Brutal

From the outset I must confess that I had zero hope that the hiring of Mark McQuillan as Connecticut's Education Commissioner would be good for education. I am therefore not disappointed when I read Priority: Scores Gap by Robert Frahm from yesterday's Courant.

He "says holding schools accountable for progress will be a top priority.

In addition to an exit exam, McQuillan also is considering ideas such as tighter monitoring of local districts' performance and a longer school day and school year for struggling schools."

No wonder. The article goes on to say...

In Massachusetts, McQuillan was a key figure in efforts to improve schools under the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act, a 5-year-old federal law that relies heavily on testing and calls for a shake-up of schools that fail to make sufficient progress.

McQuillan said Connecticut should monitor schools that fail to progress under the federal law "and find ways to intervene and support and insist upon changes," including monitoring curriculum and school budgets.

One promising strategy, he said, is to lengthen the school day and school year in low-performing schools. "It's a battle against time. . . . You have [only] 185 days in a school year, six hours a day. It's a large hurdle to overcome."

Connecticut desperately needs relief from the failing Cargo Cult logic of NCLB and its proponents. But stupid is as stupid does and when something in the federal government fails then the the response is predictable as a new day. Throw more money at it, market it harder, and drown the victims in even more waste product.

Thankfully, I am not a student and my kids are almost out of this system. I am convinced that education is the one place where Bush's policies have succeeded. In six short years, Bush and his enablers have managed to destroy the public school system in this country and that was always the intent of NCLB. If McQuillan is the answer then I can't imagine what the question is.

The goals of education that matter to me are that every student be respected as an individual, that they learn to learn, and that they have the freedom to learn according to their own biological calling. And, today, the public schools in America practice nothing of the sort. We are told bluntly that the only thing that matters is conformity to ever more testing and more test preparation and more of the same failing pedagogy.

Governor Rell justifies this social engineering experiment on public school children by spending more and more and more on education. We need to stop throwing money on the NCLB bonfire and re-examine what delivering quality education means.

We don't need high school exit tests, we need elementary school interventions at third, fourth, and fifth grade that ensure our kids are lifelong readers. The same goes for math. High school is not a safety net for remedial reading, it is far too late.

And minority proponents of NCLB who sell their children's souls to the false prophets who sell them magic elixirs such as NCLB can no longer complain being victims of someone else's misguided intentions. Advocating a renewal of NCLB sentences your children and schools to another generation of failure.

Failing Schools and Failing Health

About a week ago, maybe more, I was catching up with my Board of Education handouts and was browsing through a Connecticut School Health Survey (CSHS). This is put out (and I use the term loosely) by the Department of Education and the Department of Public Health.

On the cover letter, it offered a couple of people to call "if you have any questions". I did. Identifying myself as a school board member with questions I called both Dr. Mhoura Newsom-Stewart (860.567.0863) and Mrs. Cherl Resha (860.807.2108) over a week ago and never received a call back.

Funny how adults getting paid by public funds have so little accountability yet children are held to task 24 by 7. Oh well, I'm going to guess they're working their fingers to the bone.

Anyway, my question pertained to the responses they received from the survey. Five plus percent of schools reported that 26 to 75 percent of their attending students had no health insurance. Even the majority of schools who reported otherwise still reported that as much as 50 percent of their populations might not be covered. And there are more devils to be discussed in these details - unattended mental health issues, poor dental health, and so on.

Nowhere in the survey do the people administering it ever consider mapping the findings to the failing schools issue even though the results read like child-labor sweatshop health conditions of third-world children.

I'm not going to even bother going into a rant about this. But it seems to me teachers who are being accused in these failing schools should demand a recount of extenuating circumstances. Furthermore, the Rell administration needs to belly up to the health clinics with getting these kids on the Husky plan.

Can We Declare a War on Stupidity Please

Godfrey Daniels! What is the legislature thinking about? Today's Courant informs us that thanks to the ethical lapses of the Rowland/Rell administration, new ethical guidelines were developed to prevent the ethically challenged politicians from accepting gifts like jacuzzis for their cottages.

Thanks to the genius of our CT lawmakers this law seems to include the elimination of corporate technology gifts to schools. Where do these Homers come from? Honestly. Does anyone in the State House use their heads?

People, get out and vote on August 8.

Ethics Rules May Hurt Schools
State Agency Asked To Clarify Law Restricting Gifts
July 21, 2006
By ROBERT A. FRAHM, Courant Staff Writer

According to an opinion issued by the Office of State Ethics, the law bans all gifts to state agencies from donors or companies who pay for registered lobbyists or who seek to do business with the agencies. That includes many major corporations in the state.

The law does not apply to local school districts, but it does affect the technical high school system, for example, because of its status as a state institution.

The issue prompted a letter to the ethics office this week from State Board of Education Chairman Allan Taylor, who sought clarification on the new law.

Taylor cited the technical high school system as an example, saying it relies on gifts ranging from scholarships sponsored by Northeast Utilities to a recent $141,000 donation of heating and air-conditioning equipment from a group of companies including Carrier Corp.

Taylor also mentioned the $25,000 from financial services company ING that pays for the state's annual teacher of the year recognition ceremony and helps send the winning teacher to a national reception in Washington, D.C., and conferences in Texas and Alabama.

Although such gifts were acceptable in the past, state-operated schools and prospective donors can expect that future donations will be subject to a case-by-case review, said Meredith Trimble, director of education for the Office of State Ethics.

"Their concern is legitimate," she said.

"It's just pretty clear the way the statute is written. If they are a regulated donor and what they provide is a gift to the state - from a fax machine to cash to free training - it is no longer permissible."

The new rules could hinder efforts to forge ties between schools and businesses, some officials say.

"I don't think this was the intent" of the law, said Rachel Rubin, an expert on ethics who reviews compliance issues for the University of Connecticut. "We have a mandate to raise private money. It kind of puts us in a Catch-22."