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Highlands Today

Education And Teachers

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By Gabriel Read

Published: September 5, 2007

The editorial on finding an inspired education chief stirred all sorts of comments and concerns. Finding a candidate "outside the box" brought to mind the very path our "education govemor," Jeb Bush, followed to our current educational status, about number 48, 49 in the U.S.

Gov. Bush's policies drove thousands of experienced teachers out of Florida or their profession. His later effort to obtain math and science teachers with bonuses (bribes) led to about 30 percent of faculty teaching out of field, the very antithesis of sound educational philosophy, plus the "90-day wonders."

It would also be ironic that the people he put in charge of the system would choose the next secretary of education, the very body politic that led to the current crisis. The old Sophism "If you don't learn from history;" can spring to life again as did the Phoenix.

A number of educational principles were violated these past eight years."Teaching the whole child" was a basic goal 50 years ago when I began my profession. Instead, the number of subjects focused on in FCAT and NCLB narrowed the focus to three or four. That policy might be dropped if Bush's team is retired. Teaching to the test was a no no 50 years ago, but it is a common practice today.

The suggestion that a non-educator could be a better choice because she or he will "think outside the box" is curious. Need the editorial board be reminded that non-educators have been determining educational policies and selecting programs for 50 years? Does'anyone remember New Math? The last person consulted about teaching methods and educational programs is the teacher; yet, it is the teacher who makes the most of those choices by modifying policy and programs, or dropping them altogether.

Bush actually reduced state support for education. The 70-year-old policy of formulating funding for school districts large and small, rich and poor, provided the basic foundation that all public school students had the opportunity of a good education, and pursuit of the American Dream. That has been modified to provide funding for private schools and tax breaks for corporations. What happened to the $13 billion Gov. Lawton Chiles gained for children, funds for education and health care for the very young?

Is it not ironic that when the state experienced a short fall of about $1 billion four years ago, it was the departments of Education and Children and Families that provided $800 million? Corporations and private schools still received millions of tax dollars. Even though the state Supreme Court ruled vouchers unconstitutional, Bush still found a way to provide them.

Another thought: Gov. Crist produced an executive order in response to the Virginia Tech University massacre with the goal of establishing communication and coordination systems to alert various agencies, when troubled children are transferred from one county to the next; the university system would have records on troubled students. At the same time, two bills were prepared for the Legislature: truancy and bullying.

Even though this executive order illustrated several major crises at high schools in Florida and Colorado, the legislators perceived no connection between Crist's program and those two crises (truancy and bullying) occurring on K-12 campuses across this state. Those two bills were summarily dismissed.

Bullying has been a significant problem for generations, but teachers and administrators have turned their heads because of our litigious society, even though truancy is a significant consequence of bullying. School boards have been in the courts spending tens of millions of dollars on frivolous lawsuits over the constitutional rights for boys to wear hair down to the shoulder, for girls to wear skirts above the knee and wear rings in the nose, ad nauseam. Fear of litigation has caused them to look the other way. Tragically school boards must go the whole nine yards, to the Supreme Court to protect the schools. This costs litigious students and parents little, but it costs the taxpayers millions.

Those two bills would have updated state laws on handling the current issues. Today, the Legislature is considering eliminating law suit insurance for teachers. Who will address the bullying and truancy issues?

Gabriel Read

Avon Park

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