..........public school reform!

I'm close to feeling a "rant' coming on! In North Carolina last school year there was a high school dropout rate of nearly 30%. Can you believe that? The rate of dropouts were 3 out of ten students! The solution offered by our state education administrators - re-tool the entire system to compensate for the 30%. Yes, we can hide our inability to reform society by showing an effort to reform the schools. It should be easy enough. The school employees are under the control of the government - they have to do what we say! It's odd that you never hear much about the 70% that do graduate from our public schools. Here in our school alone (graduation class sizes average 215), we had over $1.4 million of scholarships offered to the 2008 graduating class. That's not too bad. My daughter got about $45,000 of that herself (brag)! We have graduates that attend community college, four-year private colleges, US Military Academies, and some of the best universities in the nation. Did the public schools fail them? Sure, we can always make improvements, but these kids took advantage of the opportunities given to them and made the system work.

Now, on to the rant. In a recent board of education meeting in a large and influential school system here in NC, the BOE passed a proposal to drop the needed graduation credits for their system to the state minimum as to graduate students earlier. And where do the dropped credits come from? You got it - the arts and electives programs! You see, this has nothing at all to do with the welfare of students, but everything to do with saving money. It'll take some time to materialize, but this will eventually mean a reduction of kids taking elective classes (like band) and usher in a reason to reduce funding for programs; as well as, reduce the work force. For example, when the number of kids enrolled in band and chorus reach an enrollment where there is no need to have several sections, we can combine sections. Less classes equals less of a need for two instructors - get rid of one through staff reduction, and have one person teach both chorus and band. The result? The system saves about $50,000 each year. I feel sure the plan will work for the school budget, but what about the students? The public schools are scorned by many right-wing nut jobs who don't have enough sense to see the overwhelming positive influence offered to our society. Their cry is to privatize and offer vouchers for a better education. The truth is that privatization of the schools (as clearly understood by Thomas Jefferson - a pretty solid thinker) would result in a wide-gap class society. Of course, that's what most Republicans want. Okay, here we go, and I can hear it from where I'm sitting - "you're a socialist"! No, I'm not a socialist. I'm just a Conservative Democrat who knows that the survival of America will depend on education of everyone; an education that is offered equally to everyone, and an education that offers many opportunities for students to find their forte in life. The shroud of school reform is a means to do nothing more than save money. I regret this for our society; for in the years to come, there will be a definite reduction in the arts and vocational courses offered to American youths. This will not be reform, but tragedy. Like it or not, art defines a creative mind. Here's a Beware of the Elephant in Tall Grass prediction: Instrumental music education will be eliminated from the NC public schools as classes offered during the regular school day in ten years! At that time, all music ensembles in existence will meet as extra curricular. What will happen to the music teachers? They will be located at colleges and universites, and will be offered a stipend to teach high school students at the end of the regular school day. Does that seem far fetched? Just remember, you read it here!