Education: Funding/Entitlements
From the transcript from today's NOW With Bill Moyers on PBS. David Brancaccio is the interviewer and Marc Boyd is the principal of Maple Avenue Elementary School in Goffstown, NH.
BRANCACCIO: Why would an educator have a beef with the President? He has this major initiative. It's called No Child Left Behind. This major education reform. And heaven knows we need some education reform in this country. I think you would agree. Why such a high priority on the switch at the top.
BOYD: Did you see the movie JERRY MAGUIRE?
BRANCACCIO: I sure did.
BOYD: And the famous line. "Show me the Money." You know the President has come out with a tremendous, you know, education reform movement in his mind, No Child Left Behind. But we don't have the funds to support it. It's like you giving me a winning Powerball ticket.
And I'm in New Hampshire. And you say, "You have to get to New York City within four and a half hours." And you give me seven dollars for gas. And I'm gonna get to Connecticut and I'm gonna be two hours away and I have no way to get to New York City.
BRANCACCIO: So in this extended metaphor, you're being offered perhaps some support. But the journey to get that support is pretty arduous.
BOYD: We're being given a challenge. This is what we have to do. We're not getting the resources to adequately meet the challenge. And it's weighing hard on education and on educators.
BRANCACCIO: Somebody told me this once, on a long ago visit to New Hampshire, but I'd forgotten it until today. It is not required for public officials to fund kindergarten in New Hampshire? I thought that's a national rule or something?
BOYD: It's a sad commentary on New Hampshire. We are limited.
BRANCACCIO: Do you have kindergarten here in Goffstown?
BOYD: No, we don't.
BRANCACCIO: There's no public kindergarten.
BOYD: We're working real hard for it. We have a warrant article on this budget where we hope to pass a public kindergarten.
BRANCACCIO: Have you tried this before?
BOYD: Yes, we have.
BRANCACCIO: What happened?
BOYD: Last year we lost it by 15 votes.
BRANCACCIO: Let me get this straight. So you here at Maple Avenue Elementary School, when you get your first class in through here, you get first graders who may never have been to school before?
BOYD: There's 17 school districts in the whole country that have no public kindergarten.
BRANCACCIO: And they're all in what state?
BOYD: New Hampshire. It's finances. Again, it comes back to the property tax. I mean how much can a citizen in Goffstown or the other 17 communities pay, you know, afford to pay.
Matt's Chat
Since when is it mandated that the federal government pay for education? What is the STATE'S responsibility? Something you need to know about New Hampshire is that their state motto, "Live Free or Die," translates into zero income tax and zero sales tax. Now what that tells me is that New Hampshire has PLENTY of resources that they can enact to solve their education funding problems. If they choose not to do so, as it appears they have, that isn't President Bush's problem, that's just living free and dying.Mark's Remarks
Look, we do not want total federal funding or control of education. Then, we would get another huge bureaucracy and we would not allow individuality for curricula by state. It is the states' duty to fund their education programs. The NCLB act did set up funds, and they are being increased. Perhaps if educators quit engaging in whining and work with what they have, and endeavor and be creative, they could rise to the challenge. I fail to see what throwing money at the system will do, as an educator myself. If we did not spend so extravagantly on athletic fields and pretty buildings with cupolas, then we could perhaps get things done. Instead, school boards choose legacy projects instead of what works best for kids. That is the problem, not the NCLB.
This was Mark, thanks for reading.
