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EDUCATION PLATFORM

JOHN GLOSTER
CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR

1. Class Size: We must cut class size in half. Every significant study has shown that class sizes of 15 and below significantly improve learning in urban school systems. Even studies that opponents point to as evidence that class size is not very important, like the studies undertaken by Tennessee and Florida school systems point out that while class size may not be very important to very affluent districts, class sizes under 16 significantly improve performance by urban and minority students. This is true for urban districts straight through high school. This and the other initiatives, that I propose below, will cost $200 million to implement, but is the best investment we can make, and will more than pay for itself in reduced social costs and increased tax-paying, productive human beings. Halting the proposed new convention center, and redirecting those taxes, would pay the entire cost of cutting class size in half. The resources are there, we must simply do a better job of allocating them, so that we can save our children.

Our children are starved for attention from responsible, adult authority figures. When they do not receive enough, they act out by acting up. We can significantly improve discipline in the classroom by reducing class size. By doing so, we will not only be reaching out to our most troubled children, but we will be creating an environment in which the teacher has more control, and the relatively small percentage of disruptive children will be more isolated, and less able to dominate the classroom.

2. Parent Involvement Counselors: Parental involvement is crucial to a student's success in school. We will institute a program of “parent involvement counselors”, who will help the teachers get the parents involved in their children's education. These counselors will also assist parents in their effort to help their children with their homework. Many parents are afraid or intimidated about getting involved in their children's education, especially at the middle school and high school levels. Many of them are themselves deficient in basic skills. These counselors will offer these parents help in monitoring their children's progress.

3. In-School Recreation: We will bring back arts and after-school recreation programs into the schools. After-school recreational opportunities should be placed back into the school buildings, so that children have the option of staying in an adult monitored and mentored program straight through until 6 p.m.. I would relieve teachers of the duty, however, by having professional recreational/adulthood training counselors handle these programs.

4. Vouchers: This is one of the greatest threats to the viability of our public schools. We support the right of every young person to a public school education. Private schools do not guarantee the acceptance of every child. In general, we are against the privatization of public functions, such as this.

5. Charter Schools: Charter schools offer a peculiar dilemma. On the one hand they represent a cherished goal, namely greater community and parental involvement in the school. Other aspects of charter schools, however, are unacceptable. To the extent that charter schools are given greater resources, and allowed to pick from the cream of the crop of eligible students, this elitist strategy will undermine the remaining public schools in a similar way as school vouchers. We must greatly slow the proliferation of charter schools, and
re-evaluate the entire situation.

6. Special Education & Special Needs: Our special education program is bogged down in a combination of federal regulations, and the District's totally dysfunctional interaction with the federal guidelines. Our leaders have ignored important federal guidelines on special education. In other areas, the District is overly strict in its interpretation. One mandate that we must work around is the limitation on send-home suspensions for special education students. I propose that we institute in school suspension as a means of strengthening teacher's hands with disruptive students (many of whom do not mind being sent home).

7. Vocational Schools: The last wave of school closings brought about a disproportional number of vocational schools being closed. This is a travesty because, try as we may to deny it, some people's personality or make-up will always be more geared to vocational school. These schools, however, must always produce graduates who possess all of the basic educational skills that our other graduates need.

8. Discipline: See the discussion above on class size. Additionally, we have some rules and attitudes in the school system which significantly weaken the teacher's authority. The teacher must be the master of his or her classroom, not the administration through inappropriate undermining of authority, nor the students, by default of authority. When children are sent out of a classroom for disruptive behavior, the administration should not return the child to the classroom that day until the teacher has been consulted. Similarly, there is a problem with our handling of special education suspensions. By law, special education students can only be given at- home suspensions for limited periods of time. When the child has met his or her quota he cannot be suspended even when his behavior is inappropriate. This spectacle degrades the teacher's authority, and lowers the morale of the students who are behaving more sociably. We should introduce in-school suspensions for all children. The children who have been given in-school suspensions will still be educated in a special suspension classroom. This will also remove the incentive to get suspended so that the child can go home and watch television for a few days, or even worse, get into trouble in the neighborhood.

9. Supplies (books, computers): It is highly disruptive to good study habits to not have enough books to take home. We must correct this problem immediately. Computers, however, are a different story. We have thrown computers at schools without any conception of how to utilize them. As a result, many are not. Our children need to become proficient with computer programs and the internet. The 21st century will be cruel to those who are not computer literate. But, as usual, instead of actually taking care that our children are learning computer skills, status quo politicians see computers in DC schools as nothing more than a prop for a photo opportunity. We should utilize computer science students at the University of the District of Columbia to help teach computer skills in the schools to the children and the teachers. Symbiotic relationships like these can ensure that we get the most out of all our District resources.

10. Physical Plant/ Buildings: It was a typically hasty and unwise move to begin the closing down and selling of school buildings last year. If we do our job right, more families will be moving into the District over the next few years. At that time, we will need our closed buildings. Despite politicians' claims, these are structurally strong buildings. They do not construct buildings like those anymore. It would be much cheaper to refurbish these buildings than to build whole new buildings. Once again, we must be forward thinkers.

11. Teacher Performance: Teacher scape-goating has become a favored pass-time for cowardly politicians who know that it is their refusal to invest in our youth that has led us to the horrendous situation that we are in. Our teachers are tested, evaluated, retested and re-educated on a constant basis. We have some of the most excellent and dedicated teachers in the world. They are being ground down. however, by the enormous administrative and educational burdens our "leaders" have heaped on them by the status quo government, and a willing and compliant union leadership. Some of the many directives that come down from high up are contradictory, and tie teachers' hands. We must free our teachers to TEACH.

12. Security: We must take back control of the privatized school security, which has proven ineffective. The principal should not have to accept whatever guards a private company keeps sending. Let's put this responsibility back in the hands of the public, where it belongs.


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