http://realestate680.com/blog/market-updates/my-2-cents-about-contra-costa-schools/ Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:16:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://realestate680.com/blog/market-updates/my-2-cents-about-contra-costa-schools/#comment-461 Arn Cenedella Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:36:45 +0000 http://realestate680.com/?p=383#comment-461 Sam We are facing the same issue in my home town San Carlos. Ditto for Palo Alto and Menlo Park. We all agree on the importance of education. As you note, it is the key to our children's future, it is the key to our nation's future. That being said one of the biggest threats to our nation's future is out of control government spending. Government organizations have no reason to cut expenses until they are faced with lose of jobs. In fact, the way the system is set up, government organizations lose money if they do not spend what they have. It is absurd. Teacher unions like all unions collectively bargain, lobby, persuade, and make campaign contributions in hopes of meximizing their members income and compensation packages. Same for police and fire. Nothing wrong with that at all. Teachers and their unions should work to do this. The problem is their message is often framed in "we want this because it is best for your kids". I am sure teacher unions lobbied for a reduction in classroom size several years ago when the state mandated class room sizes of 22 or 23 for K-4. Good idea as long as we can pay for it. I am sure our Sacramento politicians who supported the reduction in classroom size were rewarded with campaign contributions from teacher unions. I attended public schools in Mt. View, Los Altos, San Francisco, and Queens NY and the average classroom size was 30 - 32 kids. Despite the "handicap" of being forced to attend such large classes, I was able to get a good enough public education to be able to attend nationally ranked universities - Colgate Univ Hamilton, NY for undergrad and Univ of Mich for grad school. I suspect most adults attended class rooms with 30 kids rather than 22. So I ask if 30 was good enough for me and most other adults, why isn't good enough for our kids? If you have four classes of 22 and made three classes of 30, teacher expense would drop 25% with in my opinion little drop in teacher effectiveness. Maybe class room sizes of 22 is a luxury we can not afford. I suspect that most if not all budget issues in CA school districts would go away if we went back to 30 class room size. So it is a tough issue and emotions run high. I just think bottom line we can't spend money we don't have and we can't keep borrowing more and more money which our kids and grand kids will pay long after we are gone ands they are out of school. Sam
We are facing the same issue in my home town San Carlos. Ditto for Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
We all agree on the importance of education.
As you note, it is the key to our children’s future, it is the key to our nation’s future.
That being said one of the biggest threats to our nation’s future is out of control government spending.
Government organizations have no reason to cut expenses until they are faced with lose of jobs.
In fact, the way the system is set up, government organizations lose money if they do not spend what they have. It is absurd.
Teacher unions like all unions collectively bargain, lobby, persuade, and make campaign contributions in hopes of meximizing their members income and compensation packages. Same for police and fire. Nothing wrong with that at all. Teachers and their unions should work to do this. The problem is their message is often framed in “we want this because it is best for your kids”.
I am sure teacher unions lobbied for a reduction in classroom size several years ago when the state mandated class room sizes of 22 or 23 for K-4. Good idea as long as we can pay for it. I am sure our Sacramento politicians who supported the reduction in classroom size were rewarded with campaign contributions from teacher unions.
I attended public schools in Mt. View, Los Altos, San Francisco, and Queens NY and the average classroom size was 30 – 32 kids. Despite the “handicap” of being forced to attend such large classes, I was able to get a good enough public education to be able to attend nationally ranked universities – Colgate Univ Hamilton, NY for undergrad and Univ of Mich for grad school. I suspect most adults attended class rooms with 30 kids rather than 22. So I ask if 30 was good enough for me and most other adults, why isn’t good enough for our kids?
If you have four classes of 22 and made three classes of 30, teacher expense would drop 25% with in my opinion little drop in teacher effectiveness.
Maybe class room sizes of 22 is a luxury we can not afford.
I suspect that most if not all budget issues in CA school districts would go away if we went back to 30 class room size.
So it is a tough issue and emotions run high. I just think bottom line we can’t spend money we don’t have and we can’t keep borrowing more and more money which our kids and grand kids will pay long after we are gone ands they are out of school.

]]> http://realestate680.com/blog/market-updates/my-2-cents-about-contra-costa-schools/#comment-460 My 2 cents about Contra Costa Schools | Real Estate 680 | Contra Costa, California LocalSpur - News, Yellow Page Listings, Events and Local Tweets for Contra Costa, CA. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:20:29 +0000 http://realestate680.com/?p=383#comment-460 [...] Follow this link: My 2 cents about Contra Costa Schools | Real Estate 680 [...] [...] Follow this link: My 2 cents about Contra Costa Schools | Real Estate 680 [...]

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