Letters you can use to make things work
Right!
<Your Name>
<Address>
<City, State, zip>
RE : Making Schools Work Right
State Legislator
Your State Legislature Capital,
State, Zip
Greetings Representative Bozo,
I would like to suggest that the legislature pass a School
Site Council law to guide the decentralizing of our public school bureaucracy
so our Education Social MarketPlace
becomes more responsive to the diverse needs of our productive
society:
School Site Council -- Basics
-
The Residents in any public school district of more than one school
may petition the school district board to have a "Site
Council" to oversee the operation of their local public school.
-
The lesser of 20% or 100 parents of students in the school
must sign the petition.
-
The School District Board may accept the petition
or choose to put the petition up to a public vote in the next election on
whether or not that particular school or any other district school may have
its own Site Council.
-
Site Council representation shall be comprised of residents and/or teachers
of that particular local school district. Meetings shall be
open to the public with timely notification going out to all parents
of kids attending that school.
-
Site Council by-laws may be determined by the petitioners or a District
may offer a standard set of Site Council by-laws. By-laws may be
amended by a 60% majority the Site Council or by petition with 60% approval
in public vote.
-
A
"Public Charter
School" shall be considered to be
one where the majority of the Site Council representation is made up
of private citizens who are not employees or representatives of employees
of a public school district.
-
Public Charter Schools are eligible for public funding of some or all of
its operations, including but not limited to publicly issued
school vouchers for attendees.
-
A Public Charter Site Council(s) may petition to enter, switch, or form a
School District with a 60% public vote.
-
An existing private (Charter) School Site Council (or its equivalent) may
petition to become a Public Charter School if its bylaws are approved
by a 60% of local voters or by the Public District Board.
-
An existing Public Charter School Site Council may petition the District
and/or voters to become a private (Charter) School. Unless waived in whole
are part by a majority of the district board and/or voters, fiscally sound
arrangements must be provided to either lease or retire outstanding
debts owed on publicly funded capital improvements provided to that school
site.
-
Each Public School Site Council shall elect a
voting representative to the District School Board. Private School Site Councils
may send a non-voting representative to sit on the District School Board.
The District Board may allow them to vote.
-
The Site Council shall oversee operations of one
particular school as well as coordinate operations and curriculums with District
School Board.
|
Above is described one of many ways to define a
diverse and vibrant social
marketplace for education. As noted below, this system
allows for public schools to continue to be operated by the centralized status
quo, or by local site councils of teachers, or by local site councils of
parents and teachers, or by local site councils most made up of parents,
or by whatever education system evolves to work best for the residents and
parents of that area. Note how there are provisions to allow reasonable
migration of students and schools within the defined education social
marketplace. Additionally, there are means to promote interaction and
coordination of efforts between the various educational alternatives. It
should also be noted that a new schools can be added into this educational
social marketplace by a variety of means rather than the current system where
each new public school causes the district to become more centralized and
more remote from the needs of individual students, teachers and schools.
The Educational Social
MarketPlace |
Local Public District |
Elementary |
Middle School |
Elementary |
 Students
& Schools (as
desired)
Local Mixed Public District |
Elementary |
Middle School |
Charter Elementary |
Students
& Schools (as
desired)
| Local Charter District |
Charter Elementary |
Charter Middle School |
Charter Elementary |
|
Students
&
Schools
 |
Mixed Big Public
District |
Elementary |
Elementary |
Charter Elementary |
Elementary |
Middle School |
Charter Middle School |
High School & Charter High School |
Students
(& rarely
schools)
|
Students
(& rarely
schools)
Local Private District |
Private Elementary |
Private Middle School |
Private Elementary |
|
Students
& Schools
|
Big Private
District |
Elementary |
Elementary |
Middle School |
High School |
|
At the core of the above
education social marketplace is the
Site Council. The Site Council is a governing body for any school that
wants one. It determines how that school operates and how it interacts
with other schools in the education system in a democratic system that is
reasonably sensitive to the needs and desires of local residents.
In other words, if 100 parents of kids in MyKidSchool
sign a petition to set up a Site Council for MyKidsSchool, then MyKidsSchool
can set up its own site council with its own variation of bylaws.
Depending upon the configuration of the Site Council membership, a
public school can become a Charter School with some additional independence
from the District. If the parents are happy to continue to delegate
their schools governing responsibility to BigDistrict's School Board, fine,
so be it. There are also provisions for Charter Schools to fairly move
around the publicly funded educational system which will promote School District
administration to become sensitive to local needs.
Under the current centralized school district board governing
system, the operation of BigDistrict is typically controlled by the BigDistrict's
School Board in a system that promotes increased centralization of authority.
There might be five school board members governing 20 or more schools
with new public schools being added every year or two. As each new
public school is added, the school district just becomes more and more remote
to what is going on at any particular school. There is a only
a one in four chance that any member of the BigDistrict School Board will
know anything at all about what is going on at MyKidsSchool. It should
be readily apparent that BigDistrict's School Board is too far removed
from the unique issues and needs of MyKidsSchool. Instead, BigDistrict's
Board defers the details of operation to a well intentioned (but frequently
self selfserving) educational bureaucracy with more than a dash of meddling
by state and federal government. It should be apparent that our failing
public school system is a direct result of this incremental centralization
of authority and power away from local needs and participation.
Many of the problems in public education would be on the road
to correction if MyKidsSchool had the option of being part
of a dynamic and flexible education sytem. If parents want more input
and control in MyKidsSchool, they could get it via a Site Council. With
MyKidsSchool Site Council one has a school that is fully engaged with the
details of what is going on in MyKidSchool. Areas where parents feel
their public schools are doing OK can keep it that way. Indeed, BigDistrict
might have some schools under BigDistrict's School Board control with some
schools in BigDistrict with their own Site Council. Parent's may choose
to divide a large burdensome school district into smaller more responsive
districts or perhaps to create or align themselves with other neighboring
districts that are more sensitive to their local needs. It would be
up to the parents and residents (not BigDistrict bureaucrats) to choose.
From the political perspective, there are many ways to
successfully counter the arguments that would attempt to keep the centralized
status quo. For example, there is nothing new to local Site Councils,
they already exist throughout the world. Search the WWW under School
Site Council for examples. A local Site Council would not necessarily
change teacher union contracts with school districts. Parents who are
happy with their existing public schools can work to keep their public schools
the way they are, if that is the public will. Those areas that want
more local control and diversity would have that option in a vibrant and
diverse Educational Social MarketPlace.
It is time that we allow our public schools the opportunity
to evolve into a dynamic and productive social
marketplace for education. The modest changes proposed above can
help save failing schools without requiring those that are successful to
change unless that is desired by the parents and taxpayers who are funding
these education systems. At the very least, debate on educational reforms
that promote our schools to naturally
evolve out of their problems and to work right for all involved should be
offered over the one size fits all mentality that dominates our current system
of education.
Sincerely Yours,
Bubba Firball
