The Beatrice Fiddler

Local control of education? Not much longer

At Principled Discovery, Dana makes a strong case about why we should be very concerned about LB 1157, now making its way through a unicameral close to you.

LB 1157 is a non-solution chasing a non-problem. It should be chased away with a broom.

Nebraska's education plan attracts attention

Mike Klonsky is a national blogger who focuses on education. 

See Red state Nebraska leads the way on testing.

Who would have thunk it? Bright red state Nebraska is leading the way when it comes to pushing back against the NCLB testing madness.

For those who don't remember, our Department of Education leader Doug Christensen had his accountability and testing plan for Nebraska schools rejected last year by federal education officials.

If you check the link for Doug Christensen, he has written a number of articles defending his perspective on teacher-led assessment.

Mr. Christensen, the Nebraska schools chief, said that while many states’ school systems are like pyramids, with teachers at the bottom and a few state administrators at the top, Nebraska’s is a series of concentric circles, with teachers in the center as “instructional leaders.

That day of glory did not last long (about as long as Al Gore's) before Steve Swidler, an associate professor of ed at Cornhusker U wrote to say that Nebraska's plan is not what it's cracked up to be.

I think is a decidedly partisan perspective from those who are deeply invested in the “Nebraska Plan” and some credulous journalists who are presently looking for any good story line that attacks NCLB. You should be aware that many of us who consider ourselves in the progressive camp, and who are not cheerleaders of this plan, consider it a policy to create nothing less than state-mandated assessment-driven curriculum and teaching (which is fine of you want this), all justified because it is supposedly “teacher-led”, which is itself a claim that is subject to interpretation.

In other words, the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.   

YourSusan Darst Williams comes out swinging

Susan Darst Williams of Go Big Ed, which is named after our state slogan not Susan's beliefs about school, has announced three big educational goals for Nebraska.

These include improved reading programs and school choice for parents.

Then she drops the hammer.:

However, we need to dig much deeper. School spending has been increasing at such an alarming rate, and test scores of inner-city and minority children have been so much worse than suburban white children for so many years, that a grand-jury investigation is in order.

When you think about it, why not?  She goes on:

The racial achievement gap makes it appear that we have systemic civil-rights violations in this state that have persisted for decades. We need data to understand how Nebraska’s school systems could have been delivering such an apparently unequal education for so long. The only way to get to the bottom of this, and ensure improvement, appears to be through the court system, perhaps the federal courts. Yes, it’s time to “make a federal case out of it.” Our kids and our future are that important.

The future of our children is our most important resource, and we can't afford to write off minority children.  Even if we could "afford" to, it is wrong--morally wrong.

I can't speak for her, but I suspect that the costs of such an approach would easily be compensated for if we looked for and eradicated school waste, corruption and fraud.

Susan has that base covered as well:

Nebraska also should create the position of Inspector General for Education in the State Auditor’s Office to direct performance and forensic audits over the more than $2 billion in state aid that is distributed annually and, as of now, is audited only on a pro forma basis. These more in-depth audits are an important tool for uncovering waste, fraud, mismanagement, embezzlement, nepotism, no-bid contracts, and many other ways that tax dollars are abused in school systems.

You had me at "forensic audit".

But why do I keep repeating her?   Read it all over here.

You might like the part about dissolving the ESUs.

Meanwhile, the wonderfully informative Omaha World Herald tells us this morning that the Bennington School District is "thinking about" asking for about $15 million to build a new school.

When school districts announce their school tax hike plans at the last minute (right up against the statutory deadline) it doesn't allow the citizens in the district much time to assess the legitimacy of the request.

Meanwhile, you can bet that the Bennington School Board has already got its public relations plan ready to roll out as soon as it's official.

The article in the OWH explains that the school district needs to add more capacity because of all the new families moving into the area.

It doesn't explain why the new property taxes on all their new houses isn't enough to subsidize the new construction.