Michelle Sings Good-Bye to my Mom

One of my mom's really good friends wrote and sang this song for her. It touched my heart and soul and I hope it does you too...

Saying Good-Bye to my Mom

I'm cutting and pasting the post my sister just wrote about what's been going on in the last week because I just don't have the strength to write about it myself. I hope you all send some thoughts our way as this is the hardest, but most peaceful, thing I've ever had to do. Please click here to get the full story.

50th in the Nation

I'm starting out this post with this sobering news for teachers that was released recently:

...And just this week, Education Week released the Quality Counts report that provides snapshots of nationwide school finance data. Again reported in Great Education Colorado, the news is bad for our state:

We're continuing "the Colorado trajectory" -- falling farther behind the nation and other states that are competing with us for jobs, economic development opportunities and educators.

Here's a comparison of the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Quality Counts data (note that because of the lag in available data, the new statistics are based on 2007 expenditures -- that is, before the current recession):

Per pupil funding, adjusted for regional cost differences:

2008: 38th nationally

2009: 40th

2010: 42nd

Per pupil spending (adjusted for regional cost differences) compared to U.S. Average:

2008: $1,034 below the national average

2009: $1,449 below the national average

2010: $1,919 below the national average

Rank in teacher pay parity (i.e., how teacher salaries compare to salaries in comparable professions):

2008: 43rd

2010: 50th

That's the context for the current legislative session -- where cuts of at least an average $440 per pupil are virtually certain for the coming school year.

~ Great Education Colorado, January 26

So...pretty depressing news for those of us who have dedicated our professional lives to trying to improve public education in a way that we believe would best serve our kiddos. Colorado is projected to be 50th in the nation in terms of paying teachers a comparable salary to other people with the same amount of education. That is just awesome.

It's always interesting to me when schools try to get taxpayers to give them more money by putting a two or three cent tax increase on every $10 spent. These tax increases usually fail and a lot of the reasons that are cited for this is; "Schools suck anyway...more money isn't going to help" or "I don't have kids so I don't need to help pay for my neighborhood schools" or my favorite, "Schools have all the money they need...they're just mismanaged."

I'll tell you something about my school. We had to cut two full-time teachers this year making our 5th grade class sizes insane. There are about 35 kids in each of the 5th grade classes making for a classroom management nightmare. I have 28 kids in my 2nd grade class right now and I'd like you to imagine the amount of individual attention each one of them gets. It's not a whole lot. We've cut technology services so it takes about 2 months for any computer issue to be resolved. Imagine how often the kids get computer time with that issue. There are no after-school programs anymore, no new equipment, no field trips this year due to budget cuts. The high school alone has lost 15 professional teachers (that means teachers who have been teaching for 5 years or more) to other professions due to being overworked and underpaid. The high school had to scramble to fill those positions and they are staffed with whoever they could get. There are many other examples, but this post would be way too long.

So for those of you here in Colorado that constantly are complaining about the quality of public education, who talk about how you're going to send your kids to private schools or charters, who make jokes about how teachers just hang out in schools and don't do anything due to tenure...

I have a phrase for you: "You get what you pay for."