First and foremost, what is the primary job of any school district? (And that would include Franklin).
The answer is simple. School districts must, as their top priority, function to educate students. Their goal is to promote, build and improve student achievement to prepare youngsters in their journey to become productive and contributing members of society.
Having the best football team and a nice gym and auditorium are nice, but they’re not essential. Getting kids to class and then getting them to achieve at the highest level possible is critical.
The troubled Milwaukee Public School District (MPS) has their priorities all messed up. They’ll never succeed as long as they maintain an ultimate nanny state mentality.
Today’s Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel reports the next MPS budget will consider students to be, and treat them as if they are, completely and utterly helpless.
“Fewer students and teachers, more psychologists, social workers and nurses, and no major changes in the overall approach to teaching children - those are among the highlights of a $1.2 billion budget proposal by Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos for 2007-'08.Here’s the entire
article.What kind of school district decides that it makes good sense in their next budget to have fewer teachers and more psychologists? Are MPS students headed for less reading, writing and math and more couch sessions with taxpayer-funded shrinks? That’s a winning education strategy if I ever heard one.
A budget summary prepared by MPS says,
"Critics will say that the School District's responsibility is to educate children, and not to feed them or to meet their basic health care needs. Those critics are correct. In a perfect world, the Milwaukee Public Schools would not need to serve children breakfast. In a perfect world, children would not come to school hungry or ill, but in real-world Milwaukee, they do. If the School District doesn't provide these services, who will?"Uhh, gee, at the risk of throwing liberals into a tizzy, the answer to the question of who will provide these services is not who will, but who SHOULD. Is it too much to ask, say, a parent, or guardian, or parent’s live-in boyfriend or girlfriend to make breakfast?
See, in the real world, not the perfect world that MPS wishes existed, that’s what happens. Child wakes up, parent prepares child for school, and that includes fixing breakfast.
Earth to MPS and Superintendent William (I’m in way over my head) Andrekopoulos: There is no perfect world and there never will be. Stop advocating a policy of government taking care of individuals from cradle to grave.
Here in Franklin, there are some similarities. Instead of worrying about student achievement and test scores, we instead lose sleep over how new and shiny the high school is or isn’t. We worry about a new auditorium, or a new gym, or rooms that people can go to at night to learn how to crochet, even if it costs $78-million.
MPS wants psychologists instead of teachers. Franklin wants a new gym and auditorium. The requests are different, but the result is the same. The tools that are really needed to boost student achievement along with the realization that the top priority must be education, not making kids feel better, are pushed to the back burner.
We are churning out kids who can’t read or write at a 12th grade level. MPS is a broken and failed school system. Franklin, while far from it, can still do a lot better.
At the risk of oversimplification, school districts and educators exist to educate. Let’s not forget that.
