Paper #3 will discuss what idea, addition or chance to K-12 education will better deal with the problems of student behavior and success.
Thesis: So what is one thing that could be changed or added to help improve education.
In such a diverse and complex system of education, If ___ was Changed/Added it would help the overall success of students in K-12 education.
Budgeting, The school's budget and how they choose to spend the budget.
For any government funded organization Budgets are tight. The main problem I see for schools is how they choose to spend their budget. There are different budgets for different schools, but some also spend differently. For example I will compare two different schools. North Kitsap High school in Washington, and Coronado High school in Nevada. North Kitsap High School is located in Poulsbo, Washington with about 1,300 students. Coronado High school is located in Henderson, Nevada with about 3,500 students. The problem is how they choose to spend the budget, for both the district and the school level. Both schools have a problem with their spending budget. Coronado has a problem at the district level, North at a school level.
Coronado High school Is about1.5 Billion dollars in dept as of 2010. The teachers at the school are great, and they have a great diversity of classes. In the music/preforming arts department they have multiple band, orchestra, stings,choir, tech theater and theater classes. On the other end of the school is a full on automotive class. With 4 bays and 2 overhead lifts, along with things from air supply to emission removal ducts. The school, though has a lot of funds through the district's budget and some of the more wealthy parents of the school. The problem with the school is with how the district spend their money, They are 1.5 billion dollars in debt and digging. They haven't changed their budget to even slow the process.
North Kitsap high school district, as far as I know was just a little under the debt line.
The problem with the the school is how they choose to spend their budget.
It is well known in many jobs, the employee that has been working there longer, usually gets better pay then someone just joining.
North Kitsap High School, (unlike Coronado) realizes that they are in dept, so like anyone with a brain, they decided to fix the problem. The problem with the school is how they decide to cut their budget. The school has been recently firing the older, and more experienced teachers or "long term-substitutes" This allows them to hire the younger, cheaper teachers to fill these slots. Yes, just because a teacher has been there a while does not mean they are a good teacher. The selected teachers have been the best that the school has seen though. For example, At North there used to be a teacher called Mr.Saintcharol, Or Mr.S. He was a favorite teacher, and a mentor to many students. He really knew his subject of video production/flash animation and often brought in his own equipment for the class to use. The school on the other hand just saw a teacher who got paid a certain amount. So they fired him and took the next door photography, (who knew very little about the subject) and paid her what she made the year before to teach all three class's. This resulted in less photography, flash animation and video production classes. The students now receive a much lower amount of information from this class.
I understand that they have to reduce their spending to avoid the debt, but their are other ways in which to do so.
The first step would to stop excess spending. In the last two year North has purchases Four Flat screen TV's, and Two very large Doormat's for the entrance to the commons (with the school's logo). Two are posted high on a wall in the commons/lunch room. One is out side the main office, and the third is located in a small area in the technology building. The purpose of these are to put images from sport events and announcements. In reality they are hardly watched, except for some one who is bored out of their mind in the lunch room. If the TV's were put above the cafeteria doors ( on the wall to the left) they could have a practical use. The TV's would be able to show, not only the prices (you can't find out until at the register) but the menu. This would make it much easier for the students, along with the faculty having to change what is written on a small white board every day.
I know that the TV in the technology building is never looked at, even
during the passing period. The reason is because one day I decided to
reach up and turn the TV off. Until the very last week of school not a
single person decided to turn it back on.
One of the biggest ways the school could save money is though their lights. Normally any building will leave exterior lights on for security purposes. North (located in a very low crime rate town) keeps every light on, from the display board outside to the hallways/classrooms. Yes they also keep the TV's running. Their electricity bill would be substantially lower if they kept the non vital lights and TV's off.
This process has happened with teacher from all subjects. Now I understand that some will deem video production as valuable as some of the other subjects. This firing of teachers has also happened in the math department. So students don't learn as much as they would have if the previous teacher was there. Math, which Jamie Escalate in the movie Stand and Deliver Was called "The great Equalizer" is going to be what the students are now behind in.
Both of these schools Seem to have a problem with there budgets. What can they do?
If Clark County School district (Coronado's school district) Decided to at least slow the ever increasing rate of dept. They might be able to focus more on their students.
What could North do?
If the school reduced their spending On doormat's for doors that don't lead outside, Poorly utilized TV's and thousands on electricity. Then they would have more funds available for quality
teachers. So the students could learn more, and not only do better the tests, but prepare them better for life
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