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Not Enough of the Right Stuff
By Tom Bado, Torrington
The awfully small improvement in Connecticut Mastery Test scores is unfortunate but not surprising. Not when roughly 85% of the money spent on education is used for salaries and perks. Consider the heavenly bliss that Torrington's school superintendent must be feeling at the moment. The Board of Education recently gave him a pay raise of 4.5%, much higher than the 2.9% increase in the cost of living reported by the Associated Press; the Social Security Administration cites an even lower rate of 2.6%. Worse, the raise comes on the heels of the budget shortfall mess, and a failure by the superintendent to delay school for a snowfall that had school buses sliding all over town.
Give credit, however, where credit is due—to board member Dawn Lambert, who voted against the raise. At the same time, another member called for more money, saying the board should not "nickel and dime" the superintendent's pay. To this, the Superintendent's response was, "I don't mind giving up some nickels or dimes to move forward with the board." This from someone who has not only received a hefty raise, but also gets 25 vacation days a year and 73 sick days over three years, not including holidays.
How does this package rate? Not even the President of the United States gets as many days off. Just as unbelievable, the superintendent is allotted up to $400 a month for car expenses (Sir, with your new salary of $125,462, you mean to tell us that you can't afford to fix your car?) and a yearly annuity of 7.5% of his base salary. Does that sound like "nickels and dimes" to anyone? Bones and peanuts? Try gold bullion and lobster alfredo—all at the expense of student learning.
Yet, there's a bigger problem. The kids are primarily taught the academics and not enough of the right stuff. The right stuff consists of studies that are just as important as the academics, if not more so. For example, if students were to learn about motivation, they would stand a better chance of overcoming the obstacles to doing well. Then the academics will fall in place, and grades will improve. As another example, if students were to learn about responsibility—what it entails and why it matters—society is bound to improve.
School officials and board members must come to realize that they can't wash their hands of the right stuff and leave it to the parents. Too many have trouble with the basics, to say nothing about being knowledgeable in other areas.
To fund these areas, it is necessary to improve on the proposal for a new education cost-sharing plan. Property tax relief won't come merely by the State of Connecticut granting more money to the education system; it'll just be blown on more of the same. State legislators could pass their own "mastery test" by instead designating the added money only for new initiatives to turn education around. For we can no longer afford to mold the student (and society) to the educational system. Rather, we must mold the system to the needs of the student and the society in which we live.
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