GoBigEd

Posted 8:32 AM by Susan Darst Williams

A COUPLE OF ‘HEAR, HEAR’s’ AND ONE ‘OH, DEAR’

I’m happy to report that some good old Nebraska horse sense has been trotted out by Nebraskans elected to two school boards:

-- Jim Paloucek, board member, North Platte Public Schools, at a public hearing on a proposal to add taxpayer-subsidized preschool to the public schools:

“The best pre-school education is at home with the parents. I hope the taxpayers are not headed down the road toward public preschools. The vast majority of our children are already well served by parents and private preschools.” (Tuesday’s www.northplattebulletin.com)

-- The elected board of the Educational Service Unit #6 directed staff to look in to publishing a monthly mailing online, not snail-mailed on paper, to teachers and administrators in five counties to save money, and passed a unanimous resolution that should be music to all taxpayers’ ears:

“. . . (T)he Board of ESU #6 believes that it may not be in the best interest to pursue reorganization with other ESUs because it may not increase the efficiency of educational opportunities, and that it may not decrease the cost of providing services, and it may in fact increase most to providing the same services currently being delivered, and WHEREAS, the Board of ESU #6 believes that is it more feasible and prudent to pursue using our energies and resources to work with other ESUs including but not limited to ESU #4 and ESU #5 to enter into an expansion of the exchange of shared services. . . .” (Tuesday’s www.yorknewstimes.com)

Aren’t those refreshing?

Unfortunately, there’s another piece of news from Nebraska’s K-12 education family that is pretty sad:

-- A second-grade teacher in the Omaha Public Schools has been arrested on charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver (Tuesday’s www.omaha.com)

Oh, well: you know what they say . . . two steps forward, one step back.