A Functionally Literate educator

25 more of these honest people, and we could end the "government/education complex", and its corrupt takeover of our schools, which used to be the best in world, but are now cesspools of corruption.

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Bruno,

This is Mary, the retired school teacher that talked to you on air just now.  I was a public school teacher for 26 yrs. in [redacted out of fear of reprisals from the thugs].  I am now retired, and yes, I have a very nice pension.  (BTW some districts pay into the pension fund (TRS) for their staff and other districts don't.  It all depends upon the union contract.)

I was a union rep. at both [redacted out of fear of reprisals from the thugs] local.  Believe you me at some meetings I felt like I was at a solidarity cell meeting of the former soviet empire! Most are very socialistic in their thinking.

I know that you don't want to come down on teachers, but we must face facts about the public schools.  Ask any teacher's college/university what are the ACT scores of the incoming students to the school of education and compare those scores to the ACT's of the school of engineering, architecture, law or other professions.  The school of education scores will be the lowest at the university with the exception of....the school of sociology

Believe me some of these teachers wouldn't be employable in most other lines of work, with the possible exception of the Post Office.  I worked with many fine teachers, but I also worked with many who actively disliked children and just wanted a job with lots of holidays, because these teachers so loved to travel

You are so right, that this system has got to be changed.

Public school districts must annually by law in ILL publish their employees salaries, which they do each year in local papers.  But they don't list individuals, only groups, and lists of names within the group earning 40,000-79,999 for example.  You may have to file an FOI to get the actual individual salaries.  BTW my old superintendent made more annually than the governor of IL or the mayor of Chicago

Public school districts must also annually publish their proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.  Most districts have a fiscal year of Jul. 1 to June. 30th.  My old district did not publish their proposed budget in the local papers, but published that a copy was available at the district office for public inspection.  (Now how many taxpayers are going to take the time to go in and look at the budget?)

My district for 10 or more years was crying poor, and being on the verge of deficits, when actually at the bottom lines of all their accounts at the end of the fiscal year, when added together they always had at least $30 million in surplus at the Maine township treasurer's office in CD's

The school fiscal year ends in the summer, when most schools are closed.  I wonder if that is just a coincidence??:):)

Schools usually don't share all this info in a transparent way with the taxpayers.  I used to hear things like, it will just confuse them; they won't understand the bookkeeping; if they want to know they can find the info on their own, etc.  I think this info should be mailed to every taxpayer yearly and a printout should be given each year to the parents of every student in every public school just like the 'report cards.' This information is, after all, public record.

Now it is true that some districts in poor areas where housing values are quite low, are in actual, real financial trouble and even on the verge of receivership.  Those districts should be shut down and their students sent elsewhere.  But for the most part, districts that are claiming to be in deficits, are just using rather creative accounting theories.  Also, public school districts have no incentive to economize, as do private schools.  When I was a school librarian, I was NOT ALLOWED by my district to go buy lovely hard-cover books at Sam's Club cheaply, but I HAD to order them through a book vendor where I had to pay the publishers full list prices.  The reason was that Sam's Club did not generate a purchase order! The whole organization of public schools is set up for the good of the bureacracy and not for the good of the children.

It isn't good for children to be in high schools where 5-6000 kids are crammed in together.  It isn't good for children to be forced to be classrooms with children with such severe mental disorders that they are rubbing feces all over themselves and their desks.  It isn't good for children to be forced to be in classrooms with children so severely disabled that they are vegetables on respirators and have a full-time nurse attendant with them at all times.  Children who can't walk and talk, will never think and cannot ever contribute to society.  I have firsthand knowledge of these types of scenarios and I can tell you that they are happening in public schools all over this country.  Yes, disabled kids need to be in a school, a SPECIAL school, but not the regular public school

The beginning of the end for public education came in 1974 when the federal govt passed the handicapped child act stating that disabled children had a right to be in public school in a 'least restrictive' environment.  We now have districts coming up with strategies to max out the numbers of special needs kids that they have in their classrooms, because each of these kids comes with a huge stream of money attached to them coming out of Washington.

It isn't good for kids to be taught from politically correct texts that give the deeds of Sacagaweja 2 chapters and the deeds of Thomas Jefferson 2 pages.  It isn't good for kids to be in schools where the entire staff bends over backwards to shield little sociopathic bullies and to keep them in school at all costs, but these same educators tell parents who complain about their average kids being attacked by sociopathic bullies, that maybe your child needs to be moved out of that classroom.  The inmates are truly in charge of the asylum in the public schools of America today.  And these 'inmates' are being very handsomely paid for running this asylum right into the ground.

I will send you some links where you should be able to find out more about individual district funding and budgeting.  Keep up the good work.

Mary