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Category: Education

National Guard Called out to Bus Kids

by | 1217, 14 Sep 21 | , , | 26 Comments

I’m beginning to suspect that there is a bit of mission creep in the National Guard.

The National Guard has been mobilized in Massachusetts to ferry kids to and from school amid a nationwide shortage of bus drivers exacerbated by COVID.

 

Up to 250 members of the Guard will be activated to address the shortage, following a direct order from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to deploy the servicemen, as school and state officials across the country have been forced to deal with the dearth of drivers.

The stated mission of the Guard is:

The Army National Guard’s federal mission is to maintain well-trained, well-equipped units available for prompt mobilization during war and provide assistance during national emergencies (such as natural disasters or civil disturbances).

Does a bus driver shortage really meet this threshold? Remember that members of the Guard have day jobs. They have to leave those jobs, travel away from their families, and give up their personal time when they are called into action. I expect that serving members are more than willing to do that to keep a city from being burned by rioters, helping recover from a hurricane, or going to actual war, but to drive kids to school?

Given the personal sacrifices that Guard members make whenever they are called up, we shouldn’t be so cavalier about it. They are not just a bunch of temp employees for the governor to use at will. They have a specific mission.

Madison Government School Scheme to Violate the Law

by | 1034, 7 Sep 21 | , | 7 Comments

To many of your government schools are no longer interested in the views of parents, the community, or even the law. Many of them don’t seem very interested in actual education anymore either. They think that their higher purpose to program their ideology into the next generation takes priority over all other priorities.

As far as the Madison school district is concerned, parents have no business knowing if their children are experimenting with alternate gender/sexual identities – no matter what the courts say.

 

Last year, the district’s official policy was to lie to parents if their children came out as transgender at school. Parents sued, and the courts struck down the district’s policy.

 

[…]

 

Regardless of that straightforward language about not concealing information from parents, MMSD believes it has a workaround. It’s advising staff to simply not answer parents’ questions about their children coming out at school.

 

“If a parent asks a teacher a question about their child as to these matters, including information about the name and pronouns being used to address their child at school, the teacher CAN choose not to answer the question.  The District does NOT have a policy that a teacher must choose not to answer that question if a parent asks about their own child.  It is within the teacher’s discretion whether to answer the question or not,” according to guidance from the district’s general counsel.

 

MMSD Chief of Staff Dr. Richard McGregory sent that guidance to all staff on Aug. 30th. He did not respond to requests from MacIver News for comment.

 

Advising teachers to deliberately deceive parents, preventing parents from knowing about a child transitioning and denying them the basic right to have a role in that sensitive and life-changing decision is not the School District’s only example pushing sexualization and very adult discussions onto children.

Virtual Learning Contributes to Child Suicides

by | 2046, 2 Sep 21 | | 1 Comment

Perhaps I can cut some slack to the people who shut down schools last year when we didn’t know what we were dealing with. But the ones who want to shut down schools now for a virus that is virtually harmless to children have a lot to answer for.

A recent tweet from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner stated: “Since March of 2020, 60% percent of child suicides cited virtual learning as stressors in their life. Ages were 12 to 17.”

 

Dr. Schoof says the pandemic was hard on kids socially as well as academically as they transitioned to online learning.

 

“When we see students and their academics decline, they get very low self-esteem, they don’t believe they are worth anything. Those things are incredibly linked to an increase in suicide or presentation or even ideation,” said Dr. Schoof.

Parents File Petition to Recall School Board Members

by | 1900, 23 Aug 21 | , | 0 Comments

Good for them.

MEQUON, Wis. — A group of parents have filed petition signatures to recall members of the Mequon-Thiensville School Board.

 

The parents said they were upset over the board’s handling of the district’s COVID-19 protocols.

 

They want four of the seven members replaced.

 

The group needed to collect 4,150 signatures from registered voters to legally file the recall paperwork.

 

They said they turned more than 16,000 into the district offices Monday afternoon.

 

“We have successfully collected the signatures needed to recall all four members,” organizer Amber Schroeder told WISN 12.

 

The mom of three launched the grassroots effort earlier this summer.

 

She said they’re not politically motivated but believe the district’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies last year failed and the education of the students suffered.

School Boards Meet to Talk About COVID Policies for New School Year

by | 1525, 23 Aug 21 | , | 2 Comments

In West Bend and Germantown… if you are a stakeholder in those districts, you might want to show up. From the Washington County Insider.

The West Bend School Board meets Monday, August 23 in The Silver Lining Auditorium at the High Schools beginning at 5:30 p.m. Click HERE to review the agenda. Click on ‘MEETINGS’ in the upper right corner and then on August 23, 2021 Regular Board Meeting.

 

[…]
The Germantown School Board meets Monday, August 23 beginning at 7 p.m. in the Germantown High School Performing Arts Center.

 

Florida Threatens School Districts With Defunding if they Implement Illegal Mask Mandates

by | 2050, 20 Aug 21 | , | 4 Comments

Huzzah

(CNN)The Florida State Board of Education has sent an order to Broward and Alachua counties’ school board officials stating that they have 48 hours to comply with the state’s wishes to allow an opt-out option for masks or the state will begin withholding funds, according to copies of the orders shown to CNN.

If the school districts do not comply and continue to keep their mask mandates in place, the districts will start facing financial penalties. The state is requesting a list of the annual salaries of all board members, and the State Board of Education will then begin withholding 1/12th of that amount each month from the district’s funds, according to the document.

People Want Open Schools

by | 1439, 20 Aug 21 | , | 19 Comments

The framing of this story is very, very slanted. Here’s the headline:

Many Wisconsin School Boards, Overwhelmed By 18 Months Of Community Pushback, Aren’t Taking Up Mask Issue
One could also say, “Schools Boards Respond to Community Demands to Not Require Masks for Kids.” But no… when people push back on liberal initiatives or the nanny state, the story is framed as if those who oppose such things are radicals. Just notice the word choices:

School board members around the state who supported phased returns to the classroom and disease mitigation efforts like masks and social distancing have faced vitriolic school board meetings, recall attempts, election challenges and threats over the past 18 months.

 

Now, as COVID-19 is again surging around the state and hitting kids harder, many boards aren’t putting any mask requirements or precautions into place, to the distress of some parents who are worried their kids will get sick — and despite clear guidance from state and federal agencies that say universal masking is the best way to keep students safe and prevent schools from having to shut down.

People who support masking kids when the science is clear that it is almost worthless in terms of mitigating the spread of the virus but incredibly damaging to kids are simply “supporting phased returns” and “disease mitigation efforts.” Those who oppose those things are “vitriolic” and engaging in “threats.” And school board that aren’t abusing kids by unnecessarily masking them are doing so “despite clear guidance.”

The good news is that, thankfully, the public is speaking up and at least some school boards are listening. It’s taken a lot of hard work and organizing, but representative government is working.

Differences in Education Impact Decision to Get COVID Vaccine

by | 2106, 14 Aug 21 | , | 2 Comments

Interesting.

People with a PhD are the most hesitant when it comes to getting the Covid-19 vaccine, according to a paper by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Researchers surveyed just over five million US adults in an online survey, with 10,000 reporting that they were educated to PhD level.

 

The report showed a surprising U-shaped correlation between willingness to get a Covid vaccine and education level – with the highest hesitancy among those least and most educated.

Legislature Debates Teaching Racism in Schools

by | 0849, 12 Aug 21 | , , | 45 Comments

Don’t you kind of wonder why this isn’t already the law? Or, at least, the policy in every district in the state? And why, pray tell, are the Democrats fighting so hard to prevent the prohibition of teaching racism in schools? They are fighting anti-racism racism like they did in the 1960s.

The legislation would require teachers to post their syllabuses online and districts to provide copies of curriculum under the state’s open records law, without charges or delays, and would establish a complaint process for parents, staff or groups who object to the materials being taught.

 

[…]

 

Under the bills, violations include teaching that one race or sex is superior to another; a person is inherently racist by virtue of his or her race or sex; a person’s moral character is determined by race or sex; a person should feel guilty for past acts committed by people of his or her race or sex; and systems based on meritocracy are racist or sexist or designed to oppress people of another race.

Homeschooling Surges

by | 0853, 26 Jul 21 | , | 10 Comments

Perhaps a long-term positive effect of the pandemic will be more parents taking a more active role in their kids’ education whether they homeschool or not.

Although the pandemic disrupted family life across the U.S. since taking hold in spring 2020, some parents are grateful for one consequence: They’re now opting to homeschool their children, even as schools plan to resume in-person classes.

 

The specific reasons vary widely. Some families who spoke with The Associated Press have children with special educational needs; others seek a faith-based curriculum or say their local schools are flawed. The common denominator: They tried homeschooling on what they thought was a temporary basis and found it beneficial to their children.

 

“That’s one of the silver linings of the pandemic — I don’t think we would have chosen to homeschool otherwise,” said Danielle King of Randolph, Vermont, whose 7-year-old daughter Zoë thrived with the flexible, one-on-one instruction. Her curriculum has included literature, anatomy, even archaeology, enlivened by outdoor excursions to search for fossils.

 

The surge has been confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau, which reported in March that the rate of households homeschooling their children rose to 11% by September 2020, more than doubling from 5.4% just six months earlier.

 

Conservative Group Floats Granular Funding Formula for Education

by | 1152, 19 Jul 21 | , | 3 Comments

This is interesting.

Republican groups are calling for the restructuring of Wisconsin’s convoluted K-12 education funding system — including additional funding for students living in poverty — as education becomes a focal point heading into the 2022 midterm elections.

The idea that low-income students need more resources to succeed has long been championed by academics, public school advocates and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who in 2010 proposed an overhaul of the state’s now 30-year-old school funding system. Republicans have dismissed Evers’ so-called “Fair Funding” proposal as too expensive. Instead, they have focused on distributing an equal amount of new state aid to each student regardless of background while expanding the state’s private school voucher programs.

The conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty provided the Wisconsin State Journal with a new report calling for a more granular funding model for funding K-12 schools that focuses on the individual financial needs of each student, rather than each district — a concept similar to a proposal put forth by a statewide bipartisan Blue Ribbon Commission on School Funding in 2019.

I don’t think this is necessarily a conservative vs. liberal issue. If we accept that it is the role of government to fund education, then we’re talking about the how and who. Tailoring funding to the actual need of the student makes sense. In the past this would have been unachievable, but in the technical era, this is not difficult at all.

The next step is the who. Who will receive the money? If we are tailoring funding for government schools base on the students’ actual need, wouldn’t that apply to voucher funding too? But that gets the liberal nervous because if we treat students as individuals, then that moves us closer to making the money follow the kids instead of the institution. Personally, I think that’s where the focus needs to be.

WILL’s report also says it’s necessary for private voucher and public charter schools to be included in the proposed weighted funding formula.

Currently each student who receives a private school voucher gets between $8,300 and nearly $9,000. Public school districts are limited by the state to having between $10,000 and $24,000 to spend per student, depending on the district and not counting federal funds and certain other state aid programs.

Julie Underwood, a member of the blue ribbon commission and president of the liberal Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, pushed back against WILL’s effort, calling it a Trojan horse to get more money for vouchers.

California Chooses to Abuse School Children Despite Science

by | 1102, 10 Jul 21 | , | 2 Comments

It’s not about the virus. It’s about control. And the children will suffer.

California will continue to require masks in school settings, state health officials announced Friday, even though federal health authorities released new guidelines saying vaccinated students and teachers no longer need to wear masks inside campus buildings.

 

“Masking is a simple and effective intervention that does not interfere with offering full in-person instruction,” said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Mark Ghaly. “At the outset of the new year, students should be able to walk into school without worrying about whether they will feel different or singled out for being vaccinated or unvaccinated — treating all kids the same will support a calm and supportive school environment.”

 

The recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which also said schools should try and keep desks three feet apart, are not a mandate. The CDC guidance said prevention strategies, including indoor masking, should be utilized when it’s not possible to maintain a distance of at least three feet in the classroom.

Wisconsin Fails in Teaching History and Civics

by | 0922, 6 Jul 21 | | 16 Comments

This report focuses on state standards. Wisconsin leaves most standards to the local level, but the results are clear. Wisconsin’s students, like most American students, are utterly ignorant about basic civics. I’d encourage local folks to look into the requirements and curriculum at your local school district.

In a new report, the conservative-leaning Thomas B. Fordham Institute graded states on their standards for teaching civics and United States history — and gave Wisconsin Fs in both.

 

According to the report, Wisconsin’s biggest flaws are that it does not specifically require U.S. history or civics courses in high school, instead saying students need three credits of social studies that include state and local government; and that it focuses on broad themes that need to be covered rather than mandating specific content — for example, that students must learn about the Civil War, or study the First Amendment.

 

“There’s a tendency to shy away from spelling out exactly what kids need to know, and what they should be covering. It’s just easier to stick to generalities,” said David Griffith, a senior research and policy analyst at the Fordham Institute and a former civics teacher.

 

The report focuses on state-level standards, but individual districts often have more specific graduation requirements.

 

[…]

 

Flynn, like other teachers in Wisconsin, talked to his students about the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in different ways depending on how it tied into the material they were learning.

 

[…]

In its analysis of Wisconsin civics standards, the Fordham Institute says most standards are too broad and vague to be useful, that breadth and vagueness means most “essential” content is never mentioned, and there’s no attempt to assign content to specific grade levels or classes. Wisconsin history standards, according to the institute, also don’t assign specific content to specific grade levels, don’t have a discernable scope or sequence, and don’t make the priorities clear for what teachers should focus on.

 

Griffith said the analysis of state-level standards grew out of mounting concern that Americans are in a bad place, politically and civically, and that one way to address the problem is to make sure students develop the necessary skills and knowledge to better engage with political issues, so that five or 10 years down the road, those former students have the tools to discuss history and current events in context.

 

“It’s so obvious that we’re in a bad place,” Griffith said “It’s so obvious that the level of polarization and disunion that we’re seeing is not healthy, that really there’s a growing movement to do something about it.”

Madison Government Schools Set Priorities

by | 2143, 29 Jun 21 | , | 1 Comment

This is what your taxes are being spent on.

For now, the preliminary budget approved includes the maximum possible raises for staff, investments in equity programs like full-day, 4-year-old kindergarten, an online school for students in grades 6-12 and student-led initiatives like menstrual products distributed for free in school buildings.

UW Applications Rise

by | 2009, 21 Jun 21 | | 0 Comments

Interesting, but I’m not sure it’s very useful information.

MADISON, Wis.—New fall freshman applications for University of Wisconsin System universities are up by about 30 percent over each of the last two years. Moreover, applications by Wisconsin residents, first-generation students, and underrepresented minorities are also up.

The increases are the result of several actions the UW System took over the last 15 months to simplify the application process, including waiving application fees, creating a new EApp (electronic application), allowing students to use a single application for multiple universities, and suspending
the requirement that students take the ACT.

The increase in applications does not necessarily reflect an increase in demand. With free, online applications, I expect that they are getting a lot of applicants who have little interest in actually attending. That seems to be what Tommy Thompson is indicating here:

Thompson cautioned that not all students who apply and are admitted will enroll. However, he said the increase in applications is a positive signal about first-year enrollments.

Here is the real number to watch – enrollment.

Largely due to the pandemic, enrollment was down at UW System universities in fall 2020 by 1.7 percent, according to final figures. That’s less than the national decline of 4 percent for public institutions, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

Evers Vetoes Education Expansion

by | 0810, 21 Jun 21 | , | 2 Comments

Given the utter failure of so many government schools during the pandemic, it is unconscionable that Governor Evers would lock so many kids in failing schools by not allowing them access to the financial resources that taxpayers provide. Taxpayers gladly pay to educate kids, but Evers if forcing them to pay for failed government institutions

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers on Friday vetoed a bill that would have opened the door to more children going to private school using a voucher paid for by taxpayers.

 

The bill Evers vetoed would have raised the income eligibility for the voucher program to three times the federal poverty level.

 

Conservatives said the change was needed given increasing interest in sending students to private schools during the pandemic, which led many public schools to reduce in-person classes.

 

But the change was opposed by the statewide teachers union and groups representing public school administrators, school boards and rural schools — all traditional opponents of growing the voucher program. Evers said in his veto message that he objects to diverting resources from school districts to private schools.

Republicans increase school spending again

by | 0549, 9 Jun 21 | , | 0 Comments

Here is my full column that ran in the Washington County Daily News yesterday.

The Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee is continuing to draft the state budget. Last week they took up the topic of K-12 school funding. Despite the Republican majority voting to increase spending by $128 million, Governor Tony Evers labeled the increase “paltry” and “an insult” and threatened to veto the entire budget because of it in the same week that he announced his intent to seek re-election.

 

Every budget season we hear the same ridiculous rhetoric about how Republicans are cutting education and hurting kids despite unending budget increases. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards went so far as to say that proposed budget “will be devastating” to students. While such inflammatory adjectives are exciting for politicos, the facts do not support the hysteria.

 

According to data from the Department of Public Instruction and the published state budget documents, the proposed spending on K-12 education for the 2022-2023 school year is $1.4 billion more than it was in the 2015-2016 school year when Republicans controlled the legislative and executive branches. That is an increase of 26% over just four budgets.

 

On a per-pupil basis, the increases are even more stark. For years there has been a steady decline in student enrollment driven by demographic trends. In the 2015-2016 school year there were 867,137 public school students in Wisconsin. This year, there are 826,935 public school students. That is a decline of over 40,000 public school students, but taxpayer spending continues to climb. On a per-student basis, state funding of K-12 education has increased by 32% since the 2015-2016 school year.

 

Throughout that entire period where state taxpayer spending on K-12 education increased by 26% as enrollment was dropping, Republicans controlled both houses of the state Legislature. For the first two budgets, Wisconsin also had a Republican governor. The fact is that Republicans have lavished the taxpayers’ money on the government education at every opportunity. Even though Democrats always want to spend more, the Republicans have been anything but stingy with education funding.

 

Government schools are swimming in even more billions of taxpayer dollars this year as they collect multiple rounds of COVID19 relief money spewing out of Washington. Democrats are attempting to claim that Republicans are endangering federal money by not committing more state taxpayer money. They claimed the same thing about federal funds for unemployment payments. Just like the unemployment funding, the federal dollars will flood our schools whether we want it or not. Democrats in Washington and Madison are not going to disappoint one of their strongest constituencies – government teachers.

 

While spending continues to rise with no consideration for the decline in enrollment, what are taxpayers really getting for their largesse? Even before the pandemic, student performance from our government schools was mediocre and had been steadily eroding for years. The curriculum was being infused with left-wing ideology and the building spree was unending.

 

But the pandemic really demonstrated how little some of our government schools care for the students and their obligations to the public. When the pandemic first emerged, schools rightfully closed as everyone worked to understand the virus. Within months, however, it became clear that COVID-19 posed almost no risk at all for children. This fact became even clearer when many private schools, and a few government schools, opened their doors to educate kids again as early as last spring. Even now, after over 600,000 COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin, only three people under 19 years old have died with COVID-19.

 

We learned how the virus spreads and who is at most risk, yet far too many government schools remained closed to in-person education while the education and mental health of children deteriorated. Even now, some government schools do not plan to fully open until the next school year and then plan to perpetuate fear with useless and outdated mitigation measures.

 

When parents and communities needed their government schools the most, far too many of them abandoned their duty. For that, both state and federal taxpayers are rewarding them with billions of additional dollars. It is well past time to rethink our support for government institutions that are failing to meet their duty to the public. To rephrase the oft-quoted Robert Goodloe Harper, “billions for education, but not one cent for tribute.”

Republicans increase school spending again

by | 0650, 8 Jun 21 | , | 7 Comments

My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a part:

According to data from the Department of Public Instruction and the published state budget documents, the proposed spending on K-12 education for the 2022-2023 school year is $1.4 billion more than it was in the 2015-2016 school year when Republicans controlled the legislative and executive branches. That is an increase of 26% over just four budgets.

 

On a per-pupil basis, the increases are even more stark. For years there has been a steady decline in student enrollment driven by demographic trends. In the 2015-2016 school year there were 867,137 public school students in Wisconsin. This year, there are 826,935 public school students. That is a decline of over 40,000 public school students, but taxpayer spending continues to climb. On a per-student basis, state funding of K-12 education has increased by 32% since the 2015-2016 school year.

 

Throughout that entire period where state taxpayer spending on K-12 education increased by 26% as enrollment was dropping, Republicans controlled both houses of the state Legislature. For the first two budgets, Wisconsin also had a Republican governor. The fact is that Republicans have lavished the taxpayers’ money on the government education at every opportunity. Even though Democrats always want to spend more, the Republicans have been anything but stingy with education funding.

“Endangering” Federal Money

by | 0806, 7 Jun 21 | , | 4 Comments

This is not a problem.

A Republican lawmaker on the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee said the state would stay in compliance with federal guidelines, so as not to miss out on $1.5 billion in federal matching funds for education.

First, this is a good reminder that nothing is ever “free.” The federal money has demands that state taxpayers increase spending because it isn’t about COVID-19 relief. It is about increasing spending on a loyal Democratic constituency – government teachers.

Second, there is no way that the federal government doesn’t grant a waiver if necessary. Here’s how this plays out…

Step 1: Evers and Democrats beat up Republicans for a few weeks to get more K-12 spending in the budget.

Step 3: Irrespective of whether Republicans in the legislature increase spending or not, Evers calls Washington to make sure the money will flow.

Step 4: Biden’s administration sends money.

Step 5: Evers takes credit for “saving” billions in federal money and uses it as an “achievement” for his reelection campaign.

Republicans should hold their ground. There is no upside – politically or educationally – to spending more money on government schools.

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