When Will the Madness Stop?

When will people realize things need to change before anything will get better? When will they realize the schools are failing the children? It is hard to take a bold stance against something that hasn’t changed in so many years, it is hard to fight against school systems and administrators, and it is hard to stand apart.
Missouri is facing several important house and senate races. We need to pay attention to who is running and what they stand for. We also need to look at those people who attack people positions and look at their misguided reasoning.
The race between Republican Luann Ridgeway and Democrat Sandra Aust for the 17th senate seat sure is worth looking into.
This is taken from the Kansas City Star:
She talks in general about being for children and being for schools,” Aust said, “but that’s not her voting record.”
Ridgeway says she has never voted for school vouchers that would provide tax money to parents to pay for their children to attend private schools. But Aust says that’s misleading.
“She calls it tuition tax credits, but it’s all the same,” Aust said, adding that it takes taxpayer money away from public schools and shifts that money to religious and private schools. “We need to be lifting up our teachers and our schools, and making sure we’re doing everything we can to improve our schools.”
Aust says it is all the same, but it is not. Tuition tax credits do not take money away from the schools, additionally, there are several types of tax credits, it is impossible to lump them all together. The bill from last session would give tax credits to donors who give to scholarship granting organizations. The students would then use THAT money to choose their school. The original school does not lose money. Two scenarios here: Aust truly doesn’t understand the difference, or she does know the truth and is trying to use scare tactics. I bet I know which one it is...but either scenario is disturbing!
Ridgeway said she has sponsored a bill for tax credits to provide scholarships for low income students in failing schools to attend private schools. She believes the Kansas City School District is on the verge of failing. Urban school districts have asked for more money and more time, she said, while students attending them have gotten less than adequate education.
“We have to continue working on improving the system,” Ridgeway said.
We need to elect someone who can also promote change and fix the failing status quo!!!

Education in Missouri…Where Does it Stand?

Story from a Mother.
The job of motherhood is not one to be taken lightly. It requires sincere thoughtful attention, diligent effort, and tireless concern. A mother has to look out for her child and predict every possible issue. Unfortunately, that cannot always happen. Life does not always happen the way you think it will.
When I had my second child, I had the expectations of milestone achievements similar to my first. No doubted, every child is different, but you expect some similarities. But then reality hit me and my second was nothing like my first. Things weren’t quite so obvious at first, but as time went on, we knew something was very different. Then he got diagnosed with autism. While we were somewhat expecting that, it was still very hard to cope. Daily challenges are one thing, life challenges are another. We have both.
Now, looking into the education in Missouri beyond the preschool years, I am facing another crisis. My child is not ready to be mainstreamed yet, but the school says he is. I am his mother and I should have to right to decide his future, not some officials.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2007 found that 69 percent of Missouri 8th grade students were not ranked “proficient” in reading and 70 percent were not ranked “proficient” in Math. Yet, they think my child can be properly educated in this system. It seems fairly obvious even non-special education students are having a rough go. I should have the right to decide where my child spends his days, and if I did, I would chose the private school about 7 miles away, that can better educate my son.

Missouri's Education...Worse than I Thought

As a mother of young children, it is impossible for me to stay away from the depressing news of the failures of many of Missouri schools. Being that my children are not yet in school, I may be a little naive on all the facts. I am sure, like many other parents, reading about the lack of education in some of the bigger cities brings a sense of sadness for all those parents. Yet, not living there, I have felt a little secure in my bubble outside the cities. Even though I have always known things could be better here, I never knew how bad they really were.

Reading the Missouri Poliitical News Service, I came across an op-ed written by Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield, titled "Who Needs Help; K-12 Education in Missouri".

Some new facts that may surprise you are:
Fact: Most minority students do not go to school in the metro areas.
Only 30% of black students go to school in St. Louis or Kansas City.

Fact: Most poor performing minority students do not live in Metro areas.
67% of black students testing basic or below go to school outside Kansas City and St. Louis City.

Fact: A small percentage of poor performers live in metro areas.
Only 10% of all students testing basic or below go to school in Kansas City and St. Louis.

Fact: Most poor performing students don’t live in metro areas and are white.
Almost 70% of children testing basic or below and living outside St. Louis and Kansas City are white.

What does this data mean? That solving the minority, metro problem will only affect less than 6% of students in Missouri. Solving the education problem will require an expanded focus on all schools from the bad to the great. Many minority children do poorly outside the metro areas. Almost half of white students need help.

So much emphasis has been placed on the metro areas and not enough on areas outside the cities. While I know it is important for those cities to improve, I also agree with Dr. Sinquefield that the entire state needs improvement.

This news definitely gives me the feeling my little bubble has popped and I hope, for the sake of my children and the rest of the children, things are done to improve education for all.

Who Will Help the Children?

As a young mother, I worried about quality naps, diaper rash, developing fine and gross motor skills, hitting the developmental milestones at the right time, proper nutrition, and of course happiness of my children. These were all things I would try to control, (although no one has total control of these issues, but I gave it my best). Now, as my children are leaving 'my nest' and entering kindergarten, I must relinquish many news concerns to teachers, at least for part of the day.

The problems with the public education system are not new and you would think people would try new things to fix them, not keep trying to same failed policies.
Recently, gubernatorial candidate, Kenny Hulshof announced his plan for education in Missouri. His plan includes more charter schools in Kansas City and children gaining access to scholarship tax credits. His opponent Nixon, however, wants to keep the status quo, the same plans that have been and will continue to fail our children.

Nixon even has the audacity to criticize Hulshof for accepting political contributions from another school choice advocate, Rex Sinquefield. Nixon says " I have never accepted money from Mr. Sinquefield or any of his Political Action Committees, and I certainly never will. Mr. Sinquefield's pro-voucher agenda undermines our public school system and as a product of Missouri's public schools, I believe we must strengthen our school system, not weaken it."
Two points here: Nixon would NEVER be offered money by Sinquefield, secondly, its Nixon's plans that will keep our schools failing, not Sinquefield's. Nixon's plans will simply keep things the way they are...broken!

Education reform plans, such as those by Hulshof and Sinquefield, are plans that intend to strengthen the schools, grant good education to all children, and stimulate growth and change within the entire program.

Congratulations to Hulshof for taking a stand against failed systems. I can only hope Missourians will make the right vote, the vote for change.