BCCT Mailbag

Here's a letter today from the BCCT taking a general look at "failed" education in Bucks County. This reads a lot like some of the opinions advanced by the stop the school NSNs. There's a lot of kvetching, but what's the plan? If I went to my boss with a lot of complaints but no plan, I'd be laughed out of his office and told, "Come back when you think you have a way to deal with it. Leaving a dead cat at my door doesn't help anything." The writer is stating facts, but to what end?

What about "failed"? Just the fact that you're reading this means the system succeeded. Can things be better? Absolutely. Does the American school system have all the answers? Absolutely not. Do we need to be more serious about our schools? That's a given. Take a look at the prime time TV lineup and the rest of the BCCT or any other newspaper to see what is important to Americans--living vicariously through others in scripted "reality" shows and maintaining the conspicuous consumerist lifestyle.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves ...

GUEST OPINION
Elect only those willing to reform a failed school system
By JOSEPH J. RYAN

Using data from the U.S. Department of Labor on household median earnings, Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder found “weekly pay for public school teachers in 2001 was about the same (within 10 percent) as for accountants, biological and life scientists, registered nurses, and editors and reporters.” Of seven professions Vedder compared, the only ones with higher weekly pay than teachers were lawyers and judges.

Vedder also found public school teachers and administrators receive a benefit agreement worth 26 percent of salary, a questionable determination. In Bristol Township, the benefit package is 33 percent of salary compared with average private sector benefit arrangements at 17 percent. The most conspicuous financial mistreatment of taxpayers is teachers’ excessive salaries, abuse of sick leave and disproportionate subsidization of their health care coverage and pension plan.

According to the Inquirer’s annual report on public schools, the top teacher salary in Bensalem in 2006-2007 was $96,593; Bristol Borough, $84,710; Bristol Township, $85,427; Centennial, $97,309; Central Bucks, $94,010; Council Rock, $98,548; Morrisville, $86,731; Neshaminy, $93,356; New Hope, $97,349; and Pennsbury, $90,782. Applying a 33 percent benefit cost to the top salary at Neshaminy, the total compensation was $124,163 or $3,104 per week. Using the original SAT scoring system, the combined 2006-2007 SAT score in Neshaminy was 911, 69 points below the 1963 national “average.”

In 1988, I witnessed the fiscally irresponsible Bristol Township school board’s decision to boost educator salaries in the district by 47.2 percent over five years, an increase of 9.4 percent per year while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) held at 3.5 percent. This is an example of how educator salaries in this county have reached an unwarranted, disproportionate level compared to student academic achievement.

A glaring inconsistency with educator salaries and benefits is the educational background of many public school educators. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, who has a master’s degree in education from Harvard, assessed teacher candidates: “Undergraduate education majors typically have lower SAT and ACT scores than other students, and those teachers who have the lowest scores are the most likely to remain in the profession.”

The name, the National Education Association, is a misnomer. The intent is to give the organization a professional connotation similar to that of the American Medical Association, while in fact, it is a trade union comparable to the Teamsters or the United Auto Workers. The NEA masquerades as a professional body intent on raising the quality of education, while resisting every attempt at public education reform.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Public Education Reform said: “It used to be whatever teacher unions said went, but no more; they may be wealthy, but they are no longer impervious to attack.” For instance, teacher unions in both Hartford Conn., and Wilkinsburg, Pa., lost their fight to stop private firms from taking over the city schools.

A major contributing factor to student underachievement is automatic promotion. Currently, no matter how poorly a student performs, it is considered unfair to have the student repeat the year. Repeating the year is considered harmful to a student’s sense of self-worth. It is incomprehensible how a student can be intellectually self-satisfied if deficient in the basics. Yet another detrimental practice is guaranteed graduation. Regardless of performance, students can be sure they will graduate at the prescribed time.

Seventy-eight percent of America’s colleges and universities have initiated remedial study in reading, writing, or math, says Diane Ravitch, research professor at New York University. “It is fairly shocking, or should be, that 39 percent of all freshmen take a remedial course, particularly reading, when they enter advanced study.”

William J. Bennett, former U. S. secretary of education, has said, “In looking at the National Education Association you are looking at the absolute heart and soul of the Democratic Party.” Taxpayers should take Bennett’s statement literally. Both organizations reciprocate in electing Democratic Party candidates and resisting any attempt to reform a failed public education system.

Source: Peter Brimelow, “The Worm in the Apple”.
Joseph J. Ryan, Levittown, is a U.S. Marine Corps retiree, and former employee of the Philadelphia Inquirer.