From: MEDELMA@cms.cc.wayne.edu (Michael Edelman)
Subject: Re: Educational Spending
Organization: Wayne State University, C&IT
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 13:44:23 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.215738.27113@dale.ksc.nasa.gov>
sdavis@laforge.ksc.nasa.gov (Steve Davis) writes:
      [...]
>
>  This goes back to an age-old educational question:  When your tax dollars go
>into the school system, what do you gain?  The two typical answers are:
>
>        (a)  Your children receive an education.
>        (b)  You enjoy the benefits of living in an educated society.
>
>Obviously, both answers are correct.  But the interests of (b) are not served
>by simply throwing out the discipline cases.
>
>Regards,
>
>Steve
>--
So it's preferable to keep the discipline cases in school, where they help
provide a more equalitarian society by making sure *no one* learns
anything? Yep, sounds reasonable.
 
I think my previous posting notes that there are private schools that
prosper by providing specialized curricula. Just as there are schools
that specialize in teaching overacheivers, there are those that serve
children with learning disabilities, with special physical needs, with
behavior problems and so forth. And they do it far better, in general,
than do the public schools.
 
Public schools are basically controlled by organizations with a rather
devious and misleading set of priorities: They're unions looking out
for the welfare of the teachers masquerading as organizations looking
out for the interests of the students. Now I'm sure a dozen teachers
will attack me and say that the welfare of the students is their number
one concern, but that's not really true. No matter how concerned you are,
your own family comes first. That's as it should be.
 
But we've let the foxes take charge of the henhouse. Education is, contrary
to uninformed claims herein, a very lucrative profession for what is
becoming a not-very-well-educated workforce. There are still a number of
education schools with solid programs and standards, but they're becoming the
exception, I'm sorry to say. It's well known that there are scores of EdD
programs, including one at Michigan's post prestigious state school, that
can be gotten by part time students for very little work. Read Rita Kramer's
"Ed School Follies" for some tragically humorous insight into this.
 
But as state K-12 schools are run in the interests of the teachers and not
the students it's pretty much assured that this trend will continue. No one
is going to upset this cart.
 
Those of you who have taught in state and private universities and colleges
no doubt have noticed there's a huge gulf in the expectations and performance
between the students at these different schools. You can't put it down
to behavior problems in the classrooms; I don't think I ever had a student
throwing paper wads in a college class. You can't even necessarily say it's
the quality of teacher education, as professors and grad assistants don't
get any instruction in teaching technique. It's partly expectations made
of the students, and partially the difference in priorities.
 
Students at private schools seem to be much more academically competitive.
It's encouraged, and it leads to a culture of excellence and status based
on academic performance- which is what they're there for. The same is true
in K-12. Public K-12 teachers and administrators are fond of talking
about cooperation and non-competitveness, which is really a way of excusing
the abscence of academic excellence.
 
As for priorities: State schools are funded based on how many students they
can move through classes. Performance is irrelevant. Education is irrelevant.
Body count is the thing. But tuition at private schools generally doesn't
cover the actual costs of operation any more than does tuition at public
schools. They need to graduate sucessful students who will in turn later
contribute to their school and endow it. Performance is stressed, not
quantity. Private schools that neglect performace don't survive.
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 Michael Joseph Edelman           Wayne State University
 medelma@cms.cc.wayne.edu         Computing & Information Technology
 mje@pookie.pass.wayne.edu        Detroit, Michigan
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