New Money For Old Rope: The Disintegration and Systematic Rape Of Public Education by Big Business, the Government, and Corrupt Administrators

PREFACE

The Indictment of the Educational Bureaucracy

The original meaning of the phrase New money for old rope has an interesting history. For several centuries in London England, the populace did not go to sporting events as we do today. Their major entertainment was the weekly public hangings. This was done to deter disobedience toward the monarchy and crimes against the state, but it was also a source of enjoyment for the masses. Apparently the hangmen, realizing that the rope was salable as a macabre souvenir, cut it up in pieces and sold it to the crowd. Eventually the expression took on the meaning of paying money for something worthless, much like ‘throwing good money after bad.’ The title expresses how I feel about wasting taxpayer money on superfluous activities, and the abuse of power in educational administration. In effect, it synthesizes the essence of my tome. In an ideal world every problem no matter how complex, is solvable, and laws control how everyone in society behaves. The problem is, we don’t live in an ideal world. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that next year the federal government creates a new cabinet position called the Secretary of Social Engineering. The department would have several divisions with each section headed by a political appointee, probably an ex senator who doesn’t need to have any expertise, but has to show good intentions, whatever that is.

The government would hire thousands of people engaged in research, statistical analysis, preparing papers, and writing new laws for consideration by Congress. One section would be concerned with racial issues, another would deal with religious concerns, and a third might handle problems of sexual orientation etc. No doubt the universities would establish a social engineering department that includes professors plus a cadre of adjunct teachers with a full schedule of classes, and thousands of eager students enrolled in this new major, along with the promise of potential job opportunities working for the government. There will be a research wing, new textbooks written on the subject, and a whole industry would spring forth that employs thousands of people in this endeavor created to do good things for the sake of the citizens of our country. However, at some point this contrived project will become fiscally unsustainable, and some hard decisions would have to be taken to cut back and possibly eliminate the department entirely. Well, guess what. We have arrived at that point in our country, and something has to go. We are $18 trillion in debt, and it is time to eliminate through attrition, all the superfluous, duplicitous agencies and parasitical positions that exist in the federal, state, and local government. At the top of the list for extinction, I propose the elimination of the Department of Education. We have created a monster that is devouring taxpayer money, with little to show in terms of appreciable change in the quality of education. It is also imperative that we redesign the educational system, and consolidate these feudal like duplicative contrivances called districts, which are wasting billions of dollars.

The educational system needs a complete paradigm shift, to transform the cultural environment in the schools from an authoritarian model to one of support for teachers. Teachers do not need direction, especially from people who can’t demonstrate or model what they propose. It is the teacher who is the preeminent authority on their subject in the school, and the administrative position should be one of service to the staff. It seems that the business model of authoritarian leadership, which is increasingly becoming corrupt, is being used to guide the educational system, along with their demand for outrageous concomitant salary increases. Within the school system, nobody should be paid more than the teacher. The process of education only requires a teacher and a student, and everybody else should be there to serve their needs, and teachers should be adequately compensated for their efforts without the rancor that is brought about by organizations and people who are totally superfluous to the process. For too many years now there has been a demeaning perception on the part of the general public about teachers. Inculcating respect for teachers in the minds of young children will improve their status in society, and provide an opportunity for them to conduct class in an environment that is conducive to the teaching learning process. It is also time to overhaul the process of delivering education within the school system. Our society has become increasingly oriented toward the specialist over the generalist. Note what is happening in the medical profession, and in other fields where the level of expertise has become quite complex. It has become extremely difficult to find a general practitioner. Every medical student wants to be a specialist for obvious reasons.

It pays better, there is less drudgery, and there is more prestige within the profession. I’ll leave it for someone in the medical profession to tell the truth about the consequences of not having sufficient generalists to tend to the needs of the general population. I doubt that will happen. What doctor would want to ruin a good thing, and at the same time become a pariah in the profession? I will offer suggestions for reform, but I must direct this statement to the general public at the outset. You have been misled by educational administrators, our homegrown business oligarchs, and by politicians about the causes of the decline of public education. The truth is that teachers are being used as scapegoats for an inefficient organizational structure. There are no major problems to be fixed with respect to the quality of teachers. Yes, we still have to ‘separate the wheat from the chaff,’ but the blame for the poor state of education in our country lies completely with a superfluous, dispensable, and corrupt organizational system known as educational administration.

Introduction

Relax, read a book, play some golf, listen to music, play your instrument, whatever. You were a teacher for 28 years, and did a fine job. You should be very proud. Leave the business of educational reform to those who remain, and to the newcomers. You’ve paid your dues, what do you care? That’s the advice I got as a newly retired teacher. But it’s people like me who should be in the forefront of educational reform. We know the problems and can offer the best solutions to improve the system. But retirees rarely get involved in reform issues, and won’t ever tell the truth. They have been programmed to keep quite and maintain the ‘grey line.’ If you ask them why they are not involved, their answer is ‘I’m burned out and nobody is going to listen to me anyway. The policy makers never sought my advice when I was on the job, why would they want my input now?’ Teachers are notoriously adverse to risk, literally spending their entire career in a state of servitude to the administration, the school board, and all the other superfluous entities in the system. They fear these people, and the potential retribution if they dare to speak the truth. They know that anyone who tries to buck the system is taken care of, one way or the other, by this mean spirited, vindictive, paranoid bunch of do nothing pretenders of educational leadership. You are probably thinking that here is another one of those disgruntled employees, or a sour grape type who wants to get back at somebody for some perceived injustice perpetrated upon him during his career. That’s not so, for nobody had a more charmed life as a teacher than I did. I worked in great schools with terrific students, and received as much appreciation and support from parents and the community as anyone could wish for.

I loved my job, my students, and the community, and I was recognized constantly for my work. I spent the last twenty years of my career in one of the most affluent areas of the country, earning a salary and pension that is among the best in the nation, if not the world. I talked about the need to change the way schools are run to my colleagues for many years, and I never took my grievances outside of the community, but administrators probably perceived me to be a loose canon. You may not be aware that most of the books about educational reform were not written by teachers, but by so called educators. That’s a euphemism for someone who doesn’t teach but apparently knows it all, and most of the books they write either preach to the chorus or were written on behalf of administrative organizations. When the media refers to educators, they are not talking about teachers. If you’re interested in reading them, you can find them in the large bookstores underneath the nursery rhymes. I tell you that because the clerks will have no idea where the books on educational reform are. My book is particularly focused on systemic problems, and not necessarily about curricular concerns. During my career I intentionally built support within the community in a consistent and calculated manner, and on occasion I utilized that support to protect the instrumental program from mindless and unreasonable administrative decisions. I have been retired for several years now, and it’s obvious that things have become worse throughout the country. There are some good things going on in the schools, thanks to the teachers, but my intent is to make you aware of the covert business that must be expurgated in order to get the system working for the benefit of all the children and the country.

When I began writing this book I was an idealist, and optimistic that I could stimulate change in areas hitherto believed to be sacrosanct and inviolable, especially in the field of education. I intended to detail the reasons for the erosion of qualitative education. As conditions throughout the world for-shadowed an apocalyptic event, I procrastinated and questioned the efficacy of the project. I believed that change was possible if only people were aware of the problems, but I have since become a pessimist. Having said that, if our country survives the turmoil that is tearing us apart, we will need to make constructive changes in our governmental structure and in the administration of our educational system. So I will detail the reasons for the decline of public school education, and offer suggestions for reform. Talk is cheap, but despite evidence of corruption presented in the media, all we get from the people responsible to effect change is expensive rhetoric. It took a while for me to realize why education was not progressing. In fact we are regressing. Teacher incompetence is not the main reason for the problems besetting the educational system, despite the media focus on them. I’m not trying to minimize the need to improve the quality of teachers and weed out incompetents, but the primary culprits are inept, corrupt educational administrators. They have collaborated with slick ‘wide guys’ in the business world, and governmental representatives who are enriching themselves at the expense of American youth. The public also has unrealistic expectations with respect to what students are capable of accomplishing in school, and this is another factor ruining the educational environment. The problems associated with school administration are mirrored in the manner in which our government operates today, and evidenced by the decline of the political process.

Note how our system has been perverted by partisan considerations, and no longer functions as it was intended. What ever happened to ‘checks and balances,’ and ‘advise and consent?’ There is considerable evidence that business concerns have taken advantage of deteriorating conditions in the public schools by increasing the growth of the charter school movement, and preventing change from taking place, as it siphons off the funds that are necessary to correct the problems. If the public cannot see that there is a virtual conspiracy in the country that is intent on destroying public education, and that their only motivation is to make money, then we are doomed. My intent was to focus on the actual operation of the schools, which includes every task that falls under the umbrella of administration, but as the work progressed I found myself focusing on external forces that have a profound affect on the internal problems of the school community, and I began to make a great deal of social commentary. It became obvious that there is an enormous amount of money wasted on people who are absolutely inconsequential to the educational process. Perhaps bringing the true picture of the educational environment out of the shadows, will act as a model to stimulate others to come forth with evidence of waste and corruption that exists in every governmental department. Education has long been considered a sacred cow, so bold leadership by our elected officials will be needed to make these changes. As a consequence, I’m not very optimistic that Congress will act courageously and make any effective change in the way schools are run. I will present evidence of corrupt behavior, and inept leadership among educational administrators, along with my personal experiences in the school system.

The fundamental objective of my tome is to flatten the pyramidal structure of educational leadership, and eliminate every superfluous and or duplicitous management position. Lately the federal Department of Education is keeping a low profile so as to not draw any undesirable attention. They are aware that education is sacrosanct, and politicians will generally avoid any criticism or negative comments, because it’s unwise to be perceived as being anti education. During the primaries I was quite surprised that several candidates for the presidency mentioned the Education Department as one of their first considerations for elimination. They didn’t offer any reasons why it’s necessary, and we haven’t heard any more about it since the primaries. So I am going to offer a rationale, along with evidence that can be used to press the issue. The federal Department of Education is a morass of nonutilitarian functionaries, and a parasitic group that is absolutely superfluous in the education of our children. Furthermore, there is not a task they manage that can’t be subsumed within other agencies, or returned back to the states to supervise, as everything they do is duplicitous and a waste of time and money. The cleansing process should begin with the elimination of the Department of Education, employing a process of attrition that will shrink the size of this agency, which has become bloated with unnecessary jobs. By the way, attrition is the operative word when eliminating positions, because using a hatchet approach to fire people will ruin the lives of entire families. Our nation desperately needs to reduce the budget deficit and pay down the debt, so this is an opportune time to re-examine and make effective changes in all governmental departments, on both the local and national level.

The Super Committee’s failure to find $1.2 trillion in savings over ten years is evidence of the lack of courage and political will in Congress to make the requisite changes to fix the nation’s economic problems. The Federal Department of Education at the national level, and administrative positions at the local level, are unnecessary and are a hindrance to the educational process. The operating budget of the Federal Department of Education is more than $70 billion a year, and when inflationary costs are factored in, eliminating this department will save nearly a trillion dollars over ten years. A similar reduction on the school level will provide a substantially higher amount of savings to the nation. There is a desperate need for people to step forward and reveal spending excess in every governmental agency,