Oh and by the way, the students KNOW the tests don’t matter, and despite bribes of food, snacks, and even CHIPOTLE Burrito cards to come on time and take the test, lots don’t. A non-CSAP testing students counts as a NEGATIVE score. So it wipes out an Advanced students score. Again, not fair. So when Colorado is ready to stop wallowing in pity, and wants to have money for everything, schools included, we could do that if we wanted to. We just would rather cry and scream about the problem and the cuts, because that’s what we have learned to do. . . . but probably not in school.

I would enjoy hearing more from you regarding this issue? Do you blog?

Jasmine,
The state budget is smaller due to the economy’s affect on tax revenue. Cuts are being made to all parts of the budget including education, prisons, roads, etc. Money is not being taken from K-12 education to give to another part of the state budget.

Larry,
An argument can be made for all budget areas being cut that they are the most important. Certainly keeping sexual predators and sociopaths in prison is important to the general population and truckers are probably very worried about having safe roads to transport their loads over. K-12 education is certainly important but we cannot treat it as a sacred cow at the expense of all other budget needs.

Elizabeth,
School budget cuts always affect administration salaries and positions at a dramatically higher rate than teachers. Maintenance also bears a disproportionate brunt of budget cuts when revenue is short. Up to now teachers have suffered the least in terms of salary and benefit reductions. In fact, both teachers salaries and benefits nearly always go up, and never down, even when the rest of the workforce is experiencing pay reductions and job losses.

Suzanne,
A careful examination of available data indicate that, yes, we can have most of it. Studies have shown that smaller classrooms have only a marginal impact on student achievement. More important to academic achievement are a teacher’s classroom management skills. Since the inception of CSAP and high stakes accountability Colorado has gone from around 45th out of 51 (50 states and DC) to around 10th in academic achievement as measured by the NAEP test. Colorado has made steady gains nearly every year without significant increases in our K-12 education funding. There is no correlation between education funding and academic achievement at the state level, the district level, nor the school level. There is a very strong correlation though between high stakes accountability and academic achievement.

Teacher education and training is more on par with RN nurses than lawyers. There are MA’s and PhD’s in both professions but graduate studies are not necessary for teachers and nurses but being a lawyer without graduate schooling is an impossibility. If we compare the average salaries and benefits of teachers and nurses you would find that teachers earn more yet work only about 75% as many days per year. Both professions have those who work overtime and all have to get professional development training as part of their profession. Teachers are responsible for student learning and nurses are responsible for the health of their patients both of which are stressful occupations. The biggest difference is that highly effective non-union nurses can increase their pay early in their careers compared to union teachers. Also, mediocre nurses can be fired whereas teacher unions make getting rid of mediocre teachers nearly impossible.

My responses are made simply with the intent to inform and should in no way be seen as an attack on any individual. Education and education funding issues are charged with rhetoric and misinformation. We will not be able to solve the problems facing education unless we are able to confront the facts. Only then we will be able to see our education system compete with the other industrialized countries who spend far less on education yet whip us at academic achievement. There are many problems confronting education but increasing funding will not solve them.

Overall labor costs for school districts take up 80% of school district budgets as noted in the article. Teacher salaries and benefits make up 70% of school district budgets (only 10% of the budget goes to paraprofessionals, custodians, bus drivers, maintenance workers, office clerks, nurses, principals, administrators, etc.). That is why it will be impossible to make the necessary district budget realignments without affecting teacher salaries, benefits, or jobs.

Teachers always want pay increases (who doesn’t?) but they adamantly refuse to have it tied to improved academic outcomes for their students. Pay now and hope we do our job better in the future should be the unofficial motto of teacher unions. In closing I’ll leave you with this question: If you received a pay increase (that was not based on merit) would you do a better job next year? That in a nutshell describes requests for educational funding increases.