From: elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green)
Date: 5 Sep 92 09:48:19 CDT
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections,misc.education
Subject: Re: AFT
Distribution: world
Organization: Eric's Amiga 2000 @ Home

From article <1730@aviary.Stars.Reston.Unisys.COM>, by munck@stars.reston.unisys.com (Robert G. Munck):
> In article <00715478715@elgamy.sccsi.com>, elg@elgamy.sccsi.com (Eric Lee Green) writes:
>> ...  if central office
>> staff actually worked for a living.
>
> Question:
>
> When I went to high school -- early '60s, Philadelphia suburbs -- we
> had a Principal, a Vice-P, two useless Guidance Counselors, a front-
> office staff of about four, a handful of cooks and janitors, and
> the teachers.  Above the school level, there was a Superintendent
> of Schools, a Vice-S, and two clerks; they handled the HS, two
> junior highs, and five grammar schools.  The teacher/non-teacher
> ratio was about 10/1.
>
> My understanding is that that ratio is now around 1/1 almost
> everywhere.  Is that true?

No.

However, the ratio is probably lower than it was in your days. That exact
same school district is now required to have at least one
psycho-educational evaluator (federal law), at least one speech
evaluator/therapist (federal law), someone to handle Chapter One and school
lunch paperwork (not federal law, but SOMEONE has to do the paperwork), an
attendence officer (generally required by state law, to verify attendence
and chase down parents of truant kids), a purchasing officer (one of
your clerks, I guess) to comply with state-mandated bid laws, ....

Some of this can be contracted out (such as the evaluations and speech
therapy). In fact, I know a lady who makes a very good living traveling
between several rural school districts and doing evaluations on a contract
basis. Others can't. All results in more overhead.

One more thing: most school districts are finally getting the message about
middle managers. Here at Houston I.S.D., the fourth-largest school district
in the country, we spend around $3,900 per-pupil per year -- but put more
money into the classroom than most other Houston-area school districts,
which average around $4,300 per-pupil. The reason: our new superintendent
fired the vast majority of supervisors and middle managers (or reassigned
them to the classroom, same basic thing). Supervision is now a
responsibility of the building principal. All building principals have been
required to improve their schools over the next four years, and have been
required to draw up a detailed plan showing how and what they are going to
do. Those who don't will be removed from their positions. Those schools
whose test scores don't improve will be taken over by the district, and
their staff replaced. Last time a more local control of schools was tried
in H.I.S.D., supervision collapsed. This time, principals have more
motivation to get out there and make sure that their teachers are teaching,
because the ball has been placed squarely into their laps.

--
 Eric Lee Green  elg@elgamy.sccsi.com         Dodson Elementary
 (713) 437-6908  uunet!nuchat!elgamy!elg      Houston, TX
                "Kids are kids, no matter what"
From: Tom.Cavender@iphase.UUCP (Tom Cavender)
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