Hite's Plan for Schools

With all the woes that the School District of Philadelphia has gone through and is currently going through, Superintendent Hite is looking for new ways to improve the way the School District "does business."  Hite wants to allow the strongest schools to run themselves beginning in 2016, and turn some struggling schools over to private contractors. The plan would require more than $300 million in new recurring revenue from the city and state for the next school year and a total of $970 million over five years in order to execute. Hite's "Action Plan v3.0" would also reorganize the district. The current eight networks - groupings of schools run by an assistant superintendent - would remain.

But three networks would be added: a "turnaround" network for the bottom 5 percent or 10 percent of schools.

I understand that the School District is in a tough fix financially, but in my opinion, Superintendent Hite is going about this all wrong. He makes a good point that almost half of the district's students do not meet the state's standards  in reading and math, AND that the district has thousands of students that are over-age and have not yet graduated. I'm aware that the School District need urgent care, but I think that the solution is what it should have always been: provide public schools with the resources they need so that principals and teachers can do their job and so that students can have a quality education and actually learn. Simple as that. When is the District gonna learn?

Wolf's Roar

Any supporter of education in Philadelphia would have undoubtedly voted for Tom Wolf for governor over Tom Corbett. Now, with his kicking of Bill Green to the curb, I'd be surprised if he didn't have the support of all education supporters. Technically Bill Green was just replaced by another member of the SRC, Marjorie Neff, but nevertheless, Tom Wolf is the real MVP.

Tom Wolf only demoted Green after he ignored Wolf's plea with the SRC to not approve any more charter schools #karma. In my opinion, Neff should have always been the chair of the SRC because she's the ONLY one on the commission with actual experience in education. ISN'T THAT INSANE??!!? Anyway, Wolf's bold move was solely based on the fact that he didn't want any more charter schools approved, AND I DON'T EITHER!With every new charter school that is brought up in Philadelphia, a large chunk of money that would have gone to public schools is now gone. Charter schools hurt the district, and hurt the opportunity of the average student to get a good and affordable education. With that being said, I approve Wolf's decision to demote Green, although it is not yet known whether Wolf has that authority. No matter, I'm eager to see what else Wolf will do to improve education in Pennsylvania. Who knows? Maybe the SRC may be on its way to non-existence.

Standardized Testing: A Principal's Perspective

In the wake of No Child Left Behind, the Common Core, and Race to the Top, standardized testing has been a plague on schools, and education reform is needed now more than ever before. An article in the Washington Post shows that the effects of federal government's overreach into the education system has severely stunted the states from creating challenging standards for education and has taken the opportunity of quality education from students across America. Because of the bribery from No Child Left Behind and Obama's Race to the Top initiative, schools are forced to conform to the federal government's standards of education, which in my mind are blindly constructed. As I have said in my previous posts, the federal government is too far from direct contact with the students, and their implementing of standards for students is completely absurd. 

 Principal Carol Burris oh South Side High School in New York has seen the effects of the government's overreach into school first-hand. There, test-based requirements for graduation are having the opposite effect on students; instead of pushing them to succeed, they are falling behind. The "graduation rate gap" there has expanded and the percentage of graduating ELL students is a measly 31 percent. These special education students are drilled to pass a test rather than given an education in which they are immersed in the knowledge and attention that they need. Standardized testing has deprived these students of reaching their full potential.

Education is not a platform for politicians to win elections. Education is a basic need and right to every child in America. If the federal government keeps stretching their boundaries into our schools, then we better stock up on wood-barrel #2 pencils.

Free College?

Although "FREE COLLEGE" sounds like a very good idea, it is mostly likely not going to happen any time soon, especially with a Republican Congress...However, Obama is still going to push this idea in his State of the Union Address. He proposed a plan to work with states to make community college education free for two years of study. As a large supporter of the value of education, I think it's a pretty good idea!

How are we going to pay for this initiative you ask? No need to think very hard on this, it's the obvious answer - TAXES. Obama offered a tax proposal to cover the cost of this program.
According to Obama, the tax increases would only affect the wealthiest 1% of Americans, which sounds fine to me. It's time for big corporations to start giving back!

What would be the effects of this initiative? Results are questionable. According to statistics, people with associate's degrees, on average, still make lower in weekly earnings than the median wage. This brings up the question, "what's the point?" According to statistics, you need at least a bachelor's degree to make more than the median wage. This is true, however, with this initiative, more opportunities are available and make four year's worth of higher education much more affordable and accessible. 

All in all, I'd support this kind of education reform. With all this exposure that this initiative is getting from the media, it would be a great platform for a future Democratic candidate for president to run on. Hopefully, this will be the first step in lowering the tuition costs of all higher learning institutions

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