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| Mark Altman |
A matter of public policy
Education: a debt due from present to future generations." -- George Peabody
On Tuesday we will vote on whether to tear down and rebuild Lakes Middle School, build a new elementary school to alleviate our busting at the seams, continue to improve computer technology and buy property for new schools in the future. I realize there are some folks who are tempted to vote no on this levy request, and there are as many reasons for their vote as there are voters.
During a wonderful conversation last week with Mary Souza and her husband, I realized that the only fair way to evaluate the upcoming levy, or any of the other issues surrounding our community, is to separate them from each other. This allows us to make decisions on each issue based upon the merits of the issue, and then make systemic changes instead of the first order changes many advocate.
For example, instead of trying to defeat the levy because you are upset about a perceived lack of accountability from the school board or administration, push instead to have the board become more accountable. While greater accountability is always desirable, the need for the new schools is not going away whether the board is accountable or not.
If the LCDC and its relationship to school monies bothers you, ask your legislators to draft legislation changing how URDs are funded and operate. If you are tempted to vote no because you don't like the textbooks currently used in the literature and history classes, then work to have those books replaced; because whether the levy passes or not, those books will still be in the classrooms the next morning. The funding need will not change either way.
If you believe public education costs more than it should, and therefore you are tempted to pare back the budget, try paying to build new prisons instead. If you are tempted to believe this is a new choice, I offer the following from Mark Twain:
"When I was a boy on the Mississippi River there was a proposition in a township there to discontinue public schools because they were too expensive. An old farmer spoke up and said if they stopped building the schools they would not save anything, because every time a school was closed a jail had to be built."
On a related note, if you are tempted to vote no because you believe Charter Schools and home schools do a better job than the public schools then I suggest:
1. You are applying a simple answer to a complex problem (ask me privately and I will explain why this never works).
2. While there are almost infinite ways to view school funding, according to the National Department of Education statistics, we spend $3,800 less per child than the national average, and almost $300 less than the Idaho average.
3. Schools are very unlikely to improve performance with less money.
My point in this column is not to suggest that the concerns we read in the paper or hear in public are not valid; many of them are of great concern. However, to tie those valid concerns to a matter of funding, when funding will not directly affect the concern, doesn't make much sense.
"The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country." -- John Adams
Mark Altman is a speaker and leadership consultant with the Altman Leadership Center. He is the author of a new book, Leadership For All the Mountains You Climb; it may be purchased at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other online retailers. Mark can be reached at mark@taolc.com.
disbelief wrote on May 21, 2008 5:11 PM: