Education

Common Core

   No County money will be used to implement this. The Common Core standards do not address material taught or improve knowledge and skills of students. It is a set of methods, technology and monitoring developed by marketing experts (I use the term loosely) and salesmen. All teachers that reviewed the standard disapprove of the methods and materials.

   The only curriculum we should use is one that teaches fact and reality, not some dreamed up fantasy of good citizenship that smacks of Orwell's 1984. Let's focus on science and history, actuals fields of knowledge and not imaginary management styles.

BoE Budget and Finances

   The Board of Education has a problem when it comes to your money, they don't know how to spend it. The BoE over the years has made some stupid decisions in regard to what to buy and when.

   There are a few stupid purchases that stuck in my mind over the years. When Friendship Valley was first built on Gist Road they had an open house where they showed off computer labs, laser disc players and a modern (for the time) resource center; you know that thing that used to be called a library. The next year when a younger sibling attended that school, all the modern tech was gone and most of the computers removed from the classrooms. You got to love a school board that is just flash and smoke. When I saw the same setup at the new Winter Mills high school, I had flashbacks of the Friendship Valley open house and my first thought was "Yep, this will all be gone tomorrow". No one has ever benefited from the BoE's dog and pony show of technology. Then came the palm scanner fiasco. Again some wisenheimer thought it would be a great idea to sell the BoE a bunch of palm scanners and then say, "We can use them to sell lunches". Seriously, lunch ?; did anyone think we would actually fall for that ? Who uses palm scanners to make purchases ? It was a stupid lie sold to us as the same bill of goods the BoE got sold when they bought the stupid things. I liked Superintendent Guthrie's response to the general public's outcry when he said that "We could have done so much with them". What could we have possibly 'done' with a bunch of scanners that copy kid's palm prints and store them for tracking and privacy violations. Our board does not have a good track record when it comes to technology decisions.

   I also liked how Carroll Magazine called Guthrie, the 'Embattled Captain', like there was so much he wanted to do but couldn't get cooperation. More like 'Embittered Captain', wanted to spy on our kids but we wouldn't cooperate.

Multi-Year Plan

   See Budget and Finances above. The problem the school board has with their multi-year plans is either; A, they don't follow it or B, they keep changing it. The point of a plan extending several years is to phase in changes and costs and monitor success as you proceed. If you don't follow the plan or keep changing it, then you don't make very good plans in the first place.

Education Opportunity Fund

   Cancel it. Dumbest. Plan. Ever. No, I am not exaggerating, that is how I feel. The biggest argument for taking public money for private education is that public schools are fully funded. Really ? So when the BoE begs the County for more funds over last year that is because they have all they need and are fully funded ? A public school has no band booster, team boosters, cut art programs, field trips funded by parents, any other fee or student expense ? All those school supplies you buy every August from a list that says 'For the Teacher' is because the public school is fully funded ?

   Once again, private interest are pulling the wool over your eyes. Studies have been coming out on the news lately of private charter schools getting hit with cheating scandals and executives running off with the money. This is a scam to steal tax dollars to line a CEO's pockets. There is no advantage of a private or charter school (even home schooling) over a public one. Most of the materials for private education is for religious schools. People who home school or run charter schools have been having trouble finding materials that do not promote or push a religious agenda (usually Christian). And since tax dollars are being used for this purpose, do we not run into the same problem of the State funding a specific religion (Christianity) over others.

Outdoor School

   Yes, I like the outdoors and environment as much as the next person, maybe more so. Anything that teaches and gives a respect for ecology, animals and the stewardship of the world we have to live in is a good thing. I am more concerned that it is turning into a day camp were kids just stay indoors and do kitschy crafts. Many traditional methods of caring for animals, plants and farms are being replaced with 'hard' science. This isn't a statement against science but rather what is the point of teaching kids matters like soil testing ? The only answer is to artificially introduce the needed chemicals, which means more harsh chemicals and environmental exposure. When basic composting and similar methods accomplish the same thing. I realize I mixed two separate ideas here but the soil testing from Environmental Week was the first thing I thought of.

Salaries (Teacher or Admin)

   See my opinion regarding Minimum Wage. But in regards to our schools, we have too many administrators and not enough teachers. There is always discussions about expanding office buildings or hiring more staff but never any solutions for the classroom. How many administrators are really needed ? We need to hire more teachers and reduce the admin overhead. Some principals and administrators were teachers, maybe we should put them back in the classroom. Is there any reason a principal can't teach a class?

College Credit for High School Classes

   I proposed this to the Teacher's Union (the Educator's Union) the last time around (2014) but the president didn't want to hear it. He kept trying to get me to say just the AP students. No, I mean every student. My education from high school for electronics had prepared me for about 80-90% of my college classes. If it wasn't for the Critical Thinking course (taught by a math teacher not prepared for the course) I would have had a 4.0 GPA. If our high schools are so good for a college field, why not give the college credit for the classes taken in high school. Anyone graduating high school with enough credits automatically get a degree for the subject matter. Type of degree and level will be determined by the credits earned.

   College education has replaced the high school education as the minimum level of education for adults and graduating students in our public school system and yet we haven't addressed this. Instead we forced students to go through another two to four years of education and in debt for 30 to 50 years. This means that most adults will retire with unpaid loans that cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy filings and incur high interest for the rest of their working lives. Unacceptable, either grant degrees to high school students as above or free public colleges; there are no other answers.

Remote Learning

   The corona virus has exposed a major short-coming in education and technology, The Lack of Broadband Access. There is no network available to the students of Carroll County (at any education level) for reliable lectures or lab-work remotely from home or other locations. With the exception of public libraries (which have done a decent job of broadband access at their facilities) we have no access in Carroll County for broadband. Ting only works to get Westminster wired up and Verizon/Comcast offer expensive services that also require smartphone apps and bank accounts for payment/billing (ie you need broadband just to pay for broadband).

   This is a stupid catch-22 situation that needs addressing.