[Vision2020] Idaho Public Schools 15-year Trends

[Jacob Spencer]

Mr. Arnold, et at.,

In your e-mail, you present a false dilemma.  Raise money for education
or you are selfish and lazy.  You assume that Mr. Courtney's desire is
to hurt the children of Idaho.  How if it is another way?  What if Mr.
Courtney believes that the current system is hurting the children of
Idaho, and something else needs to be done about it?  How if he has come
up with another way to become active in helping educate and teach, a way
that does not use methods that have failed time and again?  What if he
proposes to become actively involved in teaching a specific child to
read, not just being content that feeding money into a failed system
will perform miracles?  What if Mr. Courtney is, instead of being
demon-worshiping selfish and lazy, determined to find better ways to
truly help children?  Would you listen to him and find out?  Or do you
not know that there is wealth that is not money?

Regards,
Jacob Spencer

>>> "Donovan Arnold" <donovanarnold@hotmail.com> 05/08/03 01:52AM >>>
Visioneers,

Thinking that if we strip our schools of teachers won't effect the
quality 
of the education a child is receiving is just fooling oneself so they
can 
sleep at night instead of realizing that they are screwing children out
of 
an education that the generation before them worked and slaved over to
give 
them when they were children in the public school system.

Would it not be great if people thought, "How can I selflessly help my

community" Rather then "How can I come up a with a graph, chart, or 
statistic I can use to justify my lack of sacrificing for others and
spend 
more time, energy, and wealth, on myself"

Donovan Arnold


>From: "Dale Courtney" <dale@courtneys.us>
>To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: [Vision2020] IdahoáPublicáSchoolsá15-yearáTrends
>Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 20:11:15 -0700
>
>Jessica Lipschultz wrote:
>
> > The Winter 2003 Idaho Reading Indicator test results reveal
> > that 29% of third-grade students in the Moscow School
> > District and 38% of third-grade students in the state read
> > below grade level.
>
>David, Jessica, Matt, and Natalie:
>I applaud your desire to better the state of reading for our
children.
>
> > We are in the midst of a crisis. A concerned group of
> > students at the University of Idaho has decided to take
> > action. We refuse to stand by idly when children are lost
> > every day because our elected representatives have not made
> > education a priority.
>
>At this point, I was hoping that you all would say that you were going
to
>volunteer your time in the classrooms; that you were going to "adopt"
a
>child to help him/her read better; that you were going to become a 
>teacher's
>aid.
>
> > Over 600 students, staff, and faculty
> > have signed postcards to Governor Kempthorne, Representative
> > Trail, Representative Ringo, and Senator Schroeder. We are
> > tired of hearing empty promises. Please join your voice with
> > ours and demand that more funds be allocated for education.
>
>I would remind you that throwing money at the problem has done nothing
to
>solve the problem. In fact, there is an inverse relationship between
>inflation-adjusted spending and test scores (see the chart below for
the
>state of Idaho).  If you really think that increased funding is the
driver,
>then logically you would call for decreased funding (since increasing
the
>funding has only driven down test scores).
>
>Your solution to the problem is exacerbated in Moscow, where the
number of
>children in school has been decreasing precipitously  (420 students in
7
>years; a 15.4% decrease in the number of students). In Moscow, the
teacher
>to student ratio continues to climb; the funding continues to
increase;  
>yet
>the test scores continue to decline.
>
>If you really care, and if you really want to help the children learn
to
>read, then throwing money at the problem will not fix the problem. You
need
>to think out of the box and try something completely different.
Throwing
>money at a failed model will not fix the problem.
>
>Best,
>Dale Courtney
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>  Idaho Public Schools 15-Year Trends
><http://courtney.dns2go.com/msd/Trends_files/Roberts1_15189_image001.gif>

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