[lug] BVSD Windows vs Mac craziness

[Nate Duehr]

William D. Knoche wrote:

> Well, a bit off topic but I am an education supporter.

Me too.  Who says BVSD supports education though?  :-)

Seriously though -- if schools have continually higher costs and yet
turn out students who continually perform worse on any type of national
or international standardized testing... in the business world that's
called a "failed business".

All business people know you don't throw good money after bad.

Try firing a teacher sometime.  I hear it's next to impossible.

> I can't guarentee that spending more money will help kids get a better
> education but I can assure you that not spending the money will have a
> very poor outcome.
> Colorado is in general one of the worst funded education states (Boulder
> is somewhat of an exception).

This is interesting.

A recent 20/20 show discussed that the national average is about
$10k/student, per year.

Then also showed an entire ROOM full of special ed directors, a school
principal, and four teachers who seemed to have little concern that a
Senior in their high school was about to graduate with a 4th grade
reading level.

That same kid jumped two grade levels in reading aptitude after 20/20
paid for 72 hours of instruction at a private learning facility.
(Sylvan, if it matters.)

My point?  More money down the public school monopoly rat hole is as
valuable as more money down the telecommunications monopoly was worth in
1982.

> Everyone benefits from well educated kids.
> Well educated kids,
>  get good jobs and pay into social security, taxes, etc.
>  they tend to not end up in prison
>     (schools pay $4200/yr/student, prisons cost $45k/yr/inmate)
>  they tend to pay attention to the democratic process and make informed
> voting decisions
>   they tend to contribute more to society in almost every dimension

Agreed.

Tie the money to the individual kids and lets see some COMPETITION in
education.

Let parents spend that money on a religious, or highly academic, or even
an old-fashioned Reading and Writing type of school of their choice.
Test those kids with their "scary" specializations with the same
standard tests kids at public schools are tested with, and what do you
get?  Better students overall.  Almost always.

The system we have is not working.  American kids now test lower than 26
other countries.  (Finland was #1, which I think interesting... anyone
ever heard of a guy named Linux Torvalds around here?  GRIN...)

> I have no idea what BVSD is trying to do. Maybe they do have good
> reasons to switch to Windows (though I can't imagine what/why that would
> be).

Just take the money away and set up real competition.

No sane school would spend money on Windows and Macs if faced with a
real BUSINESS budget and not a neverending money source that no one can
possibly take away from them... other than their own greedy
administrators.

As administrator pay goes up nationwide, teacher salary and the money
spent on students goes down... test scores fall, administrators claim
their job is too hard, so they then claim they deserve salaries
commesurate with corporate CEO's (even though they could NEVER compete
and actually earn one of those jobs), and 'round and 'round we go.

This pattern continues until another mill levy is passed, then for a few
years things look better for the students... then it goes to the
administration and bureaucracy.

> I too have always been confused as to why the district has consistenly
> refused the assistence from competent volunteers in this area.

Same reason Fire Departments and Police Departments turn down
volunteers.  Liability... or perceived liability.

The current government-run schools think they are truly the ONLY people
properly qualified to teach anything to children, and volunteers are
simply not necessary in their world.

If they need money for Windows, Macs, whatever silliness makes no
sense... they just run up another mill levy.

If the voters shoot it down long enough, the Teacher's Union rolls into
town with millions in advertising dollars making everyone feel guilty by
showing low teacher salaries and student scores falling and blaming it
on the people who refused to throw good money after bad... by spending
more money on school districts.

> When we first moved to Colorado I help network/wire several schools - we
> donated all the materials and all the labor. When we actually tried to
> take the next step and provide servers for each school we were refused.
> I have tried several times to help with the webservers, email,
> firewalls, etc and have always been told my assistance was not needed or
> wanted.

Yep.  Your assistance and volunteer spirit would be welcome at Charter
schools and private schools -- especially if your son or daughter were a
student there.  Just imagine... community!

> Things got busier at work (my wife got rif'd) and I just lost interest
> and gave up. My wife, 20 years as an IT manager,  with some free time
> also tried to help with the same result.

Sad.

Fire the school district.  Fight for reform.

It's always about "follow the money" whether we're talking business or
government.

Move the money with the students, and this problem starts to fix itself.
 Parents deserve choice in schools.  Competition breeds better business.

> We should take this offline but if others have ideas how we can make a
> difference then I am always up for another try.

Defnitely would love to continue to discuss, and I realize it's not
appropriate to continue this here... but I'm fed up with the ineffective
education system.

I have no children and therefore tend to pay MORE in taxes than many
parents (not including SALES taxes, of course... It all evens out
somewhere...), and hate to see the money I send to the Cherry Creek
school district wasted on sending me color glossy magazines annually
about how much the administrators think they're doing a great job every
year.

Wouldn't newsprint or a postcard with a URL have been more efficient and
cheaper?  I've asked.  They don't respond.  Why would they?  They're a
monopoly.  Voting against Board members doesn't stop the money flow, and
that's what needs to happen to get real change.

I don't think these people are evil or anything like that -- but their
world is one where they always HAVE a budget.

How many of us in the public business sector have had worries that
"without that next success/sale, we won't HAVE a business?"

It's time to put that (very normal for everyone else) level of "stress"
on the schools out there.  Succeed in educating students to whatever
level their parents want -- or close. Let parent's move their children
to better schools, freely.

Tie the money to the student.

(Additionally, teachers would also lose things like "tenure" in
situations like this, but the best teachers would be rewarded monetarily
just like in the standard workplace.  Top performers get paid.  Mediocre
performers can usually survive and make a decent wage.  Poor performers
leave the business.)

Nate