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. |