DeKalb County Schools - The Price of Voter Apathy is One Big Administrative Mess

As I listened to my elected school board officials struggling to find cuts to their billion dollar annual budget that would not directly harm the education provided to DeKalb County, GA's children, I couldn't help but think there must be a better way. Yes, that's billion, with a B. And, no, they did not figure it out.

They ended up cutting teacher salaries by adding furlough (no school) days to the calendar, adding 2 additional seats to every classroom including special education, cutting back on transportation, cutting funding for the county's science center and getting rid of essential employees like para-professionals, resource officers (security) and translators in the most diverse county in the state of Georgia where more than 125 languages are spoken on any given day. The full list of cuts can be found here.

The per pupil spending is, on average, close to $10,000 per year. But, depending upon what school your child attends, that spending can range anywhere from $7,000 - $20,000 and it's not the racial divide that usually ends up being blamed. The schools with the lower student/teacher ratios and the accolaides for performance are the "special" magnet, theme and charter programs that mainly receive their student population from a lottery system.

Just Dumb Luck

How is that for a life lesson? We're teaching kids that the most important thing in their lives at this point is that they get a "quality" education. Yet, at the same time, we are using a random lottery by which their fate rests with the number on a ping pong ball. It's fitting, I suppose, since our pre-K program is funded by the Georgia Lottery, as is our "Hope Scholarship" that helps them pay for college. We are telling our children that hard work will only get you so far in life, and the rest is just dumb luck.

Worse than that, the perception that these other schools which are marketed as "better" because they are "different" actually creates a feeling of fear among most parents. Fear that they should have selected a different option. Fear that their neighborhood school is somehow not up to par. Fear that if their child does not win the lottery this year that he or she will be "stuck" with something that is somehow "worse." Rather than sink your heels in to help the local school, the system encourages you to keep looking for something else.

The Grass is Always Greener

There's no mention of the fact that the teachers, principals and every other person who might come into contact with your child are frequently rotated from school to school, providing the same level of instruction at each institution. Somehow, there is the thought that what the child learns is dependent upon the particular curicumlum, not something within the control of the child himself.

There is also a misunderstanding that money is the one thing that will make everything better. I doubt that most people realize that the private schools are doing a much better job at delivering on the basic education needs at a per pupil cost of only $6,000 a year, or less. How can they do this? The enormous cost of the large administration is not necessary in smaller, private schools. There are no secretaries or secretaries for the secretaries as we have here in DeKalb County, a suburb of Atlanta. And, they likely do not have the added pressure of responding to the demands of the housing market as it tried to make a comeback.

When it comes to financial investments, real estate is still a big, volitile mess in DeKalb County. Schools are typcially a big factor in determining the value of a home. So, those schools who have powerful PTAs or booster clubs that can politically manuever and bargain in order to get a little more will do so without consideration of how it might affect all the other children in the district. They just need the numbers so they can move inventory. Buy low, sell high. Here's a video on YouTube we made to illustrate this point.

So, as I listened to the school board members fight over their travel expense accounts, while sitting in their $3,000 chairs, wearing their $500 suits so they can look good while making their points over the cable-broadcast station and Internet feeds, I thought how horrible it must be to be a student in one of these schools today. There is no way the children are immune to the infighting that will likely remain a part of our school system as long as it continues to show the public the "need" for their particular represenative to continue "fighting" for their slice of the pie. No wonder our county continues to see declines in test scores and graduation rates every year (and that's WITH the cheating by the teachers to help improve the scores!).

All in Good Time

As we hear about the U.S. losing the global economy race to better educated, more innovative students from other countries, I have to wonder if education is even the answer any longer. Perhaps our children would be better served to just "do their time" in the public education institution and we, as parents, need to make sure their love of learning comes from other directions. We have to really know our children so we can determine what "spark" might lie within that may be a saving grace for the sucess of this up and coming generation.

Multiple choice tests, memorization drills, fighting school boards, bullies running rampant and disgruntled teachers do not make an inspiring combination. But, the greatest inventors such as Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein, did not believe in the value of institutional education and we consider them to be geniuses. I've worried a lot about how to ensure my child gets a good education and how I can help fix this broken system of ours.

But, the more I listen to the bickering of these adults and the way they twist the truth to suit them, the more I am figuring out that the education I received is nothing like the one today's children are experiencing. And, if I want my child to learn, I guess I can stop worrying because children are constantly learning, regardless of whether they are in school or out. What they don't learn from books and school, they will learn through life experience.

Perhaps the best I can do for my child is what I'm doing already - supplementing her education in the best ways I can whether that means paying for private school, taking her to after-school programs, or maybe winning a lottery. I am trying to stay involved and up to date with all the school system is doing so that I might help my neighborhood in the event we are targeted for something like a cell tower or a school closing. (My husband and I were forced to get involved last year when we started Get the Cell Out - Atlanta.)

Maybe one day it will be someone from her generation who will figure out a way to save our schools and I just hope that I won't be one of the people she points to when trying to figure out where things went wrong. If I can't figure out the solution, I can at least make sure that I do not become part of the problem. If only our school board members felt that way, too.