RE: Checks on School Spending

"Get that money to the schools and..."

That means get the money to the school administrators, doesn't it? Aren't they the ones that fix their air conditioner while your classroom temperature soars? (Or who sent me memos complaining about classroom trash in my computer lab but left the custodian position for my building vacant and therefore never emptied the trash.)

Admittedly, most administrations don't bungle the job and earn our scorn. But they might be less than visionary when it comes to spending money and delivering a lot of benefit to the teachers. Of course that just moves the "customer" down one rung; the students may actually benefit more from spending choices that leave the teachers fuming.

So, this gets to my BIG impression of the Master Plan: To resolve these dilemmas (like gauranteeing the money gets spent well or any other "problem"), the Master Plan's approach is to INCREASE ACCOUNTABILITY. And not just accountability in principle, but accountability up the feeding chain towards the state bureaucracy. And not accountability for student achievement but for things that clerical state employees can monitor as they get the reports and fill out the spreadsheets.

So if the Plan tries to fix this spending problem by adding more layers of reporting for schools to comply with, I quit. Instead, it seems reasonable, that the Master Plan could promote R&D; into cost-effective school budget decision-making. That R&D; would produce answers to the questions the decision-makers have about where to spend money and get the best results.

Specifically, what kinds of teaching methods or course management methods significantly reduce the costs of delivering a course while improving the student achievement in mastering the course content?

(Full Disclosure Statement: I am currently working to prove the enormous reduction in the cost of schooling when Instructional Technology is used creatively in support of alternative, distance and home-schooling models and in third-world countries in "one-room" neighborhood schools. Preliminary data suggests a ten-to-one reduction in the cost of providing an excellent education when the traditional school "model" is abandoned. USAID projects now being established may soon provide convincing statistics.) (Note: Please do not confuse Instructional Technology with interactive computer-based lessons on CD-ROM.)