Dumb and dumber at it again (Feds micromanaging schools)

This may be one of the biggest money wasting items I've seen since the stimulus package. Only the nanny state thinks of this stuff.

From Todd Starnes at Fox News

A Florida school district is considering a plan to install surveillance cameras on cafeteria trash cans to monitor what kids are throwing away – after they discovered that students were tossing out their federally-mandated fruit and vegetables. The Lake County School Board said more than $75,000 worth of vegetables have been thrown in the garbage. The veggies and fresh fruit are party of the Obama administration’s policy to force schools to provide healthy produce in lunch rooms.

“It’s fairly specific recipe of what they would like us to serve,” Lake County School Board member Tod Howard told Fox News. “Unfortunately, much of it has to do with fresh fruit and vegetables and it seems to be going into the trash. And that’s not okay.” So Howard suggested the district attach security cameras to the trash cans to monitor exactly what is being thrown away. “It will also give us documentation so that we can go back to the federal government and say here’s what we are finding,” he said. “We do know there’s an issue.”

School districts across the nation are furious with the Obama administration’s orders. Some students have staged strikes while others have launched petition drives urging the federal government to change their policy. But Lake County is believed to be the first to actually videotape kids tossing their veggies – and that has some parents upset.

Dumb - Cameras used for surveillance to make sure kids are eating the vegetables. How much do they cost? How is this going to be enforced? Is it possible to enforce? Etc. In Howard's defense, he SAYS that it's for evidence to tell the feds that the policy doesn't work.

Howard called those concerns “conspiracy theories” and said they were not going to force kids to eat their vegetables.

“I don’t want anybody to be on camera at all,” he told Fox News. “This would be aimed directly into the trash can. By no means would any of our students be in the picture.” He said the cameras were meant to give the school district evidence they need to push back against the federal guidelines.

Surveillance cameras aren't needed for that. Take a picture of the trash bin and send it to the dipsticks at the federal government. While I'll take Howard at his word here, the feds may just tell them to do exactly what Howard said he doesn't want to happen in the era of Obamacare. That leads to dumber.

Dumber - The Feds. What the Hell are they doing involved in what should be local decisions in the first place?  We have school boards. They work for our local communities. We hire and fire them as voters, and also vote with our feet. While local school boards have their issues, they are a hell of a lot more qualified than some federal bureaucrat in DC. I thought "No child left behind" from Bush and Kennedy was bad and this is even worse. Whether the kids eat or do not eat their vegetables are not the feds business. It's mom's business, not the Peter Principle in Chief's business.

Outside of the eyes of the parents, whether kids eat their vegetables or not will be their decision. The nannies don't want to hear that, but that's just the way it was, is, and will be unless you have armed guards patrolling the lunchrooms enforcing that policy under criminal penalties. That's quite possible in the future as lines between public schools and prisons are blurring some in the post Columbine era of "zero tolerance." .

The federal government is neither smart enough, nor trustworthy enough to be involved in local school matters. 

Is everything a police matter these days?

There's a rise in this, and it is rather scary.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — This city's acting police chief held a brief news conference Tuesday to explain why an officer handcuffed an elementary school student and transported her to a police station after she allegedly threw a tantrum.

Acting Chief Dray Swicord said Salecia Johnson was handcuffed and taken from Creekside Elementary School on Friday after she caused damage at the school and injured the principal. He said police were called after school officials couldn't reach the girl's parents

.....
At the police station, the girl was charged with simple assault and damage to property. Because of her age, she will not have to go to court.

After the acting police chief's news conference, a man who described himself as a community activist, made a statement.

Oscar Davis Jr. criticized how police and school officials handled the case.

"The school never called the parents," Davis said, even though Salecia's mother, Constance Ruff, told WMAZ-TV that she received calls on her cell phone but couldn't answer because it was out of minutes.

Charging a 6 year old? Where's the mens rea? Back in the old days, 6 year olds acting up like that get to face the "trial" with ma and pa as the judge, jury, and executioner. Police? Legal matter?

Right or wrong, I'll be teaching my kids this by the time they can speak. Once things become a police matter, things change.

Washington again thinks it knows best for our schools

Notice the first word here. Washington. Not Obama. The reason is that Bush gave us "No Child Left Behind" and Obama is just building on what Bush did. It's "more of the same" and that's not a good thing when it comes to the federal government's propensity to micromanage things. We elect school boards. As much as I can be a critic at times of the boards, I can at least say they are OUR boards. We shouldn't have Washington, or even Lansing micromanage things. Both parties have a problem there. It was the GOP that took over Detroit schools. Yes, they suck outside of  Cass Tech, Renaissance, and maybe one or two others, but that is the choice the voters there made when they elected school board members. It's the Detroit schools, not the suburban schools. Suburban schools don't want Detroiters running their schools. Detroiters don't want suburbanites running their schools. Livingston County doesn't want either running theirs. Nobody wants the feds running theirs.....but the legislature wants their money that isn't there.

From the Argus:

n late December, the state Legislature approved a series of education reforms required to be considered for the funding, known as the Race to the Top competition........
Some of the provisions in the legislation — expected to be signed Monday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm — include:

Identifying the state's lowest-achieving 5 percent of public schools and placing them under the supervision of a state office.

Raising the legal age to leave school from 16 to 18.

Tying teacher evaluation to student performance.

Allowing flexibility in the state-mandated high school curriculum.

Allowing the appointment of a chief executive officer for multiple schools.

Allowing creation of up to 10 new charter schools.

Creating a process to grant interim teaching certificates.

Addressing the points.
1. Supervision. Wow....how's that going to be much different than the takeovers?
2. Sounds great, but keeping people who don't want to be there for two years isn't going to help.
3. What's considered "student performance?" MEAP? MEAP's a joke. ACT scores would be a good measurement.
4. This I can agree with. The curriculum requirements are too rigid.
5. I need to see the details here, but I think consolidation is something to look at, so I lean in favor of this.
6. More competition the better.
7. Don't know enough about that to have a solid opinion.

More from the Argus.

Raising the dropout age to 18 could force schools to repeat
failing efforts to educate children at the current legal dropout age, said Janet Sifferman, superintendent of Hartland Consolidated Schools.
If nothing else, the state would have to fund schooling for would-be dropouts for another two years, she added.
"I would hope that districts would be able to find out how to provide some alternative forms of education for these kids. You can't keep doing the same things that cause them to fail," she said.

That's true. Does is help dropouts by forcing them to stay where they don't want to be. Let's be honest. It's not A or B students that drop out. If students are failing in classrooms and have 1.0 averages, and don't want to be there, why keep them there, in the same situations. Everyone has talent in something, and sometimes it's not the classroom. If the 18 year mandate is required, then there better be more opportunities for skilled trades and non-traditional skills.

Now the problem these days is that a HS diploma isn't a gold standard, and even a bachelor's degree outside of something like engineering is a dime a dozen these days. Part of this so-called diversifying the economy means throwing manufacturing under the bus. Even skilled trades. Why learn new stuff when it's going to China or India in 10 years (Dot-coms). This is yet another reason why we need to get a handle on outsourcing. When it comes to outsourcing, Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan were right.

This here got my guard up even more:

Sifferman said school officials didn't have time to review or digest information in the legislation before they were asked to sign the agreements.

She said she was stymied in mid-December when questioned by the district's school board about the document.

I really couldn't answer their questions. It was very unclear what we were signing," Sifferman said.
"It's gone way too fast," she added.

We had a contentious debate awhile back when I was on the Livingston County GOP board over one particular issue long past. One guy said to all of us something that stuck with me. "When you rush, you're wrong.' Looking back, the issue could have been handled better than it was by all sides. The advice can apply here too. Did they sign it? Did they sign it without reading? This reminds me of Howell Schools and the Breiner contract. I hope they did read it, and knowing Hartland schools, they probably did.

Heads up. These could be some expensive strings attached.

If you put lipstick on a pig, is it still a pig?

In this era of budget crunches, school budgets, pork, and everything else, priorities needs to be set. $110,000 for this is not what I'd call a higher priority. I shouldn't expect anything less though from the city that is also the state capitol of Michigan.

From the Lansing State Journal

Lansing schools Superintendent T.C. Wallace Jr. is fond of mentioning how more than 15,000 students choose to attend the city's schools each year, rather than enroll elsewhere through schools of choice.
(snip)
Now, in an effort to improve the district's public image, Lansing officials will hire a cabinet-level communications director.

Stephen Serkaian, the former spokesman for then-Lansing Mayor David Hollister, will become the district's full-time communications director Jan. 1. Serkaian currently is contracted as a part-time spokesman through the public relations firm he owns, Serkaian Communications.

Wallace said hiring Serkaian full time will not cost the district more money. The $43,000 the district was paying Serkaian Communications will be combined with $70,000 from a vacant administrative position that will be rolled into his responsibilities. That $113,000 will cover benefits and salary, which will be prorated for the rest of the 2007-08 school year.

$113,000 for a PR guy? That's a principal's salary. I don't believe any school district in Livingston County has a 100K PR guy. Usually, our PR is through our test scores and sports teams. In fact, I'm not aware of any school in the state until now with that.

The two questions are this. What can Lansing Schools sell that East Lansing, Okemos, Haslett, Holt, Waverly, DeWitt, Mason, and Grand Ledge can not sell? Does Lansing need $100K+ to sell its strengths?

Everyone talks about educational funding and the chattering classes nearly wet their pants when there is talk about cuts to education or no increases in educational funding. The sky is falling. We're doooooooooooooomed if we don't pass those millages and headlee overrides. However, when the "Education" funding is going to PR and not real education, these things need a second look.

It's easy to complain about pork in Alaska like the bridge to nowhere. However, stopping pork barrell projects need to start at home. $110K to a PR guy is just another case of Jurassic Pork.

Guns in Schools?

If you want to get big media all PO'ed, mention guns and schools in the same sentence. Rep. David Agema introduced HB 5162 which incurred the wrath of the chattering classes everywhere by (gasp!) allowing administrators to allow school employees with current Concealed Pistol Licenses (CPL, often known as CCW) to carry a firearm.

From ABC 12

Guns in the classroom could soon be a reality if one Michigan lawmaker has his way.

Republican State Rep. David Agema from the Grand Rapids area has introduced legislation that would allow teachers and other school administrators to carry a concealed weapon on school grounds.

Agema says he understands this is a controversial piece of legislation. But he says kids need to be kept safe on school grounds.

All schools in Michigan are weapon-free zones. There are no guns allowed for students, teachers or anyone on school grounds.

In recent years there have been a number of deadly school shootings at schools across the country.

At least one Michigan lawmaker says if teachers and administrators were armed or had access to a concealed weapon at school the incidents of school shootings will decline.

The bill allows for a teacher, administrator or other employee of a school to carry a concealed weapon.

I do have a problem with this bill for one reason. It doesn't go far enough.

First, there should not be ANY gun free - or what I call "Criminal Empowerment Zones" unless they are enacted by private owners of their property. The only ones who obey laws creating criminal empowerment zones, are law abiding CPL holders. Criminals and school shooters would carry their guns anyway in places they are not allowed to since they don't follow the law to begin with.

Secondly, why limit this to school employees? Why not all CPL holders? CPL holders are the most law abiding class of folks in the entire country. It's worked in 40 other states. You aren't going to have Columbine repeat due to CPL holders. By keeping CPL holders unarmed, you may however be enabling the next Columbine.

Buyouts. Short term gimmick, long term loss

The latest from Pinckney Schools: From the Argus

Officials in Pinckney Commu-nity Schools are proposing buyouts for teachers to retire early to address a projected $1.5 million budget deficit for the 2007-2008 school year.
The Pinckney Education Association teachers' union is surveying the interest of educators at the top of the district's salary scale in potential buyout packages.

The district would like to offer early re-tirement packages to at least eight teachers with at least 10 years of cumulative teaching experience, Superintendent Dan Danosky said.


"We'd like to have more, but we think it would be practical for us to do it if we have eight people who have interest," Danosky said. "Expenses are going up, with the little revenue coming in from the state."
If no teachers show interest in buyout packages, layoffs will become inevitable for the 2007-2008 school year, Danosky said.

This is an old gimmick which has been used for years. Personally, I never cared much for buyout packages. While it reduces costs short term, long term costs increase through pensions and medical, and there are less experienced teachers in the district. The new teachers brought in will be paid much more through the step increases (at least in many districts, not sure with Pinckney) down the line, and retirements and pensions will have to be paid as well.

I think there needs to be major structural reform among our local districts (as well as the state). Health Care, Retirements, Administration costs, Extra funding outside of taxes. I think considation needs to be looked at as well, reducing administration costs (I believe most Superintendents are overpaid).

Many bash the teacher unions on this. Many bash administrators. I disagree with that premis. The union reps are doing what they are hired to do, as do administrators. These are contractual matters. The board agrees and/or disagrees with the proposal. Contracts are two way streets. The buck stops with the board.

This is why our school board elections are so important. We need to make sure good people who understand finances, have backbones, and have strong leadership are elected. The days of 3% turnouts need to end.

Whitmore Lake Results - Every vote counts

Frequent commenter Jim Pratt posted this on the Argus boards. Thanks Jim for finding the results. Anyone who thinks their vote doesn't matter can look at the results. Proposal C won by 2 votes.


Whitmore Lake Proposal B (Schools, renewal)
# Proposition B is a 10-year renewal of the 18-mill nonhomestead levy which expired in 2006. The nonhomestead does not apply to primary residences. If a district fails to levy the full 18 mills, the state reduces the district's per-pupil foundation grant.

YES 508 65.38%
NO 269 34.62%



Whitmore Lake Proposal C (Headlee Override)

Proposition C would raise the authorized nonhomestead millage to 20 mills, although under state law, the district can only collect 18 mills. The proposal is aimed at combating the effects of the state constitution's Headlee Amendment.

YES 391 50.13%
NO 389 49.87%



Whitmore Lake Proposal D (Headlee Override, Recreation)

Proposition D also is designed to combat the Headlee Amendment. It asks for a maximum of 0.10 mill to restore the district's 0.62-mill public recreation and playgrounds millage that has been decreased through Headlee.


YES 330 42.36%
NO 449 57.64%

Argus preview of School Board 07

From the Argus

School elections taking political bent
By Dan Meisler
DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

The days when school board elections were barely noticed may be in the past, as pressure from state budget cuts, political parties and community groups are raising the profile of the campaigns and injecting a partisan atmosphere

Miles Vieau said it best.

"It's always been political; it's just been kind of a quiet politics,"

For years there was an old boys/old girls club that controlled things. Elections were run by the schools. The election dates were set by the schools. We had 3-10% turnout most years, largely by MEA affiliates and their supporters. It was a great setup for them.

Some rumblings really started to occur around 03 and 04. Chuck Breiner was involved in a bidding war between Rochester and Howell and received a big raise. At the same time, the school asked for a Headlee override to raise taxes on businesses. Write in candidates for the school board nearly won, and the override lost. It did pass later on a September election.

One key was Chris Ward's bill to limit elections to four days in a year. One in February, May, August (primary), and November (general).

Then came the enhancement millage. Four of the five school districts based in this county supported a property tax increase due to the inability of the districts living within their means in this rough economy. The Concerned Taxpayers Group was born out of this. Despite being outspent 4-1, the enhancement millage failed 2-1, losing in every district. Turnout was about 25-30% - 3-7 times a normal turnout. The old boys club did not control the election.

At the same time, there was a controversey over the rainbow flag raised in Howell schools. That's been covered enough and I don't wish to rehash the controversey. However, I do believe that was a factor in the millage's defeat.

The County GOP took a stand for fiscal discipline and joined the Concerned Taxpayers Group in opposing the tax increase. This brave move was a shot at the old boys club.

After the enchancement millage's defeat, people thought it was important to stay active in the schools. That's why the Concerned Taxpayers Group formed a PAC to make sure our school board members are fiscally responsible. The LOVE Group also formed a PAC to address their concerned about the values issues in their schools. Both PAC's made endorsements, as well as the County GOP. The MEA affiliates made their endorsements as well (as usual). The turnout was 20%, much higher than the customary 3-10%.

That brings us to today. The Concerned Taxpayers Group will be back. I assume the LOVE group will be as well. The MEA will be back. I'm not sure what the GOP or Democrats will do. We'll wait and see there.

The best news about this is that the voters will be informed and that the old boys club can not control everything. While the old boys network will have their say, so will the rest of the voters in the districts. People will have a choice this election, and there won't be the blind voting and few choices which was common in the past.