State Representative Elizabeth May sent out her letters to her colleagues demanding a special session this week, and in case you didn’t get yours, you can read it here:
The letter notes the need to “Move decisions back to the representation of the people, and free up our teachers and local school boards.” But the petition for a special session seems to contradict this a bit:
The petition for a special session notes that “the special session shall address the teachers, facilities, and resources needed to provide a quality education including possible sources for increased funding for education, the length of the school year, the pay for teachers, the use of technology in education, and the assessments used to measure academic progress.”
If the letter talks about “Move decisions back to the representation of the people” meaning more local control, why would the session include discussion on the length of the school year, which is typically up to individual districts? As well as the use of technology for education… again, usually up to individual school districts.
So, what are your thoughts? Would you sign on to it?
Wow. What a terribly written letter. I don’t want anyone with those grammar skills making decisions on the future of my childrens’ education.
That was the first thing that struck me too.
Indeed. Her grammar and sentence structure is atrocious. New ‘graph, Ms. May. new ‘graph.
For the love of God, somebody send this woman to grammar school!
This reminds of a South Dakotas Gun Owners threat and I will treat accordingly
A special session to what end?
What does she want? every come running just because she cried ‘Wolf’
If I got such a letter it would remained unsigned.
Who says that “the task forces’ prescribed solutions will be the only ones allowed at the table”? When Vehle made his transportation proposal after the summer committee it wasn’t the final solution (the end product was very different than his). Why not see what the task force comes up with and if you don’t like it then fight to change it next session? She’s just assuming she won’t like it (because it won’t address CC) so she’s trying to prevent them with even come out with a proposal.
Also, I agree with the comment about the grammar. How awful. Even the quote I pulled was inaccurate. Unless there are multiple task forces out there that she is referring to?
I’ve read May admit elsewhere that she’s not an intellectual giant, and frankly that’s a big part of the problem. She confuses facts and figures, lacks critical thinking skills and many times leaps to inappropriate conclusions. I do not make these comments to pound Rep. May, but only to point out that she doesn’t appear to be a very educated woman. That’s a problem for the state, and in particular for the education community. She has a hard time connecting the dots.
Short and sweet. No one can miss the meaning. Thank you for your efforts, Liz.
The length isn’t the issue. If you’re sending a letter on your official state rep. letterhead you should be using proper grammar. Especially if the subject of your letter is education.
Where is the section where they can check “no” and comment why. Would she make that public. I think not.
Why aren’t they letting Roger Hunt lead the anti common core movement? He’s so good. These clowns don’t get respect from anyone.
Lets have the meeting talk about it and go home like usual.
I agree with Anonymous 4:24 that Rep. Hunt commands much greater respect than the May groupies. The issue isn’t just Common Core. It’s about prudence and common sense.
Either Rep. May wants to destroy the South Dakota education system or she’s an idiot, or both.
Liz May is doing a good job keeping the RINO wing working overtime. Just look at how much ink PP devotes to her.
Please. if hypothetically we do not have a president who is black or named Clinton this goes away. The common core issue has been taken over by people that want to scream he’s a Kenyan. Rather than blather about their hatred for Obama they claim eduction policy in this instance under his watch is an effort to destroy local control and our kids through social engineering.
Sorry, but this isn’t a black or white or Dem or Rep issue. It’s an education issue and to make it other is incorrect. It’s not going away no matter who is President next time around. After all, Bush gave us NCLB and that didn’t turn out to be so great either.
This one statement Springer, I agree. Education funding is a topic that we need to address, as a whole. The House, Senate, governor’s office, the judiciary and the people.
However a special session for this one topic is a bad idea.
This Blue Ribbon Task Force is suppose to collect ideas and information about funding education. now if they have some ideas please present them.
I realize that the Blue Ribbon task force is supposed to find ideas for funding education, but from the one I attended, most of the findings involved “teachers aren’t paid enough,” “education needs more money,” or “raise taxes.” What is new about these findings? And the way it was run was designed to give these answers for the most part. I don’t think the task force will really accomplish anything in the long run. I don’t necessarily think we need a special session to get rid of common core, we just need legislators who will listen to the people and not the educrats about how they want their children taught, and vote accordingly during the regular session.
The education task force has the burden to find out where the current funding money is going. If our state funds education in the 39th percentile but pay teachers in last place and administrators 26th place nationally, then something is wrong. To put more money into education without investigating current school budgets is wrong. School boards dole out who will be paid what , not the legislature.
Those are all good points Wow. We also need to reflect on unique state factors such as geography, number of school districts, local and state politics, etc. All those play a role in how our current education system has developed over the years. It’s true that local school boards control the purse strings, but the legislature creates the ground rules for school boards. South Dakotans love local control. Are we ready for legislation that mandates the locals put “x” dollars into teacher salaries, or mandates a cap on school district reserves? All those issues and more are part of the equation.
This is what happens when someone thinks that they have more political clout than they really have… This letter is basically a threat used to scare other legislators into going along with her. Will Liz May succeed in this approach to her position of power or will it backfire on her?? I already know the answer…..
This shows how weak our political reporting in SD is in our traditional media outlets when any mention of informing the voters on legislator’s voting records is considered a threat.
I would also ask why a conservative Republican is being attacked for advocating the Republican position of opposing Common Core, on a supposed Republican blog?
When did we start talking about voting records???
Is this a conservative use of taxpayer funds? Special session? Special letters? Special everything?
May is special indeed
Li doesn’t fit as well in the political classification of left or right. Moreso in the intelligence classification of stupid to smart. It’s beyond me why a woman that barely made it out of high school would serve on the education committee.
Why so mean spirited & how do you know she barely made it . She is smart enough to own & operate a successful business .
No intent for mean-spiritedness. Next time you see her, ask her which college she attended. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be a legislator — she won her election — but serve on Education??? That’s like someone serving on Transportation that had their license revoked. Shouldn’t happen. There are better committees for Liz May to serve on.
Possession of a college degree doesn’t necessarily demonstrate one’s possession of an education.
Liz is doing a great job exposing the liberal agenda of the Governor and “Republican Leadership”. That is really what the special session proposal is accomplishing. The Governor will never allow his toties to sign on to a special session where the message cannot be controlled. Very smart play, Rep. May.
All accounts point to the “findings” of the task force were predetermined.
They want more money.
Discussions of how to more efficiently use the money they are already getting, what they have done with the money they have already spent, or assessments of how more money will improve education weren’t allowed.
They just promoted the post-it notes like they were at Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. Are the task force members familiar with that movie or was that just karma?
http://dakotafreepress.com/tag/blue-ribbon-task-force-on-teachers-and-students/
That’s what I saw at the meeting too; the same answers over and over again – more money for teachers/education and higher taxes. The Delphi Technique is how they kept coming up with the same answers but really nothing new. A waste of time and taxpayer money IMO. If education is truly getting over 50% of the state budget, what more can they expect? Maybe more efficient use of the money we taxpayers give them.
So, if I understand this correctly, Rep. May wants to call everyone back to Pierre to them to raise taxes to fund increase teacher pay? I thought this Blue Ribbon Task Force was to explore all the options, then report back with their findings.
If this is the only thing they have come up with, they have wasted tax payer money, time and effort.
Look at the photos in the link I posted, of the bulletin boards covered with post-its. I especially liked the one that said “do something.” That was profound.
thats what the task force is doing. Something. Just remember:
We need more teachers! The teachers need more money!
Er, really? How many of us, employed in the private sector, recieved emails from our supervisors with a link to a computerized learning module, an auto-tutorial, with an instruction to complete the mandatory training, or such similar thing? The inservice is all done on a computer which administers a test at the end. The only teacher involved is giving the lesson on video, from a thousand miles away. Or, the whole thing is done by teleconference.
There was a time when it was necessary to travel great distances to centers of learning, where master thinkers would impart their wisdom in classrooms. These universities were the great repositories of knowledge. They had the libraries. You had to go to them.
but those days are over. There is no reason why a classroom of kids in Olerichs can’t teleconference a class that is being conducted live in Sioux Falls.
Just the fact the task force was going around the state with post-its, bulletin boards and magic markers tells you they aren’t up to the task of understanding 21st century solutions.
Text books are expensive. There is no reason why those texts can’t be put on thier network in HTML or PDF format. They are easily updated. Lessons can be pre-recorded, and put in a Power point format to be accessed either from school or home in the event of a snow day.
The schools could take some lessons from the homeschoolers. Many of them have on-line curriculums that can easily be used in addition to in classroom instruction. (I have done this before, and it worked very well)
School can very easily use local rescources. I can’t think of one (okay maybe one) State Repersentative or State Senator that wouldn’t jump at the chance to talk to students about local goverment.
School consolidation shouldn’t be taken off the table, or going to four day school week, or even year round school.
There
are many different options that haven’t been explored.
Rep. May wants the special session to address Common Core, not school funding. For some reason the legislators were all “won over” by the education lobby and educrats at the last session regarding Common Core instead of listening to the parents. The teachers are for the most part not going to say much negative, even though they have plenty of negative to say, for fear of their jobs etc.
Springer, you’re not quiet on the ball. South Dakota will begin its sixth year of using the Common Core State Standards this fall. Six years! And each and every year there has been bills to repeal it. Well, guess what? Its failed each and every year. Why? Because the MAJORITY of parents have indeed spoken through their elected legislators. If the majority wanted to eliminate Common Core State Standards, they have now had two election cycles to elect people that would do that. It’s a small vocal minority that want the change. Rep. May is one of them.
What’s accounts are your referring to Anne? The public meetings were opportunities for the public to provide input. There have been no conclusions reached. Did you attend the first and only meeting held in Pierre this month? Have you reviewed the Power Points from the first on the public website? People are confusing the initial public input meetings with current work-through-the-issues meeting that has just started in Pierre. Those meeting are open to the public and are posted on the Blue Ribbon website.
Anne,
It seems that you have also prejudged the outcome of the task force and that any recommendation for more taxes to pay teachers more will be unacceptable to you regardless of the actual need.
At the beginning of the task force, it was said that they would look at why SD is last in teacher pay but 37th in overall spending. So they are looking at the spending side.
But the fact that SD could raise average teacher pay by $10,000 and still be in last place means the problem is much larger than many are willing to acknowledge. I seriously doubt that spending reallocation alone will have any significant impact on the teacher shortage.
Springer ,
All legislators ? I suggest you actually look at floor votes over the past 6 yrs.
All the fuss about transparency on Legislators voting records doesn’t apply here huh .
Sorry. I know that not all legislators support Common Core, and I admit that I don’t know how you voted. But I know that the legislation failed once again. To another point, legislators will not necessarily vote the way the majority of their constituents want if they are swayed by lobbyists for certain issues; that is just human nature. So simply electing legislators because they promise a certain thing, like repeat of Common Core, does not always work when it comes to actual voting.
I also know that teachers have requested Melody Schopp to come to their classrooms and witness how Common Core is not working, and she refuses to do so, just sits in her office in Pierre and says all is fine.
All the legislators who voted for the budget voted for common core, including Verchio. Verchio pays lip service to opposing common core, but like Boehner and McConnell, votes to pay for it. One more slight of hand.
Anonymous 11:05, you apparently think eliminating Common Core is the most important thing on a legislator’s mind, more important than passing a budget. News flash – it’s not. In fact, all the legislators that did NOT “stand with Dan” last session actively and publicly showed support FOR Common Core. Year after year, more legislators show support for Common Standards than oppose.
Same argument as McConnell and Boehner–got to give in to the left. Another member of the surrender caucus with Mike Verchio.
It seems that many do not want to rock the boat and lose the governor’s office approval, so they continue to head in an incorrect direction.
They are elected by the voters Wow, not the Governor. Seems to me the ones that oppose Common Core probably ran on that platform of opposition. Those that support Common Core likely ran on a platform of support. Now elected, if true to their word, all should be voting as they campaigned. As far as being incorrect, that’s your opinion. It’s not the opinion of the majority of the legislature as evidenced by votes each year.
Technology initially toppled major corporations like Motorola and Kodak who failed to innovate and successfully compete. Now, technology has the opportunity to reduce or eliminate the entrenched bureaucacies of government services such as education.
As a society, we shouldn’t fight that. We should embrace it. Technoligical innovation in education can provide both improvements for the students and reduced costs for taxpayers.
I am reminded now of how I prepared for my CCRN exam. I bought a book. I checked out a series of instructional videos from a library, lectures given by a nursing educator somewhere in New York. Then I took an exam, under the supervision of a monitor who needed no expertise in the subject, she was just there to validate our identification and make sure nobody was cheating. The exam was scored by a computer. I didn’t go to any school, or meet with any teachers, and that was over 20 years ago. That is the future of education, whether the professional educators can see it coming or not. It is what has made homeschooling possible for parents who would otherwise never attempt it. It is what the blue ribbon task force should be looking at, but aren’t.
That may be an appropriate method of education for an adult studying for a certification exam, but you can’t teach a first grader how to read like that or teach a tenth grader algebra.
Home schoolers have the benefit of practically a one-to-one student-teacher ratio, so what works for them will not work for a classroom of thirty.
The State has expanded the use of distance education with high schoolers taking dual credits, but I hope we don’t get to the point where we are replacing teachers with a video screen on a widespread basis.
computers and video will NEVER replace teachers in the classroom. They are a tool that can help teachers.
Those that home school have some ideas that we might use at the state level. several home schools might get together to purchase science lab equipment, then share it among those families. They might get together for a group field trip to the zoo. or other institution.
Springer you make a valid point & one that a lot of voters overlook . I can promise you anything . I can tell you anything . Unless you verify what I said by checking to see how I vote & holding me accountable the system does not work .
Like your vote for Illegal aliens?
I find the goals of Common Core are eminently reasonable, particularly since my child used to struggle with basic math concept. In fairness, I can’t say for sure if it’s just Common Core that helped my son or simply a concerted effort by my school’s teachers to reach out, but my son’s test scores and grades have improved from below to above average since Common Core was implemented.
Though opponents of Common Core continue to fight for its demise, by sticking with it South Dakota is letting the rest of the country know it will educate its children and future business leaders on the same level as any other state in the country, if not a higher level. Today, 25 percent of students in this country fail to graduate from high school. Only 35 percent of eighth-graders perform at grade level in math. And 30 percent of our nation’s high-school graduates cannot pass the U.S. military entrance exam. Among students who go on to enter four-year colleges, almost 60 percent arrive on campus surprised to learn that they require remedial courses in English or mathematics. They may have thought they had a mastery of those all-important subject areas, but because standards today differ so wildly from school to school and state to state, they are often wrong. Among students entering two-year colleges, 75 percent require remedial instruction in English, math, or both. This remedial education imposes as much as $3 billion in costs on students and their families annually, and $7 billion on taxpayers and colleges.
Common Core establishes uniform standards — standards that must be met regardless of the curriculum South Dakota decides to adopt. The standards demand accountability. They give the things that really matter — reading, writing, and arithmetic — priority over subject matter that does little or nothing to prepare kids for college and the workforce. And ultimately, the Common Core standards will make South Dakota students more competitive with their international peers. All of these goals are worthy, and they deserve the continued support of the South Dakota Legislature.
How can people believe that the Common Core Standards will cause our students to excel in anything? What do we not get about the word “common??” …plain, simple, par…nothing excellent in this word. What it is called is what we will get. Students will not excel under this program.
Students already ARE excelling under Common Core. It’s been here six years. The term “Common” refers to shared standards. And they are a basement, i.e. a minimum requirement, for student knowledge.
The goals of Common Core, as stated above, to demand accountability and standards that are more or less the same in all states – nothing wrong with that. What I think most people object to is the way, methods, etc used to implement Common Core via the textbooks that go along with it, and the number of tests and days spent testing. Standards and methods are two widely different things.
Springer,
The number of tests and the days testing has not changed with the adoption of Common Core. Prior to Common Core, we had the Dakota Step test. Now we have Smarter Balance.
How many times per year do they test the students? Are the questions on the computer and designed so that a question cannot be skipped but must be answered in order to go to the next? How many hours are spent testing the students which could be better spent actually learning, if multiple tests are done per year? Is the testing set up so that kids who do not understand English are able to take the test, and if not, then the tests are worthless anyway? Are the tests designed with the age of the kids in mind, or do they simply confuse the kids (which does not inspire critical thinking, it just discourages)? These are all issues that have been raised by actual teachers; they are not things I have just pulled out of thin air.
ANY teacher who resents independent testing of their students and measuring the age appropriate skills that is reported to state taxpayers, local taxpayers, school administration and parents should be IMMEDIATELY fired. Teachers who don’t WELCOME accountability have no business in a classroom.
The More and more the anti-common core folks talk, they make it clear they are anti-rigor/excellence in the classroom, anti-accountability for teachers and members of the whine caucus.
No teacher resents independent testing of the students, and you are completely mistaking my points. Many teachers and parents are upset with the number and length of the testing done which takes away time from the classroom learning experience. They are also upset with the method of testing which in many cases discourages students. If you want to fire every teacher who has a different opinion of multiple testing, that is truly scary. Is this what Common Core is – lock-step thinking mindset? If it is, Common Core is even worse than we think.
I am not anti-rigor/excellence in the classroom. I am not against accountability for teachers; in fact, I have had experience with teachers who are more interested in coaching than in teaching academics, but nothing is done about these. And for you to impugn anyone who disagrees with Common Core in this way is beneath your usual posts.
Springer,
Then you should have answers to your own questions since you advocate a hard position. This would allow an assessment of those you talk to and rely upon. Otherwise, you give the impression I described.