Schools-planks-Rauterkus

==Schools matter in our public landscape.==
Pittsburgh's future depends upon a viable, free public education that provides inspired opportunities for all. When the schools fail, we have a series of problems. 
* Students are not prepared for life as productive citizens.
* Families see the failures in the schools and move away.
* The social network among the citizens, parents, community, teachers and wide community evaporates.
* The burdens for fixing the schools drive out more as taxes skyrocket.
We must strengthen our public schools. Great public schools should be the prime choice for most parents. We need high standards and accountability not only for our students, but also for our educators. 
===Student performance is directly correlated to quality teachers.===
We need a strong program for recruiting, supporting, and keeping talent in our schools. Too many teachers quit early or forego the profession altogether. 
===Parents should have a choice in where their children are educated.===
Pittsburgh Public Schools have magnet schools, thankfully. 
===Diversity of schools types and situations.===
School vouchers and charter schools are not as evil as some would promote. Spite and hateful grandstanding heaped upon these topics has kept a generation of children stuck in their situations. We can't toss out public schools. However, we can allow for more flexibility and ongoing evolution. Just as our children are different so too can be our schools. I don't want all of the schools to be of the same mold, the same type and cookie-cutter institutions. 
In the city, we were fortunate to have South Vo Tech. The school closed its doors in June 2004, against my wishes. South worked for the students who choose to go to South. The kids and their families felt at home at South as it was much unlike other city high schools. 
We need to have strong, viable Vo Tech educational programs in our public schools. Pittsburgh Public Schools is failing in this area now that South Vo Tech is closed as is Connelley Technical School. Neither of those schools were state-of-the-art. 
===School control should be localized.===
Many schools have been failing. Certain districts flounder while others thrive. The quality of education at Wilkinsburg or Sto-Rox isn't just. Many districts had been and are still in poor shape. These areas of decline are in such bad shape that they often can't pull themselves out of the ruts of dispair. Furthermore, the effectiveness of state support for intervention was mostly meaningless as well. It only made sense that the Federal Governement came into the educational world and started efforts such as No Child Left Behind. The areas with good schools were working hard with their own challenges and kept an internal focus on their own kids. Those with good schools did little to help others around the region in need. 
====In an ideal world, the Federal Government would have no business in our schools.====
School oversight should come from states, locals, families and other private institutions. However, since some districts and schools are such failures, we need to be open to Federal programs. However, if a district is doing a fine job in educating its students, then the Federal programs should cease. 
Under the U.S. Constitution, the Federal government has no legitimate power to legislate regarding education. The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution states: â€œThe powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people.â€? As such, there is no role for the federal government in education. It should withdraw completely and leave control to the parents and the local school districts.
Some government schools are hotbeds of violence and drug dealing; problems virtually non-existent in private education, which has local control. 
===Educational issues and solutions are often not about money. ===
Private schools perform better than public schools at about half the cost per student.
===Government control of what your children think or are taught is wrong.===
Freedom in the area of intellectual development and personal philosophy is fully as important as freedom of religion, and for the same reasons.
===Better teachers at worst situations.===
The best of the best in terms of teachers, principals, coaches and staffers need to be set loose in the floundering school settings. We need higher teacher salaries and motivations in the most pressing spots, and perhaps we'll need to have supplements from the federal level. 
=== Using the kids and the schools as a stepping stone happens frequently.===
Many of the current and past members of the Pittsburgh Public School board use their seat, power and influence to see other elected offices. 
: Valerie McDonald Roberts went from School Board Member to City Council to Row Office and then ran for Lt. Governor in 2006. 
: Barbara Burns was on the school board and then ran and won a seat on City Council.
==Statement About Our Schools from Mark Rauterkus==
* Schools-statement-Rauterkus from 2005
category:Planks Category:Platform Planks from Mark RauterkusCategory:Education category:schools