big staffs. Spread the work around–the Alamo effect.

We spend enough money on public education. School boards allow superintendents to make stupid choices with the money we spend.

Private schools were and are free to do it however they want. But not one dime of my tax money can go to them, except in those mandated special-service areas.

Once more, with gusto: TEACHERS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. ADMINISTRATORS ARE THE PROBLEM. Because, uh, they're in charge. And most area school supers think they're an unelected school board member, which is arrogant, inaccurate and if unchecked, damned dangerous.

And in every single school district in the metro area, it IS unchecked.

On the bright side for school board members, they throw nice annual conferences in cool places. And you get free tickets to the good sporting events.

SWISH???? Does this guy have a poor vocabulary or is he trying to make a derogatory comment re: homosexuals…..

The voucher crowd looks at things as if ALL parents know what's best and are involved in their child's education. We read daily where “parents” are making horrible life decisions for their children in rat-infested homes or in some cases leading to the child's murder. All this dribble is just a tax cut for wealthy people who already don't want their kids going to a school with a minority. The real world. Ya gotta love Abdul's pals, chatter schools, Ballard and Mitch. Real objective reporting!!!

Love how these anti-government clowns cringe when you point out the government running the police, military and fire departments. I guess the government works ok when it's your agenda. Keep clinging to those guns and bibles. Like the private sector hasn't already screwed up health SCARE and Wall Street on their own.

School vouchers is welfare for rich folks who don't want their kids going to school with a minority or subjected to real world problems. Read the news. If anything you should have to get a license and prove you can parent. This nonsense takes for granted that all parents are involved. I would say less than 30% could name their child's teachers let alone visit the school less than two times the whole school year.

Vouchers are welfare for rich folks who don't want their kids in the same school with a minority or to see real world problems. This nonsense assumes ALL parents know what's best. If anything few are involved or care. Read the news. This is all about tax breaks for people who are ALREADY invovled. Do something to force parents to get active instead.

“The Common School fund SHALL CONSIST OF the Congressional Township fund, and the lands belonging thereto;
The Surplus Revenue fund;
The Saline fund and the lands belonging thereto;
The Bank Tax fund, and the fund arising from the one hundred and fourteenth section of the charter of the State Bank of Indiana;
The fund to be derived from the sale of County Seminaries, and the moneys and property heretofore held for such Seminaries; from the fines assessed for breaches of the penal laws of the State; and from all forfeitures which may accrue;
All lands and other estate which shall escheat to the State, for want of heirs or kindred entitled to the inheritance;
All lands that have been, or may hereafter be, granted to the State, where no special purpose is expressed in the grant, and the proceeds of the sales thereof; including the proceeds of the sales of the Swamp Lands, granted to the State of Indiana by the act of Congress of the twenty eighth of September, eighteen hundred and fifty, after deducting the expense of selecting and draining the same;
TAXES ON THE PROPERTY OF CORPORATIONS, that may be assessed by the General Assembly for common school purposes.” — Indiana Constitution, Article 8 Section 2

Our original 1815 Constitution spoke highly of education, but didn't offer any funding mechanism. This was corrected with our Constitution of 1851.

The Delegates enumerated, and the electorate RATIFIED, the above listed funding methods for our Common (public) Schools.

No where else in our Constitution is education funding addressed. There is only ONE fund mentioned…the Common School Fund. What are these other funds we hear of, and where did government get the authority to depart from Art 8 Sec 2?

“No law shall be passed, the taking effect of which shall be made to depend upon any authority, except as provided in this Constitution.” — Art 1 Sec 25

Certainly, if government did depart from the only Constitutionally-authorized method of funding our public schools, well, it would be in violation of 1-25 and 8-2.

“The Common School fund SHALL CONSIST OF…” What part of “shall consist of” does government not understand?

While were are looking at funding methods, let us look at the last method listed at 8-2:

“Taxes on the property of corporations, that may be assessed by the General Assembly for common school purposes.”

TAXES ON THE PROPERTY OF CORPORATIONS! Where are taxes on my private home listed?

The only property tax listed at all is a tax on the property of corporations, NOT a tax on private homes.

If government would simply cherish and obey our Constitution, which is our organic LAW, then we would be much better off. If we don't like something in our Constitution, we can amend it in accordance with Article 16.

Alas, it's much easier to simply ignore it, or find a LiaR (lawyer in a robe) to 'reinterpret' our Constitution to mean whatever government wants it to mean.

Article 8 section two establishes a commone fund to provide education to the public it does NOT establish a straight line connection between the common fund and public schools. In fact, up to and after the 1851 constitution common funds were used at “acadamies” and sectarian institutions. Don't make the mistake that everyone makes, namely confusing our constitutional mandate to fund a common education with state run schools. That said, i too wish we would follow the constitution more closely regarding the establishment of new taxes.

Nick,
I assume you are talking about this year's funding changes, as well as the changes made to school funding via the property tax law of a couple years ago. That law, inadvertantly, erased transfer tuition between public school districts, so that a parent could do exactly as you suggest so long as the receiving school district accepts the child. I bet you can guess what would happen. They would never accept, and in fact we heard of some efforts to get agreements among superintendents that they would not poach kids.

Or, even the one sentance Article XIII for that matter? But, brother Wright informs us that the cost of one IPS diploma is sky high, in part, I suppose because so many dollars are wasted on those who drop out for good reasons or poor ones. Brother Ogden suggests that Nuvo had a good article on Charter Schools which could be read for profit. And, we discover therein what the antient Greeks would call an idiot. It is even worse than the old joke about those who teach teachers. Teachers, following C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man, topic paragraph, know the truth that not everything can be measured quantitively. Dopes, mostly “educators” buy into learning outcome assessments anymore which become their North Star and just as unattainable for lack of talent. Let's look at 2007 SAT scores for White folks (1061), Asians (1092) and Blacks (862). While the SAT is for colleges if one standard deviation from the mean of the entire applicant pool is used as a cut off score only 1% of African Americans (those with combined scores of 633) could make it into college on a competitive basis. This sort of data has been around for 40 or 50 years and is not disputed insofar as the reliability of the data is concerned even if anyone presenting it would be shouted down. What are the implications for the K-12 kids of a one size fits all government school? Or, IPS? IQ is the main predictor of academic success and IPS can give you the average IQ of every classroom in their system as the ISTEP test contains a crude IQ test suitable for this exact purpose. I'm not suggesting Plessy v Fergeson but it is clear that one size cannot fit all and IPS demonstrates in its repeated failures decade after decade that our Legislature is incompetent as a 150 person school board. The IPS inablity to instruct is related to the raw material with which they must contend and the limitations placed on them by being “government” who thinks education is possible under its auspices having not read C. S. Lewis as quoted above or having done so failed to comprehend his widely accepted truth telling. Those who have read the Nuvo article (12 August) will be exposed to one who teaches teachers-an idiot-but who knows anyone in so-called education who is learned, well rounded, looked up to because of his superior education and can open his mouth (even to a journalist who is selectively taking quotes for his own purposes) and be understood and also be speaking truth?

Enlow, I don't know where you get your news, but the poaching didn't happen, and as far as I know, wasn't talked about or planned.

In fact, the changes in the funding formula, which occurred last year, nearly erased the potential of tuition students at public schools. When that happened, North Central led the way among Indiana schools, with 145 or so kids paying tuition for that district's classes, because they lived outside the district.

I have not followed the effect of changes put into place last year, but I was led to believe that transfer tuition was gone now. It would make for an interesting case study. Not many schools realized much profit from it, but Washington Township has made hay off it for almost 20 years. So they've got something that's working and that people want.

Mr Enlow,

First, thank you for promptly responding to questions/comments. That is refreshing.

Second, I need to be informed by what you mean regarding $10,000 to send kids to suburban Carmel Schools? I missed that report.

Thanks,

Hello Robert…not certain that I can agree with your assertion above. I've read the Journals of the Debates of the Convention, and most of the relevant Indiana 'case law' concerning our common (public) schools.

For example, the first School Tax was passed in 1849. It required ALL of the Indiana counties to vote Yea or Nay for the tax. In other words, the tax was voluntary.

Later, after the 1851 Constitution was ratified, the Indiana Supremes ruled in 1855 that the extra-constitutional funding legislation created by the IGA was unconstitutional.

The 1974 case of Lillie Chandler provides a decent history of public education in Indiana. I do not agree with every point offered in Chandler, but it does offer a history lesson.

Further, there was a movement in the IGA to amend Article 8; striking the provision concerning the property taxation of corporations, and inserting a provision for school transporation.

I'd be interested to review any data you have that supports your assertions. Thank you!

The clusterfunction in Muncie passing themselves off as editors are really just morons in disguise. To question their ability one needs only to note that while BSU has chartered many schools, Muncie has zero charter schools, and a teacher force whose main accomplishment is to drain property taxes and get schools placed on academic probation even while following IDOE guidelines on lying about NCLB. Muncie Newspapers is an enabler of sub standard and destructive government. Reporting on instruction in Muncie in that paper is a long term whitewash and exersise in t@rd-guilding. Schools have existed there, at the bottom of Indiana's rankings, since their inception.

As Indiana SAT scores continue their decline it is interesting to note that one fellow, the new IDOE elected leader has the first clue on what to do about it. “The state now must focus on making sure teachers are equipped to teach reading and math, especially at the crucial lower grades, he said.” But, as Andrea Neal has pointed out in many columns, the whizz bangs at IU and BSU, don't believe in content nor do they attract the quality students who could handle content. So, it is no surprise to her that degreed teachers licensed to teach in Indiana haven't the faintest idea of how to teach kids to read. Elementary education majors have lower SAT scores than journalists and there is no other group that I have ever heard of that has lower SAT scores than these two groups. GIGO

As Indiana SAT scores continue their decline it is interesting to note that one fellow, the new IDOE elected leader has the first clue on what to do about it. “The state now must focus on making sure teachers are equipped to teach reading and math, especially at the crucial lower grades, he said.” But, as Andrea Neal has pointed out in many columns, the whizz bangs at IU and BSU, don't believe in content nor do they attract the quality students who could handle content. So, it is no surprise to her that degreed teachers licensed to teach in Indiana haven't the faintest idea of how to teach kids to read. Elementary education majors have lower SAT scores than journalists and there is no other group that I have ever heard of that has lower SAT scores than these two groups. GIGO