Every change both eliminates jobs and creates others. Change is unsettling, often painful, but it is the fuel of renewal. The plan calls for more textbooks, class size reduction and paying teachers equivalent with other professionals. Students will be tested continually to assure they are learning the necessary skills, especially in reading. Every child will read at grade level, or we will provide extra help until they do.
Special consideration needs to be given to the progress of our ethnic minority students.
We are losing too many of them. Like our forefathers, these are able children who come here with their families seeking peace, refuge and the American dream. We welcome them. Recently I visited a fourth grade class. I sat on the floor next to a group of students.