A courteously composed letter to the Oregonian from Rex Hagans, the founder of Save our Schools, poses (and answers...sort of) five questions under a headline about "sweeping reform."
The "sweeping" that takes place in the state's education bureaucracy is a verb, not an adjective, and describes the act of relocating inconvenient truths "under the rug."
All five of Mr. Hagans' questions highlight but do not address the curious disparity of effectiveness between public elementary schools and public high schools. All five questions have one answer:
Greed.
In public elementary schools, a) teachers have the same jobs, b) the principal was almost always a teacher before and c) aggressive parents are not yet bullying or bribing school staffs to demonstrate that their children are superior.
Ergo, those public schools work for all children.
Little that describes elementary schools holds true for public high schools as I have experienced them.
They are hijacked by status seekers and social climbers and the wrong kinds of teachers and kids get disproportionate attention and opportunities. Administrators who cannot be fired have no incentive to perform capably or honestly as long as they are able to meet the needs of a few influential people. In Beaverton, that influence extends (through "specialty" lawyers paid with education money) to state agencies and courts: www.statesponsoredtheft.blogspot.com
The fact that one member of the Governor's ballyhooed OEIB, Hanna Vaandering, originates in a public school district--Beaverton--that has created vast inequities in opportunities for kids and teachers while propagating crops of PERS millionaires is evidence that there is much work ahead for the 99%. Ms. Vaandering is nice enough in person and I'm sure she taught some great gym classes in the Beaverton elementary schools in her day, but she is obviously on the fast-track in a union with a questionable history of public service (what is it about B'ton employees and union leadership, anyway?) that should make us all very suspicious.
My personal experience is, when she was president of the Beaverton Education Association, she acted intentionally in a way that concealed misconduct by Beaverton administrators and lawyers. She should be in legal trouble (she meddled in a federal lawsuit in the court of Judge Robert E. Jones) instead of ensconced on a state board, buttressing credentials she hasn't earned.
Mr. Hagan's genteel academic approach is well and good, but needed reform will require heat and light. Until we (and THEY) know that public school administrators can and will be held accountable for the activities that are making them wealthy in failing public schools, all the rhetoric about reform is smokescreen mendacity.
Oh, and I would like my career back. It was taken improperly by the TSPC director, Vickie Chamberlain, who harassed me while my mother was dying in support of her friends in the BSD administration, one of whom hired her.
