Isn’t it interesting that every problem in our educational system can be solved with money. And, no money should ever be spent on charter schools over public schools. Nor should any educational budget be cut. These are rules established by the teacher’s union across this country and supported by every form of media.
In Arizona there are 400,000 empty seats in the state educational system. In front of those empty seats there is a teacher, the seat is heated and cooled every day, and there are administrators, a school board, and all the other costs associated with those empty seats. In the business world consolidations would have occurred years ago. Not in the educational system in America.
Here’s how empty seats are calculated. They say you need 80 sq. ft. per student. If a school is 8,000 sq. ft. it should accommodate 100 students. If there are 80 students in that school it’s holding 20 empty seats. So, the total sq. footage of schools across the state of Arizona is roughly 30,000,000 sq. ft. too big. The new governor, Doug Ducey, a businessman, wants to use the surplus sq. footage to open charter schools and give parents and kids a choice between a charter school, that always seems to generate better results, and a public school than has sinking test performance scores. Then consolidate excess capacity and cut budgets for smaller schools.
Does any of this not make sense? It doesn’t to the teachers union, since they see their numbers shrinking and the dues going down accordingly. They get the protesters out in force. Like 20-30. The TV stations show them from angles that make it look like more than the actual numbers. It’s a big news story. Every night, night after night.
If you have kids and you want them to be well educated, don’t buy this propaganda. Your neighbors are not going to opt for more property taxes. Throwing money at problems that need to be solved, like we did in Detroit for 30 years, doesn’t solve problems.
When placed under the magnifying glass of accountability, teachers may even opt to go to prison like they are in Atlanta, Georgia, where they changed student’s test scores to get higher pay. Superintendents will keep empty desk schools going to keep their jobs. School boards will nod and agree since they have zero incentive to force better test scores or efficient systems. There is no check and balance, and, when one happens, the media tries to make it go away.
How may empty seats do you have in your school district. How much is it hurting the students and how much is it hurting your wallet with higher property taxes? Maybe you should write a letter to your school board representative and ask.
[…] Empty Desks Mean Nothing to Teachers or the Media […]