Alternatives: Proposals For Local Governments Struggling With Limited Resources
Alternatives: Proposals For Local Governments Struggling With Limited Resources
In the fall of 1994, the Harry Singer Foundation invited a limited number, of mostly small-town schools, to take part in a pilot program. Students were required to find ways to stretch the resources of local government and make services more responsive to the desires of citizens. The Foundation hopes to gradually add larger communities, and offer categories for innovative state and national projects.
Volunteers at the Foundation narrowed the entries to 22. They were then edited and sent to the National Center for Financial Education in San Francisco, California, where they were reduced to five. These five were then forwarded to a consultant and former-public official in Minnesota who has been in the forefront of the reinventing government movement; the innovative mayors of Indianapolis and Houston, 12 governors, two former-governors and two members of the United States Congress. Many had the help of staff, but all read the proposals and expressed an interest in what these young people had to say.
The final entries are reproduced on the following pages, just as they were seen by the reviewers at the National Center for Financial Education in San Francisco. Across from each paper we reveal the school and participants, information that was kept from judges.
This project was a logical extension of our continuing Responsibility and White Hat programs. Over the years, through student submissions and other sources, we have collected stories of good-things going on around the country, in both the public and private sectors. These inspirational examples have been accessible to anyone with a computer and a modem since the fall of 1993.
Teacher
Patricia Dobbs
Students
Rachel Antonio
Lesleigh Welch
Elizabeth Bonin
James Goebler
Melanie Burr
Alex Baladez
Alison Faden
Joyce Compton
Sravanthi Devabhaktuni
Jeremiah Ritter
Adopt A School
The average person today, plays a key role in the way our government and educational processes flow. People seem to have the idea that without their contribution the governmental and educational systems will run fine, but this is far from the truth. "The People" is what our government is based around, and without their opinions or voices, the people have to accept what their government proposes. This is why, in our democracy, we must voice our opinions to our representatives and congressmen so that we can have a better society for ourselves and our children.
When studying economics, we deal with money, taxes, private and public alternative solutions, displacement and incentives and disincentives. What does economics have to do with public schools? Well, our school district is facing a $20 million budget crunch in the coming academic year, and the year after that, so it is faced with some very tough decisions. For instance: should they cut back (1) security in schools, (2) teachers or (3) some academic programs.
The Activity
Our class conducted polls to see what various groups of citizens want. We targeted the general public, academicians (anyone holding a college degree; mainly teachers and professors) and our elected officials. We tried to find out if public education was among their top priorities and if they support a "zero tolerance" policy. Zero-tolerance refers to a policy whereby students who exhibit disruptive behaviorÑattitude problems, public lewdness, inappropriate behavior towards classmates or teachers, carry weapons and so forthÑcan be expelled from school and sent to an alternative school.
When we say, "Is public education their priority?", we mean would they rather keep or lose public education compared with health care, welfare, transportation and highways, for example. We divided the work among class members. Every student had to contact one elected official and as many ordinary citizens and academicians as possible. Two of our classmates went to a mall and tried to get as many people as possible to complete our survey.
The results showed that education was the last thing the majority of those polled wanted to cut. A total of 69 people responded and of those, 54 wanted public education and 15 said public education was not their top priority. As to the Zero-Tolerance Policy; a total of 45 people responded and of those 28 supported the policy and 17 were opposed. These polls were very important because they showed us what the public felt and from that information we attempted to come up with our alternative.
Incentives and Disincentives To Campus Police
Security is great but when it comes to cutting back teachers and school programs, police officers on campus might not be worth the price. Our class debated for two days on whether or not officers were a good idea. At first everyone was dead set on having extra security, but by the end of the second day, the group decision was to do away with Austin Independent School District officers.
There merits of safe school campuses, were obvious, the disincentives were few and there was little resistance from group membersÑat first. When we changed our collective minds it was because we realized we'd rather keep our teachers and enhance our school programs than pay for campus police.
Of course we first tried to find the funds to keep the security officer we currently have at our school. One of our proposals was to cut down on academic programs; those where there was little student interest, or the classes were expensive or simply "blow-off" classes. Right off we failed to agree which classes are "blow-off" and which were "non-blow-off". We discussed the merits of classes like Auto Mechanics, Home Economics, Child Care, Landscaping, and Food Catering and decided that these classes help provide career opportunities for a lot of students. The classes that are expensive, and those that generate the least amount of interest, are usually advanced or honors classesÑlike our class. Academic Decathlon alone costs $1,000 just to enter the competition and all the materials required for it are extra and the teachers that teach it receive a stipend. Finally our class feared students would not be motivated or benefit academically if classes were cut. We discarded the idea thinking it would hurt the reputation of our school and even cause some parents to enroll their children in other institutions.
Our next solution was to cut staff; mainly the assistant-principals. We reasoned their main job is discipline, and if we have a police officer in school we would not need an assistant-principal. We immediately discovered cutting staff was not an option because it was up to the District Office.
We could not come up with a solution so we made phone calls to elected officials. We mostly talked to secretaries who told us, in fancier words, that basically their bosses favored good education and safe schools. However the state senator who proposed the Zero Tolerance law told us he would fund police officers' salary from our sales tax and the lottery revenue. We discovered that would mean the legislature would have to pass some new bills and get the new Governor's support and the support of the voters. That could take years because it is such a long tedious process.
We debated among ourselves for two days, which was frustrating, maddening and made us realize this is a huge problem and solving it will not be easy. The trouble, as one student put it, was the more we found out, the more we began thinking differently. Finally, we decided as a class that our school would benefit more with no police officers and additional teachers and educational programs.
The Project
Because, like most adults, what we really want is to "have our cake and eat it too", we came up with an alternative that would give us both campus security and quality academics, despite public sector budget cuts. To do this we had to turn to the private sector for our alternative.
We decided to involve our school in getting companies like Motorola, etc. to "adopt" Crockett High School. "Adopters", as these private companies are sometimes called, donate computers, books and much needed materials to their "adoptee" schools. An adopter could sponsor programs like the Academic Decathlon and other competitions that require money. These businesses often provide jobs and or internships to students and even mentors so that students will be discouraged from hanging with gangs and directed towards school and other constructive activities. Our class thinks this alternative will help our school tremendously and will help us deal with the budget cuts.
Conclusion
We all worked together and helped each other see the various aspects of the problems and we all had our own personal views. In the end, most of felt that if the school budget were used for better learning facilities and stricter rules were enforced, then we would not need officers on campuses. [A big "if".]
We decided that we need education more than we need protection. Our school district shouldn't have the burden of trying to keep crime off campuses. Our city police department should be responsible for that. Our school district shouldn't over protect and under educate our students. Their main concern should be to keep public education at the top of their priorities. Educate now so we won't have to imprison/ punish in the future. Back