Posted 10:40 AM by Susan Darst Williams

CIRCLING THE WAGONS AROUND NEBRASKA’S LITTLE SCHOOLS

The Legislature’s Education Committee held a hearing Tuesday on how to force Nebraska’s rural Class 1 schools into history. But the champions of small schools are going to fight hard to preserve their school style. Of Nebraska’s 488 school districts, nearly half, or 231, are Class 1 schools, educating just 2 percent of the state’s pupils. The educrats say we can save up to $3 million by shutting them down and forcing the kids to larger schools. But that doesn’t count added transportation costs – and the loss of excellence. The quality of Class 1 schooling is concealed by the way the state educrats do things: test scores, for example, aren’t released if there are fewer than 10 pupils in a grade. And since the Class 1 schools end by eighth grade, we can’t see what smaller schools turn out in the way of ACT and SAT scores. Hint, hint: look at the 100% graduation rates and high test scores of tiny private schools like Brownell-Talbot and Duchesne, probably the best in the state. Bigger is NOT always better, and there are ample other ways to save tax dollars in K-12 education in this state that don’t hurt quality. Read the bill at:

www.unicam.state.ne.us/pdf/INTRO_LB126.pdf

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NAILING THE MAIN PROBLEM: LOUSY READING INSTRUCTION

Phyllis Schlafly is a great American. I’m not just saying that because she’s the auntie of one of my buds from Mizzou. It’s because she’s been faithfully and forcefully telling the truth about reading instruction in this country for years, and again very well in this dispatch:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/printps20050117.shtml


ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CARTWHEELS?

Students in West Covina, Calif., were all potential victims of an “unsafe situation” created by their classmate, 11-year-old Deirdre Faegre. So her school suspended her for a day late last year. Deirdre’s offense? Doing cartwheels and handstands during lunchtime. Her father pulled her out of the school, complaining about “cartwheel cops.” The plan is to homeschool Deirdre, a recent “Student of the Month” at that school, until they can find a private school for her. This has bulged into an international incident as Exhibit A of how “zero tolerance” school policies are wacky:

http://zerointelligence.net/archives/000232.php