Once again, Governor Vilsack and a few state legislators in a special “governance committee” are threatening Iowa’s greatest assets, her rural schools. If they want to encourage us to cooperate and share resources, why don’t they just ask? Why do they have to threaten us with forced consolidation or elimination?
Iowa's 367 districts are already under extreme pressure to increase academic standards. I appreciate that Vilsack and “Tommy’s Dozen” want the state to take over more of the cost of public schools from local property taxpayers.
According to a Monday, March 21 story in the Des Moines Register*, Vilsack and the legislators concocted a school plan last week while talking about efficiency of state and local government. It’s all fine and good for county and local governments to share services, and I’m even in favor of neighboring schools cooperating and pooling resources, but why does the “governance committee” have any business meddling in the future of Iowa public schools?
Part of it has to do with the fact that schools have traditionally been supported by property taxes, but Vilsak and the governance committee want to cut those taxes for commercial and industrial property owners. I suppose that they don’t think that farmers and homeowners bear enough of the burden.
Tommy’s Dozen want to have a commission “study the issue,” and recommend a minimum size for school districts to the 2007 Legislature.
Could you imagine students living within two miles of Dunlap having to drive to Castana to their county high school? Could you imagine students living within two miles of Ute having to drive in to Denison? Kids in Dunlap would have to drive to Mondaiman.
Charter Oak-Ute wouldn’t have an opportunity to win another state basketball title, there won’t be a Charter Oak-Ute. I know one COU graduate who became a university dean, another is the student body president of one of the states universities. You can’t tell me that small schools don’t offer opportunities and challenge their students in ways that even large schools can’t.
According to the Register Vilsack thinks that high schools with under 200 students should reorganize. If they did, he thinks that the new super-districts could pay teachers more, buy more computers and offer more of advanced math and science classes.
Get real. By having fewer schools, they’d cut expenses. What they’d really do is; layoff teachers and increase student-teacher ratios, cannibalize the obsolete computers of the axed districts for the new bigger-districts, and complain that not enough students qualify to take more advanced math and science classes.
More than a third of Iowa's 365 high schools have less than 200 students. Iowa’s proud tradition of educational excellence was forged in the one-room school house. Small schools are our foundation.
We’ve gone through this before. It seems like every few years, somebody wants to snuff out small schools.
There’s nothing wrong with pooling resources, and establishing regional academies so that students can take advanced placement classes that otherwise wouldn’t be offered at their school. But why are schools even considered an easy way to cut costs. Shouldn’t our children be where we want to focus the lion’s share of our resources?
They want to threaten that if small schools don’t show enough progress at sharing resources, they’ll be forced into regional districts. Sharing teachers, superintendents, transportation, food service and maintenance operations aren’t bad ideas, but why do I suspect that there are those who are just looking for an excuse to cut out the small schools?
I’ve admired the valiant efforts that so many legislators (led by our own) are engaging in to encourage business development in Iowa with things like the Iowa values Fund. It’s time that we apply the same kind of creativity, enthusiasm and tenacity to protecting and promoting our state’s greatest resource- small schools.
*Panel urges schools to share
The legislative committee supports a minimum size for school districts. March 22, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Terri Schiavo
"The case is full of great ironies. A large part of Terri's hospice costs are paid by Medicaid, a program that the administration and conservatives in Congress would sharply reduce. Some of her other expenses have been covered by the million-dollar proceeds of a malpractice suit - the kind of suit that President Bush has fought to scale back."
-NPR commentator Daniel Schorr. Congress met on Palm Sunday to pass a law, signed by Bush, to allow a federal judge to override the decisions of Florida courts to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. The federal judge appointed to the case declined to intervene, though appeals by her parents' lawyers are forthcoming.
-NPR commentator Daniel Schorr. Congress met on Palm Sunday to pass a law, signed by Bush, to allow a federal judge to override the decisions of Florida courts to remove Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. The federal judge appointed to the case declined to intervene, though appeals by her parents' lawyers are forthcoming.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Say that again? Don’t mumble
Sometimes the things little kids say can really make laugh. Like when Ellie, our three year old takes over a room and says, “Alwight you guys, listen up! No talking, no singing, no jumping.”
Other things they say really make you stop and think. Like when Ellie came home from Sunday School excited to sing us a new song: “Jeswus wuvs the wittle childwen.” You probably thought that you know this song, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight…
But are you familiar with the second verse? “Jeswus died from all the childwen…”
Did you catch that? From not for. Although, if you want to get deep into the theological doctrines of original sin, it might just be that He died FROM our sins, not merely FOR them.
And of course, it’s just plain cute to listen to how two and three year olds speak, “PINK, itz mah favowite colowr!”
But imagine if you still couldn’t speak any better than a two year old now. It would be pretty difficult, wouldn’t it? You might even feel trapped. You probably wouldn’t be taken very seriously. People would assume that you weren’t as intelligent as you are just because you aren’t as intelligible as they are.
That’s how life is for Ellie’s older sister Grace. Once an older kid even asked if she was “retarded.” All the tests and assessments that she took in preschool and kindergarten report that she is right on grade level in terms of thinking, knowledge, understanding, intelligence and problem solving.
For years we’ve taken Grace (who’s almost six) to various doctors, experts, speech therapists, and even a chairopractor to find out what was wrong with her. She has a speech impediment, delayed motor skills, and trouble with bathroom control. A number of people suggested to us that she may have “Dysarthria,” sort of a delayed development of her muscles and nerves.
Two weeks ago she was screened and accepted into a speech therapy program at the Monroe Meyer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in
As a theologically conservative Lutheran, I've always had my qualms about Free Masonry and any other quasai-Arab, fraternal organizations. The biggest qualm is just that they’re secret societies. There are questions of works-righteousness, there are suspicions of deism. And of course there are the funny hats.
You know what? I thank God for these people and their charitable work, otherwise, we'd never be able to afford to get her the best help that she needs. God uses all kind of people to accomplish good things. What does it matter why they do what they do or who they’re associated with? Jesus said that you can judge a tree by it’s fruit. So God bless you Shriners and Scottish Rite-wingers and you funny hats too. Thank you for what you do for children.
The specialist at Monroe Meyer said that from his examination, he thinks that it is more likely that our daughter suffers from Apraxia.
Apraxia is caused by “damage to the corpus callosum, frontal lobe, or parietal lobe of the human brain produces a category of deficits called apraxia. Literally, the term means ‘without action,’ but apraxia differs from paralysis or weakness that occurs when motor structures such as the precentral gyrus, basal ganglia, brain stem, or spinal cord are damaged. Apraxia is the "inability to properly execute a learned skilled movement" Neuropsychological studies of the apraxias have provided information about the way skilled behaviors are organized and initiated.”
“There are four major types of apraxia… Limb apraxia refers to problems with movements of the arms, hands, and fingers. Oral apraxia refers to problems with movements of the muscles used in speech.” (http://www.apraxia-kids.org/)
It would make sense to me if Grace has both of these. A pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital thought that Grace might merely have developmental delay or what they called dis-coordination. All I know is that Grace and Ellie basically learned how to climb a ladder and mastered pedaling a bike at about the same time. Dance class has helped a her a lot with coordination, but she still can’t quite skip and the tumbling and gymnastics that they do is a major challenge.
My best guess is still that this was caused by having her umbilical chord wrapped around her neck during her birth. Part of me is bitter that the HMO didn't have their doctors taker her by C-Section much sooner than they did, but I know that all things work for the good of those who love the Lord (Romans
I'm told that Apraxia is sort of a cousin to Dislexia. That makes sense. Grace usually writes most of her letters fine, but instead of saying "Macaroni and Cheese," she says "Ronimac and Cheese." Sometimes it looks like she’s writing her letters in a mirror, but most kids do that sort of thing up until fourth grade or so. In fact, she’s really bright. She loves reading and has started tackling Dr. Suess on her own, without any prompting.
What Grace has taught me that I’d like to pass on to you, is that you can’t judge a radio by its announcer. Or a book by its cover. People may be far deeper, smarter, and more complicated than their vocabulary would ever make you think.
She is incredibly sensitive, kind, patient, creative and fun. People who meet her almost always describe her as friendly, bubbly, effervescent, exuberant and easy going. Of course, don’t ask her to pronounce any of those words.
New Art
Fear no art
Click here:Ted's Pics & Picks to see some of the latest artworks and photos that I've created. I think that some of these are really fun.
Click here:Ted's Pics & Picks to see some of the latest artworks and photos that I've created. I think that some of these are really fun.
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