1. Intense debate is good. Vandalism, not so much!
2. My kids don't need a laptop. I don't want you (as in the taxpayer) to buy them one.
3. Plus, they will be out-dated before they are done using them and graduate from High School.
4. Not to mention the headaches that the IT guys at each school are going to get trying to fix each and every abused computer that we gave to the kids.
5. I like school choice. On-line education classes could benefit a lot of students. If they are quality courses, kids will want to take them. (In fact, maybe they will want to pay for them if they want them that badly.) But no one should be forced to take an on-line course.
6. YES to ending teacher tenure, and YES to restricting collective bargaining.
4 comments:
There are a couple things I've learned in following this debate (aside from the fact that taking on establishment education interests can be hazardous to your health and property...) -
1. The laptops thing has a LOT of people really outraged, since it seems kind of counter-intuitive as a cost-saving measure. It was addressed in the KTVB forum, though, and here's my understanding of the plan:
a) They would most likely not be taking the devices home; in the forum I watched, both parents and Supt. Luna agreed that that would be far from a good idea, LOL;
b) the devices would take the place of bags of textbooks that are similarly outdated, but with the advantage of being electronically-update-able (which is where a considerable part of the cost savings comes in);
c) the technical support is included in the technology package with a third party - it would be a minimal addition to current school district IT's tasks;
d) a growing number of school districts all over the country are currently using this more technologically-focused model, with considerable success (higher test scores, lower costs).
(I paid special attention during that discussion b/c "laptops" seem so outlandish to everyone, LOL...)
***
2. I rather despair of ever reaching a civil accord between "sides" in this debate, since the establishment's whole anti-reform line is pretty much just anti-Luna ("he's a moron! So is the governor! They're obviously stupid and hate teachers and kids! They didn't get anyone's buy-in! [even though they did involve people from all parts of the system...]") If I were a legislator, I'd be afraid for my life, of voting for it, or even appearing to support any part of it.
I'm totally with you on the teacher tenure, and I'm kind of frustrated that it's being so dishonestly portrayed; it's not going to be taken from current employees, to my understanding - it's just not going to be available in the future.
It's interesting, too, to see the accusations of "playing politics with our children's education" flying... collective bargaining has become strong-arming the people in charge of budgets into giving you whatever you want, in this case, and there will STILL be so much local control... *sigh*
It's a big mess, and there's no way the status quo can work. My (inexpert) analysis seems to be that most people freaking out, are freaking out simply because it's different, and so many of them just close their eyes, ears, and minds to fact-finding... I'm glad there are big discussions, though. I just hope people are actually *learning* instead of just ranting, like most seem to be (e.g.: the whole kindergarten question... SO illustrative!).
Your comments about the laptops are enlightening, but I have to ask one follow-up question:
If the kids are not allowed to take the laptops home, why do they need them? I assumed the laptops would help the students with their on-line course work, and with their homework.
And your comment about both sides coming to an agreement is very true. I still think debate is good, but I agree, it seems a little pointless.
Yeah, I'm still fuzzy on how the kids would be doing homework if they don't take the laptops home, too... maybe the HW will be online or something, like you suggested? I'll be interested to see exactly how that works... :)
Post a Comment