Dan Weintraub of the Sacramento Bee has the makings of a great policy idea Here is his proposal, which I have reprinted below, and I have some brief comments at the end:
A MODEST PROPOSALFrom Dan Weintraub’s Political Insider Weblog
It hasn’t received a huge amount of attention since no one is screaming about it, but the increase in education spending in the governor’s budget proposal comes to a cool $600 per student in K-12, or an 8 percent increase over the current year. I offer a modest proposal here for how that money might be best spent.
I say we give half of it to the districts to cover general cost increases and give the rest to the teachers to decide how to spend. Really. Why not authorize each classroom teacher to spend $300 per student more in whatever way they think would best improve the education of those children? Even better, I’d take that money and give it all to the teachers who are teaching kids in the bottom half of the socioeconomic spectrum, where the achievement gap is the largest. Since half of the total increase would be going to half the kids, that would bump the amount back up to $600 for each of those kids.
If we did that, a teacher with 30 such kids in say, inner city Los Angeles, would get a chit worth $18,000. I say let them decide how to spend it. They could hire a fully credentialed teacher to work in their classroom for half the day doing small groups and one-on-ones with the toughest kids. Or they could hire a couple of aides to help out. Or they could hire someone to do intensive after-school tutoring. Or they could use it for the finest supplies, new computers, better books. You name it. I’d even be willing to let the teachers pocket some or all of the money as a salary bonus for working with tough-to-teach kids. My only rule would be they would have to write a report detailing how they spent the money and post it it on their classroom door for all the parents to see.
Does anybody doubt that this would be more effective than what the governor is proposing to do, which is give about two-thirds of the money in a general cost-of-living increase and divvy up the rest among targeted initiatives like his after-school program, teacher recruitment and training, arts and music programs and physical education?
After we empower the teachers, my next step would be to audit the results and find out whose decisions brought the greatest gain in achievement. Then publish a list of best practices for teachers to consider the following year.
Sadly, this "modest proposal" will end up in the "rhetorical round file" in the Capitol for one main reason – it will not pass muster with the California Teachers Association, which as a powerful union, is interested primarily in salary and benefits for its members, which is where most of this money is slated to go.
The idea of empowering individuals teachers is a good one, and putting decision making right where it needs to happen – in the classroom. Bravo, Dan!
Send me your thoughts on this, and I will pass them along to Dan (or go to his website and send him your thoughts directly). Very soon you will be able to post your comments right on this site!