Please and pretty please...won't you come/stay Ms. Teacher?

This story from the wire:

Jackson Public Schools will receive a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to enhance and promote the recruitment and retention of highly qualified teachers in high need subject areas such as math, science and special education.

What some politician running for office today needs to say is this: "I hereby support a Declaration of Independence for teachers across our poorly educated state. None of these teachers should ever have to see or be tempted to work in our underperforming government school system again. Let us put up former public schools for rent to to private entities and vouchers given to parents to choose the best place for our children's schooling."

Nobody running with that kind of guts, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, teachers, kids and their parents are trapped inside a system that can't work no matter how well funded it is.

An "all private school system?" Why not?

You tell me - why not a system of education that is totally private. Read the articles (1 and 2) and leave a comment.

No excuses

The book everybody in Mississippi education ought to rush out and buy.

Book Description
Too many educators make excuses for the failure of most public schools to teach low-income children. But across the nation dozens of high-performing principals have identified those effective practices that allow all children to excel regardless of income level. In this new report, Samuel Casey Carter, a Bradley Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, examines the common practices of twenty one principals of low-income schools who set the standard for high achievement. The lessons uncovered in these case-studies provide an invaluable resource for anyone interested in providing increased educational opportunities for low-income children.

Education spending

This from the governor's office. Spending more than ever. But what he doesn't say...we are getting less. Our kids are not more educated, and they too often lack the character necessary to become the successes they need to be in a global and Kingdom economy.

Governor Barbour has proposed the biggest increase in K-12 spending in any four year period in state history – nearly $530 million. After the most recent revenue estimate, this is what Governor Barbour proposes for the next school year – all within a balanced budget, while honoring the law to set aside 2% of our revenues and not dipping into or diverting from our rainy day fund:

● A $206 million increase for our K-12 schools - a 9% increase.
● Spending more than $8000/student in state, local and federal funds – the highest in state history!
● Fully funding the Department of Education’s request for the MAEP formula – the first time in state history!
● A 3% pay raise for our teachers so our average teacher pay will be more than $42,000 – the highest in state history!
● Funding the increased cost of health insurance and retirement for our teachers.
● Funding a “High School Redesign” program for dropout prevention.
● Funding a new dyslexia screening program for K-3 students.
● Funding a mentor program for new middle school teachers to help them better manage classroom discipline.
● Requiring new physical activity standards for K-8 students because healthy kids will have fewer discipline problems and will learn more.

But the House Democrat leadership says this isn’t enough if they can’t get another $13 million!

What reforms do we need? For if there is no major - and I mean major - reform we will only feed a medicore to poor monster of pedagogy that will only get bigger, not better.

Education spending...yada, yada, yada

David Hampton at the Clarion Ledger says that Barbour did a "Clinton" on the Democrats by agreeing to fund the "Adequate Funding" bill of yesteryear.

Yawn.

The real question is, does more funding for education work. No.

My perspective has always been - giving more money to a broken system gives you a bigger broken system. Something is not working. Fix it, and then come back for money. Until then, Barbour pulling a "Clinton" is the best will be able to do?