D-60 Schools Closing?

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And, in Sunday's Paper, in the ideas section was yet another plea from the Pueblo School District Boardmember Phylis Sanchez . . .

Let me quote

"There has been a lot of talk lately about what Pueblo City Schools should or shouldn't be doing to improve student achievement. Unfortunately, along with this dialogue has been a fair amount of finger-pointing.
Casting blame is not productive to student learning. Getting involved in the solution is."

Lessee if I can understand this now. We are continually throwing money at a problem that continues to get worse by the million. (dollars, that is) Yet there is no one or thing to blame?

Trouble shooting, whether it's on an engine that won't run or an educational system that doesn't work, requires "Finding the Fault". Without diagnosing the problem and eliminating it, you won't fix the problem. Yet, after another squandering of $8 million, we find ourselves deeper in the hole . . And the School Board President says "Don't assign Blame" . . Huh?

Could it be that there are far too many cooks making the stew now? With counterproductive recipes? How about going back to the fundamental idea of giving a third grader a third grade education and making sure he/she has that much education before passing them on up the line to people who can teach them if they can only READ.

Henson's Interviewee in his column a couple of Sundays ago said it, My mother, an Elementary School Teacher for 30 years said the same thing, for most of those 30 years . . Many retired elementary teachers will say the same, almost verbatium. Who is talking OVER those experienced teachers and giving out this expensive advice that isn't working?

Sure as Hell isn't the parents . .

[Loren Swelk]

District 60 has lost over 500 students to District 70 in the last 2 years and at over $6,600 per student that amounts to over $3.5 million dollars in lost per pupil revenue. Now the Chieftain reports a huge upgrade in technology, including e-textbooks, while Pueblo City Schools is run by a bunch of Colorado Springs administrators who feel technology is far down the list of things needed for success, the first of course being consultants and outside experts.

http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/d-to-trade-dells-for-apples/article_9df0faf0-7e15-11e1-aa2d-0019bb2963f4.html

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The beauty of hiring consultants and outside experts is that you always have someone else to blame for the failures.

And the consultants and outside experts don't care because they get paid, results or not . .

And if they guarantee results, they just hand you a design that will cost so much it can't be done and tell you, "You didn't implement the plan like we told you to do, so it's not our problem" . . . Guarantee's off . . .

And the money's gone!