Decisions

Where were the calculators when I went to school? All we had were slip sticks.
Schools play an important role in the lives of American youngsters. On average, 13 of the first 18 years of life revolve around schools and education. The quality of that education weighs significantly on that young person’s future.
One might think that the youngsters whose future is at stake are the highest consideration in any decisions having to do with schools. One would be mistaken more often than not.
The piece of school budgets devoted to employee expense is by far the largest. In our case it totals 83% of every dollar spent. That only leaves 17% to be impacted through better management of expenses. Managing the 83% is no mean feat either.
That 83% figure is in line with other budgets in service industries. And schools are certainly a service. The people who provide the service make up the largest expense.
The unions representing employees have a vested interest in getting raises and insuring that workers have a safe environment. Neither of these charges takes in to consideration the long term best interest of the students except where there are standards to be met by the employees for membership.
The administration is charged with keeping the operation functional and paying its bills which often means making decisions based on numbers rather than the best interest of students.
School boards are charged with seeing to it that the overall operation is conducted according to laws and the state constitution and find themselves operating in unfamiliar circumstances with others dictating much of what must be done.
Students themselves are not in a position to make choices and decisions in their own best interest. They are limited by the circumstances of the place where they live, the quality of schools and courses available at that location and their limited knowledge of what is available in areas unknown to them.
So who is ultimately in charge of schools? Who makes the decisions and how? Teachers? Custodians? Bus drivers? Administrators? Boards of education? Students?
They each play a role in that they are citizens of the community in which they reside. But the larger community that is not directly associated with schools at any given time plays the most significant role. They decide what’s important to them.
By their voices and their votes citizens of the community are in charge of making the decisions about what kind and quality schools the community will support. They make the basic decisions related to funding and regulation that ultimately dictate how schools will operate.
Everyone intuitively values schools, but most of us have only a fleeting relationship with schools and our impressions are formed during that passing association. What and how we think of schools becomes fixed in our minds over that 13 years period and most of us don’t keep up with changing demands, circumstances and opportunities involved with the larger picture of education. We’re stuck in our old models.
I remember buying a metal mechanical device that operated with a stylus and could add and subtract. It was called a calculator. I remember my father showing me how to do multiplication and division with a slide rule. It was also a calculator. Compared to today’s calculators both were like doing math with hammers and chisels on stone.
Today’s kids and tomorrow’s demands find both of those tools only in history. We need to be looking 40 years ahead, not behind.