1. If the rest of the economy is beginning to recover, why couldn't the Texas legislature dip into the rainy day fund and encourage schools to use some of their own reserves? If thousands of teachers are out of work in Texas, or at best just take pay cuts, that would be a significant reduction in spending power. If schools cut programs, many parents would lose their built-in baby sitter (school) and sacrifice some work to take care of their children or pay more for day care.
All of these add up to less money available to anyone associated with schools. So why not use the financial reserves available to ride out the storm?
2. Change the structure of secondary schools. Many students are disengaged in school and get into trouble because of this, not because they are future criminals. My two-pronged approach is very similar to the way things were 30 years ago:
- Create a two-track system of College Prep and Vo-Tech education.
- The College Prep would prepare students for a liberal arts or math/science education and be subject to rigorous testing (to please the NCLB folks). This would also put us on a level playing field with the rest of the world when we begin to compare math/science scores.
- The Vo-Tech program would begin in 8th grade and mimic the Master/Apprentice system of the past by hiring people of vocational and technical expertise to put students to work learning skills. At the completion of high school, a student would have at least 5 years of experience in a career and could be immediate contributors to society.
3. Instead of abandoning technology, embrace it. Many students in rural and home-bound situations could be served using distance education to save the money from serving them with a full-time classroom teacher.
I think the economy and education could be saved with a willingness to change how we do things, along with not panicking about our current situation.
A better school system=a better economy.
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