Viewpoint: Time to support fully funded public education
By Kimberley Beatty
Within the 100 square miles of the Poway Unified School District, we take tremendous pride in our excellent schools that draw from affluent communities, involved parents, first rate teachers and high achieving students. Indeed, we rank third in the state among unified districts larger than 20,000 students. We enjoy an esteemed reputation and relatively high property values because of our school district.
Hidden behind that facade are classes with a shortage of desks for the students.
Before you run to the nearest supply store, know that no more desks will fit in the overly crowded classrooms. It’s a challenge for students just to file in each day. In one class there are 42 desks and 44 students.
Counter intuitively, the teacher in that classroom hopes for two absences each day. That turns out not to be a problem in a crowded classroom where germs spread more easily. Teachers are noticing a greater frequency of illness among students, but this could also be due to the reduction in custodial care. Classrooms and facilities no longer get cleaned on a regular basis. Teachers are also suffering health effects, going hoarse or completely losing their voice trying to maintain discipline or just trying to make sure all students can hear.
Teachers can be assigned 160 or more students each term. That’s a lot of multi-page, handwritten essay exams to grade. And, while the expectations for high standards remain, the strain on our educational system is unsustainable.
Decades of public education underfunding escalated with the 2008 economic recession that eroded per- student funding in Poway Unified by more than $1,200. But, the recession tells only part of the story. By every major benchmark — teacher/student ratio, class size, number of counselors, librarians, administrators and more — California is at or near the bottom as compared with other states. The state that boasts of Silicon Valley ranks 49th in student access to computers.
But the most telling statistic of all is how much of our collective personal income we spend on public education. California is almost last. We spend around $3 of every $100 of personal income on education. The national average is over $4 and many states spend much more than that. Just to reach the national average, California would have had to spend an additional $16.8 billion in 2010. We are also spending less of our personal income on schools than at any time in the last 25 years. So, not only are we collectively making less money, but we are contributing less of that reduced income to schools than we used to.
Perhaps this is why recent polling has shown that over 60 percent of Californians support increasing taxes for schools. Competing ballot measures have been proposed, including: closing corporate tax loopholes, imposing an oil severance tax, and taxing services and online transactions.
The governor’s own proposal to reverse the decline in education funding was included in his 2012/2013 budget, inadvertently released last Thursday, five days early. The proposed budget provides an additional $4.9 billion for schools and hinges on a November ballot initiative that would temporarily increase marginal tax rates for top income earners and impose a ½ cent sales tax increase. If the ballot measure does not pass then school funding would be reduced to an amount exceeding the cost of three weeks of school. We’ve already cut back the school year by five days. It’s time for parents and community members to speak out in support of fully funded, high quality education.
Beatty is the Palomar Council PTA’s vice president for Legislation.
Related posts:
- School Maze: Does school funding make a difference?
- Viewpoint: No need to reinvent the education reform wheel
- Mangum: How PUSD measures up to standardized tests
- Education secretary, congressman visit Carmel Mountain Ranch school
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on Jan 11 2012. Filed under Columnists.
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"fully funded, high quality education"
It is hard to argue with that!
But the numbers say otherwise: We have the HIGHEST PAID teachers in the nation, and our California students rank with and below Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and Texase — amongst almost all other states and the D.C. — in EVERY subject: Math, Writing, Reading, Science…
That is NOT opinion. It is the US Fedeal Government's Department of Education, National Assessment of Education Progress. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/
What we are funding is NOT "high quality education."
It is pouring money down a rat hole.
You are referring to the state Alan, not the District. PUSD should be a model for the rest of the state. Is there room for improvement? Sure there is. But Poway is a one of the closest approximations to "getting it right" that we have. As far as teacher's salaries go, you try spending a week in a classroom with 42 sniffling, half-developed, hormone drunk teenagers, and then tell me teachers are underpaid.
Here here Kimberly. You'll probably get some replies here that online classes would take care of the overcrowding, but it won't, especially in the lower grades. As a nation and community, we give much lip service to the need for more/better education. Here in Poway we have a model that works and doesn't rely on experimentation to succeed. And yet those who cry foul the loudest about our educational system and not willing to put their money where their mouth is.
Reading your viewpoint, and as I prepare to host my 19- &18-year old sons' 1st-3rd grade teacher for dinner tomorrow night, I'm feeling ever so grateful for the years of first-class education they received in the District.
PUSD is a rathole? I take offense, my kids go there. What is the option to funding education, having ignorant children? We have 1960's-1980's technology in our schools because government will not pay what it takes. Sending your kids to private school? Not everyone can afford it, and they are not all that good. The article is about PUSD. PUSD does a lot more with less. You should check it out.
What you should be asking is: Why are some districts getting short changed by Sacramento? What is the cost of not educating our children? SInce you talk about teacher pay maybe you need to ask: What does it cost to attract great teachers that can live in the district? What is the cost of living in CA compared to other states? What type of employees do you get when you pay the least? PUSD teachers are not the highest paid in the state or even the county, have not gotten a raise or cost of living allowance in 6 years, and voluntarily took a pay cut to reduce class size and save the district from bankrupcy.
On top of that they have gotten excellent results.
I love your passion, I just think you are angry at the wrong people.
As mentioed by a previous post, yes California teachers do have the highest income on average but also have the highest work load of any other state. Class size averages are the highest in California. California teachers also have the most challenging envirnment to work in with slashed budgets, reduced support and a significant number of bilingual students who need even more support. We also have a higher cost of living that requires higher salaries on average.
Public education is NOT a "rat hole" as mentioned by a previous post. It is the back bone of our society and responsible for the amazing growth this nation has seen in the last century in all areas of expertise. Our public school system has developed and passed on to higher education MANY amazing talents in science and math who are at this moment working on improving our use of energy and exploring new forms of energy and cures for dreaded diseases. Many of these great minds came from very humble backgrounds with parents who don't speak English and work several jobs, much like most of Americans' ancestors who came here for a better life years ago. Public education for ALL provides the opportunity this country promises. It is the strap on the boots by which all of us can and have pulled ourselves up with for a better life.
The facts are, based on a Standford study in 2008 called "Getting Down to Facts", that California schools need some reforms, but they also need MUCH more funding. And as stated in the article by Ms. Beatty, just to be at the national average, $16.8 billion more.
This is a very accurate and informative article by Ms. Beatty. We need more thoughtful analysis like this. Our future depends on it.
Fact: 80% of our K-12 education costs goes towards salaries, pensions, and benefits. Any article that fails to address reform in those critical areas deserves only 20% of our time and attention.
Are you suggesting we pay our teacher's less? Sounds like that would put us in a race to the bottom.
The single most important factor in my children's education was the quality of the personnel, not quality of the computer lab at their school. I know there are quite a few who would like to see the unions disappear, but when you see a parent get upset at a teacher who didn't give little Johnny an 'A+' on the project the parent stayed up all night "helping" him with, then you understand that teachers require a different level of insulation than most. And, no, I'm not a teacher.
Personally, I am in favor of pay for performance — either the teachers give us a First Place academic standing for our current First Place teacher pay standard, or we compensate them 47th in the nation for our current 47th place academic standing.
Your choice, Amy, but anyone can see the Delta between pay and performance is too great. If California education was a sports team, the Manager, the Coaches and most of the team would be replaced for such dismal performance — and this has been the same dismal performance for more than a decade.
All we get is educational boosterism, but it is had to maintain the facade in the face of academic failure, year after year, subject after subject. We do not live in Lake Woebegone, where all children are above normal.
Could we at least get, "We have failed our children and our taxpayer sponsors. We will do better."
A new study suggests a great teacher is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in increased earning power to students. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/opinion/kristof...
Great! Let's pay GREAT teachers more than $100,000, but that means evaluating teachers. That leads to discovering who the GREAT teachers are, and by extension who the poor teachers are. Do you have any ideas how to do this — and not just how to do it but how then to get that system past the unions?
I would DEARLY love to hear that system!
Need reform? Certainly true. PUSD is a good school system? Also true — a good CALIFORNIA school system, probably the second r third best in the County and certainly the best for the money since the better school systems are in decidedly more real estate expensive areas. (Coronado, Torrey Pines and La Jolla.)
The problem is that comparing PUSD against other California schools just means PUSD is the "Best Dressed Man in Big Foot, Texas" — good only because it is compared against a diminished standard.
It is not the teacher pay, or the relative academic standard — it is the money being spent for the results gained! Suppose we doubled teacher pay — would that move us from and average of 47th in the nation to, say 40th? If we did double the pay and get those results, would you then think we were getting our money's worth?
It is not the pay — it is the value received for the money spent — the subject of he piece was that schools need more money. The subject of my reply was that we are not getting value for the money we already spend. Would the education establishment give us a higher standard among states as a goal for increased funding, or would we continue to score only above Mississippi in Science.
Is standing an average of 47th an acceptable standard for paying teachers the most money — or should we ask for something better?
Does no one wish to defend our standing in the bottom 10% of the states academically while paying our teachers number one in the nation?
Surely, someone can defend this obscenity if they support pouring more money into this rat hole? Tell me how more money will suddenly make this situation better?
According to Ms. Beatty, we stand low in every category (including academics: "By every major benchmark — teacher/student ratio, class size, number of counselors, librarians, administrators and more — California is at or near the bottom as compared with other states. The state that boasts of Silicon Valley ranks 49th in student access to computers."
Why then are we paying so much for our teacher force of 330,000 teachers?
We are BROKE! BILLIONS upon BILLIONS in debt! If we paid our teachers at the median national level, perhaps we would have extra money to provide more desks, more computers, more of everything that Ms. Beatty tells us that we need more of.
If we lack funds, it is because teachers are taking a disproportionate amount of the available funds, leaving nothing for the rest.
Probably should lean the school processes and resources with Lean Six Sigma. Then we can use the extra funds to acquire more space and desks. Problem with public areas is the red tape and political atmosphere with it. Public schools usually aren't efficient with their resources.
Easy fix. Vote the Republicans out of Sacramento. They don't believe in government as a matter of policy and education is the largest part of government.