Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Tine for a reality check e.g. tough love and the cold and hard truth.
When the going gets tough the tough get going!
ALL towns and cities of RI have a vested interest in the success of the East Providence School Committee! They are fighting the same fight as our Governor Don Carcieri in defeating a selfishness exhibited by a minority that has taken our government hostage at both local and state levels.
PLEASE Keep up the fight East Providence town government tax payers and school committee.

First of ALL the teachers and or their union - they are not responsible for managing the school system in any form. WE have the elected school committee (will of the people) and their designated supervision. They answer to the taxpayer. Our standards I recall come from the state board of education / Regents sp. School accreditation is perhaps an area to be examined e.g. basic vs would be nice as I am sure that a socialist liberal interpretation devoid of funding consideration has already influenced such.

You have relied on a given level of state funding, mandate funding and local tax revenue vs budget / operating cost.
Today given several external conditions beyond your control you now lack affordability and as such even if a contract had been in force such is no longer enforceable. Again you lack affordability.

The solution does not any longer equate to increasing the State or local taxes at all.
This would be an illegal seizure of private property.

Some Teachers work 5 or 6 hrs a day for ~ 9 months of the year and about 180 or so days typical and have the expectation of full time pay and benefits. Perhaps reduction or 25 to 30 percent in salary and benefits is in order to equate to the part time nature of the job. WE no longer can afford such a liberal largess.

We must all figure out how to deliver only the fundamental public education, required by law, for a lower and more predictable cost. At the same time our expectations for teacher / student performance must be raised.

The entire budget process must focus on a revision of priority in how we prioritize & spend our fixed $ in the future. If a state or federal mandate comes with no cash or underfunded cash I suggest that such is no longer enforceable. The obligation of the town government and school committee is to devise a baseline fundamental education plan for execution that is with in the available funding profile. Yes, no longer the best education that money can buy. We have been throwing money at education and especially teachers salaries for over 40 years with quality of education delivered continuing to decrease, based on test scores. Perhaps special needs children at both ends of the spectrum are beyond the public system and need to be consolidated and contracted out to an efficient privet provider. Additional funding for added scope education of any kind must be via fees provided by parents and foundation fund raising etc. Another thought hire a private contractor to manage and operate our schools and get the teachers salaries & other school employees off of the public payroll for good!
School activities beyond the fundamental education delivery requirement should be funded by fees paid by parents and private fund raising. Yes, including; advanced studies, extra student activities, SPORTS etc. which benefit only a small number of students for a rather high cost. Again all beyond a fundamental education required by law.
These are hard times requiring hard choices such that we continue to deliver a fundamental public education, required by law, with in the reasonable and available funding.
IN the process teachers must eliminate the pseudo socialist dogma from teaching our children. That means teach children critical thinking process e.g. how to think based on derived facts etc. vs what to think based on a self serving socialist elites t dogma. Moreover return to teaching students fundamentals of a citizens community responsibility for participation in & maintaining our American government including details of a constitutional republic workings and the rule of law.
Hard times mean hard choices and a demand that we get a better return on investment for our education dollar in the form of student performance and achievement. Last perhaps a portion of the students that continue to under perform and lack achievement do not belong in the public high school squandering our limited education budget when those dollars can be better spent on those students demonstrating a committed to getting an education? While a crude analogy you can not teach a person lacking fundamental intellectual skills e.g. lacking fundamental capacity teach how to for any amount of funding..

Last, today's RI population overall expectations of a open ended local & state government provider client relationship has resulted in a labor force under educated and under performing devoid of adult lifelong learning career maintenance unable to compete in the National and international labor market.
We must turn such around by changing funding priorities and setting much higher expectations and demanding better overall performance from teachers and students alike. Such does not equate to the amount of monies spent per student . If that were true most our our students would be national scholars.