Tim Rutten in The clowns at LAUSD writes about a tragedy of epic proportions. The Los Angeles Unified School District plunged ahead with a new payroll system:
-------------
The new payroll system repeatedly failed when it was tested. Those involved knew the system's database was badly flawed. Payroll clerks were inadequately trained; some weren't trained at all.
Still, prodded by its high-priced consultants, the district rolled the new system out at the first of last year. Week after week, month after month of disaster ensued.
As The Times reported, "Over the course of last year, taxpayers overpaid an estimated $53 million to some 36,000 teachers and others, while thousands more went underpaid or not paid at all for months." (Stop and think what one missed paycheck would mean to your household's well-being, let alone three or four in a row. Think further about what kind of people let those working under their supervision go unpaid, then ask whether you want that sort of person in charge of something complicated -- like education.)
--------------
Near the end of his article Timothy asks:
"OK, if you've stuck with this wretched tale this long, you've by now asked yourself the logical questions: Who's responsible for this mess? Who did they fire?"
and then answers his own questions:
"The answer to both questions is: Nobody -- and that's the crux of the issue, and the reason the LAUSD is a civic disgrace. That's not to say it doesn't have thousands of talented, resourceful teachers and principals whose dedication to their pupils is positively heroic. In fact, you have to go back to the Battle of the Somme to find good troops as badly led as these people are."
This is one of the reasons public schools do so poorly. Very often school administrators don't suffer the consequences of poor choices. If this was a public company people would have been fired long ago.
(Hat tip: Joanne Jacobs)
---------
Technorati tags: public school, public education, education
4 comments:
Good troops led by bad leaders. That is the crux of why the system doesn't work. Most folks are pretty pleased by their own kids' teacher. Or at least recognize that many teachers are both talented and devoted. But they are hindered by the very system in which they work.
I agree to an extent. Clearly part of the problem with public schools is with the leadership.
I also argue that by the nature of the system all the troops are no longer competent.
Some time when you are willing to be seriouslly depressed, check out in Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers by Rita Kramer. Rita documents how Education Schools no longer get the best and the brightest. But what may be worse is the Education Schools seem to be designed to weed out those who are above average.
And yet, when you look at homeschooled kids vs. publicly school children, you get to see how inadequate homeschooling is.
Why do you think homeschooled children are nadequate? The public consensus now is that homeschooled children are doing fine.
Homeschooled children do better in academics. They are more socially comfortable in a wide range of situations. They have fewer problems with drugs or crime.
Homeschooling is not perfect. You can always find one or two homeschoolers who are make mistake. But as a group they do much better than children in public schools.
Half the children in the California government schools go the California University system and have to take remidial classes. Public school children might relate well to their peers, but they don't do well with young children or older adults. And the crime statistics for children from government schools just climb and climb every decade.
Post a Comment