Last week, Gov. Jan Brewer appointed 17 educators, business leaders and public policymakers to her Arizona Ready Education Council to help improve the performance of the state's public classrooms. This group will be looking at test scores, graduation rates, teacher training and other issues as it works toward raising expectations for students, teachers and schools.
Sound familiar?
Over the years, there have been similar state committees and panels convened to make recommendations to governors and lawmakers on how to improve Arizona's public education system.
We've seen academic standards raised high and then lowered again on the AIMS test. We've watched full-day kindergarten come, go, and come again. We've seen school districts implement a variety of "performance pay" programs for teachers, some of which are little more than teachers getting extra pay for setting - rather than meeting -- goals.
We've increased the number of schooling options for parents dramatically with the proliferation of charter schools, tuition tax credits for private schools, a range of resources for home schools, and a booming number of online schools.
We've listened to some crafty language as lawmakers and lawyers have tried to create voucher programs without using the controversial "V" word, the latest being "empowerment scholarship accounts."
And then, there's the endless annual debate over state funding.
The bottom line: After all that, Arizona still lags behind other states academically.
But we're hopeful that Brewer's new council may actually be able to make a difference. That's because it's being chaired not only by state Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal - but also by Craig Barrett.
Not only is Barrett the retired CEO of Intel; he's also the president and chairman of one of the most successful chains of public schools in the world - the BASIS charter schools.
And, he is an outspoken critic of public education in Arizona. As Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services reported last week, Barrett told the Arizona Commerce Authority last March that if Intel were looking today for a site to build an entirely new operation, Arizona would not even be on the list of Top 10 choices. Thank goodness Intel located here long ago. Imagine where Chandler, the East Valley, and our state would be without the high-tech super-giant that employs thousands and gives back so much to our community.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fischer, Barrett said Arizona's public school children are doing far worse than the national average.
"We're kind of the bottom 10 or 15 percent of states," he said.
He acknowledged that Arizona is "not terribly high" on funding per student compared to other states, but rejected the notion that more tax dollars will improve the end result.
Instead, Barrett suggested that it's more important to pay each teacher according to the business practices of supply and demand. In other words: If there's an oversupply of P.E. teachers and not enough science teachers, you pay the science teachers more.
In the same story, Andrew Morrill, president of the Arizona Education Association, cautioned against someone new coming to the table and brushing aside ideas that have been explored for a new solution.
"It usually represents an incomplete understanding of the problem," Morrill said.
That response is a common one from Arizona's public education world. And frankly, it's tiresome.
No, we don't want to see someone come in and wreck aspects of the system that do work, or suggest changes that make no sense where teaching, learning and working with children are concerned. And, unlike his BASIS schools, Barrett will have to deal with the fact that public education serves a range of students - and not just those who are college-bound.
But sometimes, it takes someone who has knowledge of something but remains on the outside to see the problem and how to fix it. Barrett is knowledgeable, but he's not part of the education establishment. And what this former Intel CEO doesn't know, we're confident he'll learn pretty quickly.
We urge everyone - especially those in the education sector - to give his ideas a chance.
Dale Whiting posted at 8:10 am on Sun, Dec 11, 2011.
Without dismissing Barrett's views, and hoping that his involvement with those "educators" also appointed will help educate him, I express the feature of education in Arizona that I like the most. Arizona has all of the problems of a border state, significant rations of student whose families do not speak English, a high drop out rate fostered by families who did not get assimilated into the post WW2 era of higher education, populations in transitions, etc. So what did we do about 30 years ago? We invented Charter Schools, publically funded charter schools. And in the main, they have done alright for themselves.
So where parents elect to send their children to Charters, perhaps we need to educate parents or better yet, the public school system, itself.
samkat posted at 10:38 am on Sun, Dec 11, 2011.
Perhaps we need to do a better job of requiring accountability from charter schools. they take our taxpayer money but do not have to show how they spent it. Furthermore, public school school teachers are required to have certification and complete additional courses to stay current at their own expense. Show me where charter schools have this requirement. Then, we have the no taxable, no accountable tuition organizations who also lack any form of accountability even though they are obtaining donations that we are subsidizing.
I found it interesting that Mr. Barrett is pushing charter schools even though he has a vested interest. I believe that is a conflict of interest. He undoubtedly has some great ideas but until he cuts his ties with Basis, I have no confidence that he can be a neutral party.
JMJ posted at 8:16 pm on Sun, Dec 11, 2011.
I heard Barrett speak at a public consortium of educators, parents and media, hosted by Channel 12, back in May. Mr. Barrett may have the best charter schools in the world, but, I believe, he also has the option to turn away students, or suggest strongly that students disenroll from his school, if they are not up to the standards of the BASIS clientele. Public schools do not have those options.
Give us your poor, your tired, your hungry...your neglected, your problems which are nuttier than a jar of Skippy, and top that off with absent parenting, and then give us all the finger while you drive through the school parking lot at 50 mph. That's what public schools get. Everything. The great kids come, too, but I don't blame parents who take their kids elsewhere, at this point.
That forum on education back in May resulted in the same conclusions, which all of us know are true, regarding educating our children in this sorry state: The teachers need to be qualified, the parents need to be dedicated to finding the best environment for their child/ren, and the child has to engage, to learn.
The parent groups who were at the forum also had vested interests in having their child/ren educated. Kudos to them. The children of Arizona are in the bottom 10 - 15% because, mostly, their parents are losers who don't even show up to conferences. Welcome to the Walmart of Education, the state of Arizona. We have a perpetual spill on aisle 13.
Barrett was condescending regarding teachers and their qualifications. He stated that students who select education for their major are not "top tier" students--the implication being that "top tier" students do not choose to go into education, they choose science, math and engineering.
Those of us who went into education for the right reasons, who helped kids learn against all odds [because, certainly, many of their parents didn't give a rat's behind if they learned, or not], who gave up being CEO of Intel because we had other interests and talents, can never "do it all", without the students and the parents as engaged and vested in the long-term goal of having a marketable and productive citizen at the end of all their years of education.
Most of the teachers I know break their collective backs and bank accounts providing for others' children who are sent to school for free babysitting. They encourage these students to learn, and help them to succeed, in spite of their disadvantages.
What I did saw during my career was extremely poor leadership in the public schools, and inept, even stupid, people who are handed principalships to schools when they are not qualified to lead them.
Then, I went and heard Huppenthal speak at a MENSA meeting. OMGosh. How did that happen? We have a superintendent of schools who is a career politician, not an educator, who runs charter schools. How is that not a conflict of interest?
Arizona has a lot to correct, that's for certain, but there is no silver bullet. We can all listen to Barrett's ideas--the reality is that unless you have parents on board, qualified teachers, and engaged students, nothing will change. I am an educator, and I do not have a silver bullet--I personally try to just stay away from bullets, see stupid adminstrators, above. But, I do know that teachers are getting a bad rap, and the leadership does absolutely stink. I have known, perhaps, 10 administrators who were worth the oxygen they breathed. The rest are a waste of oxygen.
I'm personally glad my grandkids are in Catholic schools. They'd never go to the schools my kids attended in Mesa, now, and they will be successful because their parents are involved in their education--and they sacrifice to pay for that education--they are not wealthy. My kids had a great education in Mesa, but they wouldn't be in Mesa, now, if they were school-aged. 6% graduate from four year colleges? With an 85% graduation rate in Mesa? What a joke. Arizona is a joke when it comes to education.
Speak, oh guru, Barrett. We're listening. Can you motivate parents and students? The teachers are qualified. They haven't had raises in years. They buy supplies for their students. Arizona has one of the highest child poverty rates in the nation, as well. What is your solution?
HalfDayKindergarten posted at 12:20 pm on Mon, Dec 12, 2011.
My concern is in the politics here, the national mandates and incentives which are NOT in the best interest of children... The current push for a universal full-day kindergarten is political! Please, take time to see Half day works. Half is a choice and needs to remain one! Lately, our solutions to our problems seem to be: do MORE of what is NOT working! Look at Finland, they spend less money and time in school and yet outperform the world. It does not matter if we spend the rest of our days in school... Time will NOT fix it. Time is not the point! All THAT is doing IS create stressed out kids. Creative thinking suffers. The kids are checking out. Instead, children need BALANCE. They need an effective school program, quality time with family, time outside, time to play... UNSTRUCTURED time that is not dictated by adults. Kindergarten is not what is once was. We are doing our children an incredible injustice by trying to get them to spend MORE time at desks in school...and trying to micromanage their every waking hour. This is a form of abuse! It is a recipe for disaster. Please listen to the experts... RacetoNowhere.com and The Alliance for Childhood... Read more... Please visit the links on my site... www.HalfDayKindergarten.org
samkat posted at 2:30 pm on Wed, Dec 14, 2011.
jmj: I was not aware that Huppenthal runs a charter school. Which one does he own?
JMJ posted at 9:54 pm on Wed, Dec 14, 2011.
He does not run Charters [I was mistaken], but he advocates heavily for Charter schools under the guise of "school choice". School choice sounds like a wonderful idea, but Charters have undermined our state's public schools as an ineffective alternative to regular public schools. The Charter system does not have the oversight that the district public schools have. Parents are flattered to think they have "school choice", but many Charters are not up to par. Places like BASIS might be, but your every day, neighborhood Charter is not necessarily providing a top notch education.
In the meantime, the public schools have lost out on having their neighborhood kids attend their neighborhood schools.
Penny Kotterman would have been a much better choice as Superintendent of Education. She had actual experience as an educator.
Huppenthal's presentation was a rambling, diagram-laden snow job. Kind of like Mr. Magoo explaining quantum theory. He probably gives it to every group before whom he speaks.
Charters are partly to blame for the evisceration of Arizona's public schools. I still think it's a conflict of interest for Huppenthal to be state superintendent of education when his main thrust is for Charter schools. I don't know if anyone "owns" Charter schools in our state. They are supposed to be public schools, but we all know they don't have to take some students if they don't feel that they want to do that. True "public" schools do not have the option to turn students away.
I did not vote for Huppenthal. I don't care for Charters, nor what they have done to "compete" against public schools.
VofReason posted at 1:21 pm on Thu, Dec 15, 2011.
JMJ is the official star of the day here"Welcome to the Walmart of Education, the state of Arizona. We have a perpetual spill on aisle 13".
I almost swallowed my gum. Better still is his point that parents need to be involved or you are just waisting your time. Additionally, we likely need fewer and better real world business angle administrators to run the machine. I agree that there is a whole lot of money tied up in administration that should go to teachers and classrooms. Every time the get more money, it seems to breed more administrators.