by David Safier
You may remember John Huppenthal's faux pas at the January State Republican Party meeting. He hung the world's biggest poster on the wall of the Saguaro High auditorium — it was a full 24 feel long — by drilling holes in the wall. Without permission. Oops.
Commenter Todd, who read this morning's post where I wrote about Hupp's voucher bill and his statement that private schools are public schools too, suggested I read the bullet points on the poster. So I did.
The accomplishments Hupp lists have very little to do with the majority of traditional public school students or traditional public education as a whole, because he doesn't like those schools very much. Remember, he's gearing his message to his Republican Party audience, and they don't so much like those schools either.
Here are the accomplishments he lists:
- "Removing the caps on charter school enrollment" (Republicans love charter schools almost as much as they love private schools. The more the better.)
- "Creating Arizona's Tuition Tax Credit, helping our Christian & Catholic schools" (Yes, they love their private schools, especially the religious ones — if you're the right religion. Did you know tuition tax credits don't help Jewish or Muslim private schools? Or secular ones? At least they don't merit a mention. And did you know Catholics aren't Christians, so they need a separate religious category?)
- "Supporting English Language Immersion for students who can't speak English" (It's cheap the way we do it in Arizona, and recent research show it's not very effective, but according to Republicans, it's all they deserve. Why should we let them talk all that Spanish-talk in schools anyway?)
- "Developing and passing the best home school laws in the nation" (Did I forget to mention Republicans love home schooling as much as private schooling? And that Hupp thinks home schools are public schools too?)
- "Providing the very best computer technology for our deaf and blind students" (But if you can hear and see, you don't get the best of anything. Sorry, can't afford it.)
- "Establishing a model summer school for children with autism" (But if you aren't autistic, good luck finding a "model summer school" to attend)
I haven't done the math, but I'm guessing those 6 bullet points total less than 20% of Arizona's student population. And one of the largest groups, the ELL students, are mentioned to remind Republicans that Arizona has one official language, and we won't let those people who talk wrong — not English — use that wrong talk in our schools.
John Huppenthal. He wants to be superintendent of all Arizona's students — except for the vast majority.
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As David indicates, research has shown ELL immersion is not effective .
Romans – every taxpayer is paying for children to go to public school, regardless of whether they even have children. This is because public education is seen as a public good which is democratically controlled and meant to serve the public interest. Taxpayer money shouldn’t be going to institutions which have no public accountability or democratic input. Nor should taxpayer money be going to institutions, such as ‘our Christian & Catholic schools’, which provides religious indoctrination.
Your claim of not being able to make decisions for your children is completely bogus. You are free to enroll them in whatever school you want or homeschool them. The government is not preventing you from doing so.
Back to the main point of this post – why does candidate Huppenthal feel helping fund ‘our Christian & Catholic schools’ is a selling point for him as Superintendent of *Public* Instruction.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/education-reform-after-vouchers
Very ironic and sad thing about ELL Program — here is why it doesn’t work, Romans:
As a teacher, I was mandated by state to take classes to learn about ELL education, study the research and learn what works and what doesn’t work well. Had to get that special endorsement on my license to keep my job. And lo and behold, Supt. Tom Horne mandated the state follow a program that I just learned is very ineffective, and very inefficient – four hours a day in sheltered program of English only immersion; Horne justified program by saying the goal of this new Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) model (lock ’em up four hours a day in a room with a highly qualified English teacher where it is “English Only”) was “for ELLs to become proficient in English as quickly as possible.”
Research shows this is probably the least efficient and least effective way to teach English Language Learners. I was shocked — it was as ridiculous as ridiculous gets: I was mandated to learn not to do what the state just mandated must be done.
What research shows, and what some states with high reading scores like Massachusstetts know, is good readers bring a lot of background knowledge to what they are reading, and the surest way to increase reading scores and the quickest way for kids to develop high skills and get smart is for students to study a lot more history and science. Mass. doubled up on those classes, and sure as sun will come up tomorrow, students’ reading scores went way, way up. Here in Arizona, Horne decided to keep ELL’s locked up for four hours, in one English class, and limit their exposure to other classes — other classes that would help their reading sklls.
And what is actually tragic because it is just so damn stupid is that the first thing you learn when you start learning about language acquisition is there is a BIG difference between what is called BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALPS (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). BICS is what kids use to talk with each other in cafeteria and playground, the kind of language they pick up quickly and easily. CALPS is the higher oder skill that enables a student to be truly functional and successful in school. Well, lo and behold, the test Horne decided was good to determine whether or not these ELL students could be released from Sheltered Immersion does a pretty good job of testing BICS, and very poor of testing CALPS.
And this “English ONLY” mantra is also inefficient and ineffective. What I learned is Horne is always playing and creating soundbites for right-wing crowd, always politicking, and he has done a poor job of doing what is best for students. The ELL program he created for Arizona students is inefficient and poorly designed, and largely ineffective.
You say ELL immersion has been a failure. What do you base that on? I was personally very successful working with the ELL program. Just because you don’t like it or agree with it does not make it a failure.
If I’m not paying taxes for my children to be educated then where are my tax dollars going. Maybe you would support opted out of paying taxes that support education as long as I don’t enroll them in public school. I’m okay with that. Uh but wait, that would mean that I’m making the decision and we don’t want parents making decisions for our children. That’s the governments job.
No, I don’t want to see it eliminated just improved. Competition would help that. If it was eliminated I would be out of a job. I work for the PVUSD. I worked in charter schools previously so I am familiar with public education and very involved. I just believe we should have a choice where we send our kids. Tell me what it hurts if I am given a voucher to send my children to the school of my choice. The amount would not even be equivalent to what the state pays for each student, but I could use that voucher for the education that I choose. But of course the government run program mentality thinks they know better what my family needs than I do. Just bizarre.
No, they are not ‘in a sense’ barred from attending private school. You are wrong about what most parents want, I suggest you look into it before you make claims based on your own perspective.
Public education is paid through public means – taxes. You are not paying taxes for your own children to be educated, otherwise people who don’t have children or who have children who have finished high school would get their taxes reduced. That isn’t how it works.
Fear of competition? No. It is fear that based on clear signs and statements the intent is to eliminate public education. You would like to see public education eliminated, wouldn’t you? Admit it.
ELL immersion has been a failure in AZ precisely because it does not allow the type of teaching flexibility you claim you believe in.
But my children can not use my tax dollars to pay for their education if I choose a private school for them, so yes, in a sense they are barred from attending private schools. And No, most parents do not want to send their children to a public school. Supporting education through taxes is fine. Just give me my childrens share(let’s say maybe in the form of a voucher) and I’ll have my children educated where I choose to. The fear of competition just emphasizes the weakness in public education.
As far as ELL students go. I spent a whole year working with ELL students. And yes there is one thing they all need to do the same and that is to learn not only to speak English, but also to be able to use the English language correctly. I’ve seen student graduate from the ELL program and almost immediately improve their grades. The state has provided a good program that really benefits the kids when it is implemented properly.
Romans, that is a load of crap. Children aren’t barred from attending private schools or being homeschooled. No one is arguing that children who learn in different ways or children who have learning disabilities should be should be stuffed in with everyone else. But boy, Huppenthal sure seems to believe all students who are ELL must be taught in the same exact way.
What most parent’s want is to be able to send their children to a high quality public school. Supporting a public education system through taxes is perfectly reasonable. Supporting religious schools through taxing is not, nor is it constitutional, at least not yet. Huppenthal doesn’t give a damn about public education – in fact it is pretty clear he wants to eliminate it.
Hmmmm….sounds like he supports freedom of choice in education for parents.
Children should be allowed to receive the education that their parents choose for them. Nobody who supports this is telling anyone where their children should attend, just advocating having a choice.
On the other side of the coin maybe we should put them all in balls and chains and send them all to receive the exact education that strangers have decided is best for them. When I hear people oppose a parents choice in their child’s education all it says to me is that they are arrogant and think they know better than us of what our children need. Children are individuals and some excel and blossom in different environments. Just because one child sits in a classroom with 30 other students and aces all of his classes does not mean all children are capable of doing that. Private, charter and homeschooling provide an opportunity to customize the learning environment for a child so that he can get the best education for himself. Some can’t thrive in a large crowded environment that many public schools offer, and these kids just fall through the cracks. Then at some point some of them will be labeled learning disabled or some other label students receive when they underperform. Some will eventually receive sped services and some won’t. Those that don’t usually end up thinking they are stupid and being called that by their peers. This often leads to behavior problems because they want the emphasis off of their inability to perform. Boy, I could go on and on, but I just don’t understand the resistance to alternatives to the herd teaching that is done in most public schools.