In the Gospels according to Mark chapter 12 verse 17 and according to Matthew
chapter 22 verse 21 and according to Luke chapter 20 verse 25 we have And Jesus
answering said unto them, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God
the things that are God's. Whether what is being rendered is too much or poorly
reallocated we leave to others to comment on. We are currently more interested in
the who aspect - more specifically, who is responsible for a school district. At the
lowest political levels responsibility in fact and in law rests with the teachers, the
parents, the students and the school board. Accordingly, it is very disappointing to
hear that many parents declined to send their children to a school for a day in protest
of a teacher's actions. Likewise, we are troubled when school boards and teachers
announce that they have reached an impasse in negotiations. Perhaps if the
disagreements were over how to best improve already glittering geometry scores we
would be sympathetic. Instead, what we have are earnest arguments about whether
the outcome of the efforts by parents, teachers and students merits a D- or an F+.
After having read through more than 10,000 (and counting) SARCs we are obliged to
point out that given America's and California's results, we can be described as
grading "on the curve". We'd just love to say that using a single score by subject and
year to characterize all the hundred of students at that school is statistical arrogance
of the first degree. Unfortunately, while individual students may be lighting up their
personal scoreboards, it is valid to say scores are generally dismal in all subjects. We
expect significant declines if busloads of teachers are fired over the next two years.
With a few exceptions, school districts are broke or breaking. Most counties have
troubles of their own. Last we looked, four states claim to have balanced budgets.
Everywhere else, the question is not if education funding will be cut, but by how
much. Unless there is an amazing surge in lottery sales or casino contributions school
districts are on their own. The problem with those tactics or 'sugar candy' schemes to
charge more for parking tickets is that no new wealth is created - the same old money
is just being moved from one cell on a spreadsheet to another.
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