So, How Do We Fix the Public School System
in Ohio?
Do homeschoolers here really care?
This one does.
Because if they [governement officials] are looking to reign in other
choices [vouchers] for reasons like:
"It's
undemocratic," he said, and it signals an abandonment of the public
school system. Vouchers
"represent the use of public tax dollars without any public oversight,
without the public having the ability, through their elected representatives,
to have any influence over (school) hiring, firing, curriculum, or discipline
procedures. It's an attempt to help a few students shine, when I think
our goal should be to improve our public schools so that every student
would have a high-quality education. Ohio
Gov. Ted Strickland from:Parents
fight to keep vouchers BY
DENISE SMITH AMOS, Cincinnati Enquireer,
Friday, April 13, 2007."
The
potential for a scrutiny of the homeschool laws that are already established
is there. Though this particular state official seems more focused on
the bottem line and in getting more dollars to the schools. This homeschooler
hopes that Gov. Strickland recognizes that homeschoolers, as do families
who send their kids to private schools, contribute to the tax base for
the schools, but many of us don't even use any part of the public school
system and for good reason. On any one day, you can find stories like
these portraying our schools as failing or dangerous:
Gunman
dead after bloody campus rampage
POSTED: 4:14 p.m. EDT, CNN.com, April 16, 2007
A
lone gunman is dead after police said he killed at least 21 people
and perhaps more Monday during shootings in a dorm and a classroom
at Virginia Tech -- the deadliest school attack in U.S. history.
At least 31 people were killed Monday in a shooting rampage at Virginia
Tech, according to two Virginia congressmen -- making it the deadliest
school shooting incident in U.S. history. "Some victims were
shot in a classroom," university police Chief Wendell Flinchum
said.
|
Study
gives teachers barely passing grade in classroom
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY, March 29, 2007
The typical child in the USA stands only a one-in-14 chance of having
a consistently rich, supportive elementary school experience, say
researchers who looked at what happens daily in thousands of classrooms.
The findings, published today in the weekly magazine Science, take
teachers to task for spending too much time on basic reading and
math skills and not enough on problem-solving, reasoning, science
and social studies. They also suggest that U.S. education focuses
too much on teacher qualifications and not enough on teachers being
engaging and supportive. |
Just
one test can hurt
BY DENISE SMITH AMOS , March 13, 2007
<SNIP>
Even so, about a third of the 10th-graders who took the test last
March failed one or more parts. State figures show 58,548 out of
147,605 students had to retake the tests.
Students get six chances to take the test to graduate on time.
Cincinnati Public Schools, which had a 52 percent passage rate last
March, has high schools offering practice sessions and tutoring
before and after school and on Saturdays. |
You
can also find success stories, but these in general aren't about things
that really matter to someone who has already made the decision to homeschool.
So
why offer a solution to fix the public school system?
To keep officials busy with trying to fix a dike already riddled with
holes, so they'll leave homeschooolers alone? Once
they have a public school system that is attractive, or at least
interesting to those of us who homeschool, maybe then they can find good
ways to reel us in. Maybe we'll want to be reeled in. But I think the
day of the little red school house is gone. Our culture has forgotten
what it means to educate offspring, this much is very clear to this homeschooler.
If
Parents Controlled the Schools
Ned Vare May 1996
IF
PARENTS CONTROLLED the schools, would we...
-
Insist children learn the same things at the same time?
-
Create
a bleak artificial environment and lock our kids in it for years,
knowing that most of what they learn is irrelevant or wrong?
-
Allow
them to have no standards, no goals, and to dumb down the kids?
-
Allow
our property to be confiscated if we didn't pay their bigger
bill each year?
-
Hire
unionized teachers with binding arbitration who could vote for
their raises?
-
Let
them give our kids mind-altering drugs (Ritalin) to control
behavior as insane asylums do?
-
Suspend
the band and sports for a year to coerce ourselves to vote for
a tax increase?
-
Believe
that 10 to 15 percent of our kids are "learning disabled"
when figures show only a 1 percent likelihood?
-
Allow
our children's and our lives to be so dominated by school's
synthetic experience that there's no time left for real experiences?
-
Use
standardized tests that have no education value and can damage
kids?
-
Use
only "certified" staff when private schools have no
such restriction and avoid hiring them?
-
Assign
60 percent of every day to non-academic indoctrination like
"social values?"
-
Allow
the state to dictate who can run our schools?
-
Let
teachers use our children as shills for their pay raises?
- Pay
twice what private schools charge and get half the learning?
The answers are either no or hell no.
Parents are encouraged to relinquish our natural roles as educators.
Feeling guilty about that, we are easy prey for schools that demand
more taxes to raise our children badly. Educationists have learned
to hustle us, shake us down in a shell game for control of money
and our children's lives.
What's wrong here in my city is what is wrong everywhere —
school is a state monopoly that can neither educate effectively
nor inform the public honestly. To become responsive and accountable,
education needs to be separated from government. Otherwise, it will
continue to serve only itself and we will remain its slaves. |
I
think the regular guy would shocked as
to the laws that are on the books regarding the education of junior.
When did we decide the state was better suited to educate our children
than we are as parents?
Why do we hand our kids over to the state and allow them to determine
what they ultimately learn?
What education is?
Are we really that stupid? We used to afraid of Communism.
The
one thing that always gets me is how silly things are with spending for
education in our state. The public education system is a starving beast
that never seems to have enough, no matter how much we throw at it. At
every turn in the road, the beast wants more:
Opinion:
Cut fat at top; get involved at bottom
Sunday, March 18, 2007
MANY
REASONS NOT TO SUPPORT NEW LEVY
Every time I read about the idea of a new levy on the ballot for
the Cincinnati Public Schools I just cringe. You asked for my thoughts,
and here they are. Don't put a new school levy on the ballot, and
do something smart with the money you already receive from the taxpayers,
like hiring experienced business professionals to manage the books.
Here's the list of reasons I feel justify my attitude:
Cincinnati Public Schools
are giving up $40 million during the next four years to get
$54 million a generation from now - partly to help out Hamilton
County and its attempt to stave off a stadium deficit.
The "gift" mentioned above is supposed to return meager
interest over 10 years, though if the schools have that money to
"invest," why not invest it in a more reliable, higher-yielding
investment ... maybe coins? Why not invest it in teaching kids how
to learn and in how to enjoy learning? It's a pity only 70 percent
of our seniors can pass the Ohio Graduation Test.
A day after Cincinnati Public Schools lopped 13 schools from its
$1 billion construction plan, some school supporters say the district
should do immediate damage control to avoid losing more families
who are unhappy with the changes.
Every day I drive by Kilgour Elementary School and see it is under
construction and wonder why this is so when it seems all the students
from Hyde Park and Kilgour seem to be doing just fine in one building
at the corner of Edwards and Observatory.
I also wonder why if we have so many commercial buildings sitting
empty, why we don't use these as schools instead and spend the billion
in construction money on educating kids?
In a 1997 landmark case called DeRolph vs. State of Ohio, the Ohio
Supreme Court ruled the state's school funding system unconstitutional
and ordered the General Assembly to find a solution within a year
and amend the process. It's still unconstitutional in 2007. Why
is that?
I pay what amounts to a private school's tuition for a year in property
taxes in the city of Cincinnati. I home-school my student. Where
does the money for what would be earmarked for my student and many
others who home school in the CPS district go?
Call me crazy, but these items just don't make sense to me as a
taxpayer that doesn't even use what they are paying for. [read
on ] |
What
if we all got together in the state of Ohio and wrote laws for public
education simialr to what they wrote in Utah regarding homeschools:
The
Best Homeschool Laws in the USA are the ones in Utah.
Senate
Bill 59: Homeschool Freedom Bill, passed both houses of the Utah
legislature unanimously early in 2005. and the governor signed it
into law on March 18, 2005.
The bill provides that a school-age minor shall be excused from
attendance upon the filing of an affidavit by the parent stating
that the child will be homeschooled. This bill makes it clear that
a parent is in charge of the child's education. It states that
-
The parent is solely responsible for the selection of instructional
materials and textbooks, though the required subjects must be
taught.
-
The
parent is solely responsible for the time, place, and method
of instruction, though a child must be taught "for the
same length of time as minors are required to receive instruction
in public schools."
-
A
school board may not require a parent to keep records of instruction
or attendance.
-
A
school board may not require credentials for individuals homeschooling
their children.
-
A
school board may not inspect homeschool facilities.
-
A
school board may not require standardized or other testing of
homeschool students.
|
Why
is it the responsibilty of the state to educate it's citizens anyway?
Why did we give our power as parents away?
The solution to education in Ohio might take on these ideas:
- Encourage
parents NOT to relinquish their natural roles as educators.
- Put
parents in charge of a child's education. Hold them accountable for
their kids successes and failures in the schools. Reward them
with tax breaks when they remain in control of their kid's education.
- Fund
schools in parternship with parents and require a tuition structure
based on number of kids per family actually using the public schools
and impose a property tax, on not just the house, but all the toys,
on those same familes. Accountabilty in the schools would improve immensely,
I am sure of it.
Teach Your Children Well: Personal Finance
Recenly I received a not from Bank of America that they
were going to charge me $1.50 a month if I did not carry a balance on
my credit card. This to a customer who
- Pays
their balance off every month.
- They
gave a $38,000.00 credit line to.
- Only
got the card to get free shipping from LLBean.
As
one might imagine, I played the came and wrote a letter in response to
reject the finance charge notice, as I was only able to reject the charge
by writing a letter and sending it to a specific address, clearly spelled
out in the smallest of print in a paragraph buried in this charming letter
to their customer.
Then
I canceled the card. In writing of course.
There are
only so many things one can write to a Congressman about....
Credit
cards: they really are out to get you.
Consumer Reports
Publication Date: 01-NOV-05
Ruth
Owens' troubles began when she stopped using her Discover card.
The Cleveland woman, who was on Social Security disability, had
just passed her $1,900 balance limit.
Over the next six years, she made $3,492 in payments but never reduced
her debt. Discover charged fees and finance charges that used up
all her payments and ballooned her balance to $5,564. In 2003, the
card company sued Owens, asserting that she breached the card contract
by failing to make minimum monthly payments. "After paying
my monthly utilities there is no money left," Owens pleaded
in court papers. "If my situation was different, I would pay."
Cleveland municipal court judge Robert Triozzi ruled that Owens
had paid enough, declaring that she had been prey to "the plaintiff's
unreasonable, unconscionable, and unjust business practices."
Getting trapped in the jaws of credit-card debt has become alarmingly
easy. |
CONSUMER
REPORTS INVESTIGATION FINDS SOME CREDIT CARD ISSUERS PREDATORY
How to Fight Back; the 10 Most Consumer-Friendly Credit Cards
YONKERS, NY – Thanks to cozy relationships that have developed
over the years among lawmakers, federal regulators, and credit
card issuers, getting trapped in the jaws of credit card debt
has become alarmingly easy. A Consumer Reports investigation in
the November 2005 issue of the magazine finds that credit cards
have become much more treacherous for consumers. The investigation
reveals that credit card issuers have imposed interest rates in
excess of 30 percent on consumers whose only offense might be
a late payment to another creditor. The report also exposes other
practices by issuers of credit cards that pose hazards for consumers,
including:
-
Battered card holders with fees and penalties that now often
hit $39.
-
Reduced grace periods when new purchases are free of interest.
-
Lobbied successfully to weaken protections for cardholders.
-
Increased fees for tardiness and for going over the credit limit.
-
Reduced minimum payments, thereby increasing the debt.
|
CardWeb.com,
Inc.® is a leading online publisher of information pertaining
to all types of payment cards, including, but not limited to, credit
cards, debit cards, smart cards, prepaid cards, ATM cards, loyalty
cards and phone cards. The firm uniquely serves all constituencies
connected to the payment card business: consumers, institutions,
merchants, acquirers, processors, manufacturers, consultants, news
reporters and many others. The company is renowned for its independence,
credibility and fairness.
|
How
to win at credit cards
-
Choose well.
Hunt for cards with consumer-friendly policies. Also consider
cards issued by credit unions. A July 2005 study by the Woodstock
Institute, a nonprofit economic development policy group, found
that cards issued by credit unions had much lower fees and penalty
APRs. To find a credit union for which you might be eligible,
visit the Credit Union National Association Web site at www.creditunion.coop
or call 800-358-5710.
-
Scope out the offer.
Scan the Schumer box, named for Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.,
who sponsored a law mandating disclosure of all rates in a type
size that customers can read. Pay attention to notices
you receive from your card issuer. If you use your
card after receiving them, you may be tacitly agreeing to new
terms, even if you claim you never saw the notice.
-
Negotiate better terms.
If your card issuer hits you with a late fee or a rate hike,
ask for a waiver. The better your credit score, the more leverage
you have, says Scott Bilker, author of “Talk Your Way
Out of Credit Card Debt.” “Even if your score is
a little below average, you’re still going to spend money
and they would rather have it be on their card than a competitor’s,”
he says. If you can’t get a better deal now, you can improve
your credit score over time by making on-time payments and by
not increasing your balance. You can ask for a lower rate later.
-
Pay on time.
Mail your payment as soon as you receive your bill or set up
direct online payment arrangements with each card issuer, suggests
Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com. “Even when
you’re paying electronically,” he says, “some
issuers may take two or three days to post payment to your account,
so it’s wise to go online to authorize your payment at
least that far in advance of the due date to play it safe.”
-
Complain.
First register a complaint with your state attorney general.
(Contact information is available at www.naag.org .) Also lodge
a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
at www.occ.gov or 800-613-6743. If the OCC doesn’t regulate
the card issuer, it will help you find the agency that does.
|
See
you next Month -- OldSage |
|