School Is Out...And Broke

Even Mitt Romney is going around the country talking about the U.S. public school system being that of a "Third World Country" and education the "Civil Rights Issue of Our Time." (Of course, he wants to imply it is all President Obama’s fault.)

Well, whoever’s fault it is, I have two kids in public school right now and I must agree that something is amiss. My son just spent a year in middle school without electives. Newark could not afford it (they are putting electives back in the fall).

It's when funding is not there, that teachers like Tom Collett at the junior high are worth their weight in gold. Tom set up a rocket club that actually functioned as an elective. He's the kind of teacher that will mentor kids and set out for a cow field, an hour and a half away, at 6.30 a.m. on a weekend!

Schools have already, not only cut content (long gone, even before any bubbles or bursts of bubbles, are music and visual art) but actual school days. There are 175 instead of 180. Lots of schools have.

Meanwhile other countries are aiming for 200 days or more. There might be 10 more days cut if people do not vote with Gov. Jerry Brown in November. The insanity of the proposition is mindboggling.

I keep wondering at what point public schools can be declared dead. It’s like a body that is lying there amputated, brain function gone, some IVs and catheters keeping the bare essentials working, and you want to put it out of its misery.

The traditional bake sale (that I believe is not allowed anymore anyway) is a bandage on a corpse. But a good public school system is the foundation of democracy, so somehow, public schools have to be resurrected.

Bad times are easier if the burden is shared. Two years ago Newark decided to kill three of our city parks for lack of money. The park by my kids’ elementary school had just been fenced up and closed for half a year, to get fixed up with new grass. Then it was supposed to be abandoned?! Without public input?! It took the wrath and indignation of citizens, who saw their home values dwindle to change the city’s mind.

The solution was sharing the pain -- all parks getting a little less maintenance and a little less water, no one park or neighborhood sacrificed for the others. Today all parks stand there intact, and there are not three brown eyesores attracting garbage and whatnot. (I made a website at the time. It’s inactive, but it’s there, just in case: bridgepointeparknewark.weebly.com).

Anyway, back to schools and equality and fairness.

Right now, if you are a kid in public school in California, it is all about location, location, location. You have capitalism at work right there in our public schools. Lots of schools and kids are sacrificed.

Newark Junior High has only had a PTA for two years. They raised $6,000 the first year, certainly through much valiant work and effort by a handful of parents. The money went to buy copy paper. Meanwhile, in Los Altos, the education foundation demands parents to fork over $1,000 per kid and, I’m sure, shame on you if you don’t, and by the way, it is tax deductible. The $3 million they raised makes a big difference in school programs, and I’m not talking copy paper.

Education foundations have changed public school and are increasingly more important as funds are cut. If you want art and music in school for your kids, go live in Los Altos. Right, I forgot to add, if you can afford it.

It is not about whether there should be rich and poor, capitalism or socialism. It’s public school for kids! Why do we, parents, accept a public school class system.

Brown parks make people’s blood boil. Wall Street and bank shenanigans give rise to "Occupy." What do we care about? What do we prioritize? What about our kids and the future? Why are not parents out in the streets and walking on Sacramento and Washington for an immediate change in schools?

The current system is working in the richer neighborhoods of the Bay Area. They can supplement the needed funds. If education foundations were outlawed, the Los Altos parents, the Orinda parents and Palo Alto parents would lobby Sacramento and things would change overnight. All kids deserve equitable schools and education. There needs to be funding instead of education foundations.

So please, parents, it’s time to get a bit mad.

(If you can take more on the subject, go to my rambling website sosnewark.org, where I try to collect facts and information, and set my frustrations loose. Try and find the "rich school, poor school" section.)

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