Why is your education Ministry reluctant to seriously increase funding, as demanded by so many?
The reason is that most ALL Ministries are relatively well-connected to each other, and they ALL see the writing on the wall.
More cost efficiencies are the serious issue, thus talk of abolishing small school boards into regions, or moving to mayor control . . . The bloated administrations do NOT RELATE to student needs…..
So, as the systems implode, I'll keep showing how recommendations of the past were not heeded. Waste, narrow self-interest, corruption — all play a part today in people's cynicism about our public government education systems.
More reccommendations from 40 years ago from Public Testimony on Public Schools
6 State legislatures seek to coordinate all education related services.
7 State guarantee the right of teachers to organize and negotiate on matters relating to teachers' wages, welfare, and benefits.
8 Basic ground rules for bargaining be established to provide each side with balanced incentives to reach agreement.
9 Align budgetary procedures to guarantee that neither side is unfairly constrained in reaching a collective bargaining agreement.
10 Set rules and guidelines that guarantee fairness to all sides, public access, and public influence . . . open meeting laws be establilshed at all levels to encouragbe public discussion and dissemination of information.
11 Ensure adequate and proporetional representation in the political process through the election of all local school and school council members.
12. Appoint a task force in each state to revitalize the educational system as an accessible and responsive democratic institution providing equal educational apportunity for all.
[Well, I see that bringing forth these old recommendations certainly causes some “pause”. Forgot all those parts about collective bargaining which was a teachers’ cause. They must have seriously organized their inputs to this “citizens'” commission. Today people complain that it is the organized teacher union movement that is a major obstacle to education responsiveness. In contrast, the parent cause has still been left in the dust!]