I live in Douglas County, and we moved here in large part because
of the schools. I used to be a teacher and I have a Master’s Degree in
Education. DCSD was always considered a “destination district”- a place where
everyone wanted to get a job. I once applied to work in DCSD and couldn’t even
get an interview. My, how things have changed!
In 2009, 4 candidates ran as a slate for the DCSD School
Board. They had two main themes:
1. Promised Reform
2. Destroy the union
1. Promised Reform
2. Destroy the union
Unfortunately, there were two main problems with this
platform:
1. Our schools didn’t need reform. They were already really awesome. In fact, the Colorado Department of Education ranked us #3 in the state for educational excellence in 2008. We are now ranked #11.
2. The union was never the problem. In fact, for decades the teachers and the district/school board worked beautifully together. They collaborated and worked together to solve problems. They won national awards as late as 2009 for how well they worked together. Past superintendants and school board members are proud of how well they worked with the teachers to form the best solutions for students- and it always was a situation where students were #1. Not anymore.
The reform candidates won. And in 2011, three more reform
candidates won, thus making all 7 candidates pro-reform/anti-public education candidates.
WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THIS ELECTION?
This November, 4 of the board seats are up for election.
Every DCSD voter can vote for all four candidates- regardless of where you
live. The proverbial line in the sand
has been drawn. On one side are candidates who are backed by corporate donors
who are only interested in corporate profits. On the other side are four
candidates who are backed by parents and teachers. The four candidates I am
voting for are the ones backed by parents: Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie
Keim, and Ronda Scholting.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Many people do not know who to trust in this election. They
are being told very different things by both sides. As with so much in life,
the way to get to the truth is to FOLLOW THE MONEY.
The reform candidates are running with OUTSIDE money. Their
campaigns are funded 99.9% with money from outside the state. A typical school
board election costs between $3,000-$4,000 total. The reform candidates for
this election have already amassed over ONE MILLION dollars- virtually all of
it from outside resources. Now, why do the Koch Brothers or Sam Walton, or
groups like ALEC and the Daniels Fund care about your kids? The answer, of
course, is that they don’t. They have an agenda: to privatize education and
destroy public schools (go to their websites if you want proof of what their
intended goals are). Why do they want to privatize education? FOR PROFITS. They
want to profit off of our kids. They don’t care about our kids’ education, they
care about making money (here is one of many articles that goes into detail about
the movement to privatize education: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/13/1099650/-ALEC-Battle-Over-Public-vs-Private-Education#)
The candidates I am voting for- Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie Keim, and Ronda Scholting have
taken ZERO outside money. They are funded almost exclusively from parents and
community members.
(NONE of the 8
candidates have taken any money from the union. Anytime you hear somebody try
to pin something on the union, it is a LIE. You are being LIED to. The
reformers want to convince you that the evil, big, bad union thugs are coming
after your children. This is a HUGE LIE and they are simply trying to
manipulate your emotions so that you will vote based on emotions instead of
facts.)
Who do you trust? Outside money groups who have said they
hope to profit off of our kids, or local parents and community members, PTA
presidents and SAC members? For me, it’s an easy choice. I have, and always
will, put kids first- and that is why I am voting for Chase, Hodges, Keim, and
Scholting.
WHAT ARE THOSE REFORMS?
Since 2009 the pro-reform/anti-pubic school board has
implemented the following reforms:
-They have increased class sizes so they can get rid of
teachers (lower costs)
-They have cut art, music, and PE
-They have increased fees
-They have increased testing- our kids now have weeks and
weeks of district mandated tests that have little value for our children (how
can they learn when all they do is take tests?)
-Instead of using the money given them and putting them into
our schools, they are hoarding our money and making completely unnecessary cuts
(this gets incredibly confusing, but after all of the rainy day funds they are
required by law to hold, they are sitting on over 30 million dollars of voter
approved funds which they refuse to spend while at the same time cutting
Special Ed, music, art, etc.)
-They have increased the number of administrators in central
admin while decreasing the amount of teachers and aids we have in our schools
-They have decreased graduation requirements and cut
instructional hours in high school. High schoolers now have two hours of free
time every day. Thefts at local stores and other deviant behaviors have
drastically increased as a result. (Some
pro-reformers tout these cuts as wonderful because now high school students can
take classes at Arapahoe Community College. I laugh at this argument because 1)
high schoolers could always take classes at ACC- that’s not new, and 2)these reformers
now admit that in order to get a quality education students have to leave DCSD
and seek education elsewhere)
-As a result of these cuts, students are no longer competitive
at top colleges. An interviewer for MIT who has worked with DCSD students for over
two decades has admitted that for the first time in her career she was unable
to recommend a single DCSD student to MIT (this does not mean we do not have
great kids- it just means that DCSD is no longer providing students with the
most optimal education like they used to)
-They have introduced vouchers, which are now tied up in the
CO Supreme Court. They have used TAX DOLLARS to pay lawyer fees to fight this
battle. Is that an OK way to spend our tax dollars- on lawyers instead of in
classrooms? (I will note here that three members of the board are lawyers- a
definite conflict of interest!)
-They have introduced pay-for-performance, a practice that
has proven failure. In fact, it has failed 100% of the time (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc)
- this is a business practice that does NOT work, but the board insisted on
implementing it, even after they paid a firm over $40,000 to research whether
or not the program was viable. The company said it was not and they should not
tie the new program with teacher pay, but the school board ignored them and
implemented it anyway. Not only that, but voters actually voted NO for
pay-for-performance in 2012, but once again the board decided to ignore the
voters and do what they wanted anyway.
-They cloak themselves in secrecy- over half of their
meetings are behind closed doors. That’s a 410% increase over the last school
board. Why does everything need to be a secret?
-Beyond destroying the union (which they brag about
continually), they have silenced teachers. Teachers are bullied and threatened
with their jobs if they say anything negative against the board or Liz Fagan.
Their e-mails are combed over as the district looks for evidence that they have
anyone who disagrees with them.
WHAT ABOUT PARENTS?
-In 2012 the district conducted a parent survey. In that
survey, only 14% of teachers and 38% of parents agreed that the district was
headed in a positive direction. Rather than try to determine why parents and
teachers were unhappy, they ignored the survey and said there weren’t enough respondents-
even though they had over 1,000 more respondents than they originally said they
wanted. Since then, no other parent survey has been conducted despite numerous requests.
-Two weeks ago while on live radio, the pro-reform/anti-pubic
school candidates for this election called the parents who disagreed with them “ignorant”
and “naïve.” This is indicative of how they treat parents and teachers in this
district- instead of listening to our concerns, they belittle and demean us.
They have even been known to curse at students at school board meetings who
dared to question the direction of the district. This bullying needs to stop!
-Parents have been told they are now “customers” instead of
active participants in their children’s education. The school board loves to
tell people how great it is that parents are now “customers”- but the vast
majority of their customers are NOT happy, and they ignore us. How is that
great customer service?
WHAT ABOUT TEACHERS?
-Teachers are fed up. They have been lied to and bullied on
a continual basis, and are leaving in droves. Many of our highly effective
teachers have fled to neighboring districts- it is estimated that there is a
75% increase in teacher turnover from 2 years ago.
-Every teacher I have talked to (and I have talked to A LOT
of teachers) has said they are NOT afraid of being accountable. They want bad
teachers out of their profession more than anybody else. But they want a FAIR evaluation.
Last year, the school board said too many teachers were rated “highly
effective.” Many teachers had to go before a committee of upwards of 15
members- all of whom were complete strangers who had never once seen the
teacher teach. The teacher had to defend their “highly effective” status to
this group of strangers who knew nothing about them. This is just one of the
many ways that the current school board devalues and undermines the hard work
our teachers do for our kids every day.
-Teachers didn’t know until March of last year what they
were being evaluated on. How can they meet standards if they don’t know what
those standards are? Not one teacher is afraid of being evaluated, they just
want to know WHAT they are being evaluated on. Is that too much to ask, when their
pay is tied to that evaluation?
-Even the most highly effective teachers earn approximately
15%-20% less than neighboring districts, leaving them no incentive to stay.
While the district administration gives themselves huge bonuses (our superintendent is the
highest paid super in the state and gets paid more than the supers in New York
City and Chicago), teacher pay has gone down- even with their beloved pay for
performance factored in.
-Our best teachers are being replaced with an overwhelming
majority of first year teachers. While I have nothing against first year
teachers (I was once one), I would never send my child to a hospital with only
first year doctors. A teacher is NEVER at their best during their first year-
they need to learn from the veteran teachers. But the school board LOVES
getting rid of veteran teachers and replacing them with first year teachers
because first year teachers are cheaper. And when it comes to our kids, isn’t
cheaper always better? HA!
WHAT ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE?
The school board loves to discuss “school choice.” They did
NOT bring school choice to Douglas County! School choice has been in Douglas
County for well over a decade- we don’t need a school board that hates
education to bring us choice- we can have choice AND respect parents! We can
have choice AND like our teachers! We had it before- why can’t we have it
again?
ARE THE REFORMS WORKING?
The biggest reason for me to fight this fight is simply
because these reforms are NOT working. They are hurting our kids. How?
-Our test scores are lower (according to our most recent
TCAP data)
-Teachers are leaving in droves (the classroom teacher is
the single most important factor in determining a child’s success in school).
The school board promised that pay-for-performance would attract the best and
brightest. That has not happened. College professors now tell their students
not to apply in Douglas County. This is no longer a destination district. When
people are hired, a common theme is: “Well, I’ll put in my time in just to get
experience, and then I’ll leave for a better district.” How sad that teachers
are hired on here and already have a strong desire to leave.
-Class sizes are larger (smaller class sizes are the second
most important factor in a child having a successful school career)
BOTTOM LINE
The bottom line is that a growing number of parents are
angry. We are incredibly concerned.
And we are ignored by a school board that values making the
front page of national newpapers over our children. Any school board that
ignores parents is a school board that needs to be voted out. Any school board
that calls parents “naïve” and “ignorant” needs to be voted out.
Any school board that
puts corporate profits ahead of kids needs to be voted out.
That’s why I’m voting for Barbra Chase, Bill Hodges, Julie Keim, and Ronda Scholting!
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