Someone remind me on this issue - were there 185 scheduled school days, but a school HAD to be in for at least 180 of 'em? And with Strickland they have to be in for at least 182?
Funny story from work today - woman was talking about how her kid came home and told her "Mommy, Governor Kasich finally did something right and is going to give us our snow days back." Then woman goes on tirade about how terrible Kasich has been. I interject that he hasn't even taken office yet and the woman looks at me dumbfounded and just says "Well, whatever, he's going to screw up!"
Gotta love the fact that she is allowed to vote, right? :)
I've been out of school for many years now, but I believe that 5 days is reasonable, not just for bad weather but in cases of unforeseen cancellations of school.... electrical problems, water problems, storm damage and the like. If I remember correctly, most states north of the Mason-Dixon Line have 5 calamity days built into the school year. Mr. Kasich seems to have something Mr. Strickland lacks.......common sense.
We are already falling behind other countries in the battle to educate our kids. Now Kasich wants to have them off more? Maybe all his old Lehman Bros. buddies want to protect their investments in China/India and make sure we don't close the education gap.
It appears that Mr. Kasich isn't going to be our education governor. Whatever happened to that logic that the world is changing, America is losing its competitive edge and American students are behind those in other countries...so reducing the amount of learning time (already too short because of the obsolete agrarian school calendar)is somehow going to do a "favor" to kids...no, I don't believe he's going to be the education governor. Suggestion: Take the average daily payroll of a school district and multiply it by five--surprise, tax payers' money right down the drain!
Folks, the topic is not if Kasich is an "education" person or not... it's about how many calamity days Ohio schools should get due to bad weather or unforeseen circumstances that would cause the cancellation of school. I believe that GST is correct, most northern states allow for 5 days. I would guess that places like MN, WI, the Dakotas, etc. MAY have less built into their school year, but those places get a LOT more snow than we do, and they are much better equipped for that type of weather. I have no problem with the school year being made longer, but this is the "north" and only allowing for 3 missed days is just really does not make that much sense. And to 12:00 am...I'm not a teacher, but I don't think it's money down the drain. True, some teacher are better than others, but 90% of them have 6+ years of college education, they must continue to take courses to keep their certificate, they put up with stuff from students and parents that most of us wouldn't, they spend a lot of time our of school doing school work and buying their own supplies. I believe that MOST teachers work very hard. Just my .02
I've heard our education problems described as a long-term national security risk and I don't think that's much of an exaggeration. We are losing the global battle to educate the next generation. If China, India, Japan, and Germany are getting it done and we are not, the scientists and mathmaticians who discover the next big thing--technologically, medically, militarily--will do so for the benefit of other countries.
Aside from that, the whole idea of free trade is that we have shipped unskilled jobs overseas so that we can advance economically by moving into a more skill-based, education-based market and prosper off the demand created in these emerging overseas markets. It's great economic theory but if we don't follow-through with getting our workforce in a position to be skilled and educated then all we have done is ship the manufacturing work to China and left our unskilled workforce to rot. You don't need to look any further than our local economy: If the kids of the people who worked at Corning and GM didn't get a better education than their parents, they're going to find that their parents' jobs are being done in China and their HS diploma no longer gets them lifelong employment at $20/hr with benefits and a pension.
Calamity days certainly don't solve this problem but it suggests that the governor-elect is thinking more about cutting state education expenses than making education a priority. We have to do a better job of educating kids when they get to school but not having them there at all is a step in the wrong direction.
Considering what Mr Kasich intends for Ohio public education, this is a non-event. His upcoming actions on school foundation funding, teacher's unions,and tenure (while certainly not all bad) will be much more interesting.
Well said, Jeff & Horace...the topic is calamity days, not Mr. Kasich's views on education. Always amazes me how people get so bent and off the headline topic!
12:16: Thought I might try to get people to look beyond the end of their nose and think about the big picture.
How bout this instead . . . "Give us back snow days? You betcha. They were OUR days to begin with before that big government liberal took them away. It's about time someone gave them back to us. We don't need none of that book learnin' anyway."
Someone remind me on this issue - were there 185 scheduled school days, but a school HAD to be in for at least 180 of 'em? And with Strickland they have to be in for at least 182?
ReplyDeleteFunny story from work today - woman was talking about how her kid came home and told her "Mommy, Governor Kasich finally did something right and is going to give us our snow days back." Then woman goes on tirade about how terrible Kasich has been. I interject that he hasn't even taken office yet and the woman looks at me dumbfounded and just says "Well, whatever, he's going to screw up!"
Gotta love the fact that she is allowed to vote, right? :)
Good move. This is Ohio and we have been having lots of snow in the past few years. I think 5 days is more close to what is needed.
ReplyDeleteI've been out of school for many years now, but I believe that 5 days is reasonable, not just for bad weather but in cases of unforeseen cancellations of school.... electrical problems, water problems, storm damage and the like. If I remember correctly, most states north of the Mason-Dixon Line have 5 calamity days built into the school year.
ReplyDeleteMr. Kasich seems to have something Mr. Strickland lacks.......common sense.
We are already falling behind other countries in the battle to educate our kids. Now Kasich wants to have them off more? Maybe all his old Lehman Bros. buddies want to protect their investments in China/India and make sure we don't close the education gap.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that Mr. Kasich isn't going to be our education governor. Whatever happened to that logic that the world is changing, America is losing its competitive edge and American students are behind those in other countries...so reducing the amount of learning time (already too short because of the obsolete agrarian school calendar)is somehow going to do a "favor" to kids...no, I don't believe he's going to be the education governor. Suggestion: Take the average daily payroll of a school district and multiply it by five--surprise, tax payers' money right down the drain!
ReplyDeleteFolks, the topic is not if Kasich is an "education" person or not... it's about how many calamity days Ohio schools should get due to bad weather or unforeseen circumstances that would cause the cancellation of school.
ReplyDeleteI believe that GST is correct, most northern states allow for 5 days. I would guess that places like MN, WI, the Dakotas, etc. MAY have less built into their school year, but those places get a LOT more snow than we do, and they are much better equipped for that type of weather.
I have no problem with the school year being made longer, but this is the "north" and only allowing for 3 missed days is just really does not make that much sense.
And to 12:00 am...I'm not a teacher, but I don't think it's money down the drain. True, some teacher are better than others, but 90% of them have 6+ years of college education, they must continue to take courses to keep their certificate, they put up with stuff from students and parents that most of us wouldn't, they spend a lot of time our of school doing school work and buying their own supplies. I believe that MOST teachers work very hard.
Just my .02
Jeff:
ReplyDeleteI've heard our education problems described as a long-term national security risk and I don't think that's much of an exaggeration. We are losing the global battle to educate the next generation. If China, India, Japan, and Germany are getting it done and we are not, the scientists and mathmaticians who discover the next big thing--technologically, medically, militarily--will do so for the benefit of other countries.
Aside from that, the whole idea of free trade is that we have shipped unskilled jobs overseas so that we can advance economically by moving into a more skill-based, education-based market and prosper off the demand created in these emerging overseas markets. It's great economic theory but if we don't follow-through with getting our workforce in a position to be skilled and educated then all we have done is ship the manufacturing work to China and left our unskilled workforce to rot. You don't need to look any further than our local economy: If the kids of the people who worked at Corning and GM didn't get a better education than their parents, they're going to find that their parents' jobs are being done in China and their HS diploma no longer gets them lifelong employment at $20/hr with benefits and a pension.
Calamity days certainly don't solve this problem but it suggests that the governor-elect is thinking more about cutting state education expenses than making education a priority. We have to do a better job of educating kids when they get to school but not having them there at all is a step in the wrong direction.
Considering what Mr Kasich intends for Ohio public education, this is a non-event. His upcoming actions on school foundation funding, teacher's unions,and tenure (while certainly not all bad) will be much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Jeff & Horace...the topic is calamity days, not Mr. Kasich's views on education. Always amazes me how people get so bent and off the headline topic!
ReplyDelete12:26..... you are the perfect example of how people get off of a headline topic.
ReplyDelete12:16: Thought I might try to get people to look beyond the end of their nose and think about the big picture.
ReplyDeleteHow bout this instead . . . "Give us back snow days? You betcha. They were OUR days to begin with before that big government liberal took them away. It's about time someone gave them back to us. We don't need none of that book learnin' anyway."