Opinion: Accountability has to accept student reality

Brownstein presents some valuable insights into the problem of teacher accountability, but he, like so many others including our new president, is caught up in this age of political correctness and egalitarianism.

Not all students are created equal. It is sheer nonsense to assume that the academic abilities and scores of all students can be raised and to hold teachers responsible for these gains. All children cannot learn to the degree that most think acceptable.

This is so obvious in the physical area. One could give children the best basketball coach, the best equipment and court, but if the coordination, size, speed, etc., are not present, should the coach be held accountable if the students do not show marked improvement in their basketball skills?

Many of the students come to school with so much "baggage" that it is beyond anyone's skills to redeem them. There are physical, emotional, social, medical, environmental, parental and cultural limitations, as well as motivational deficits that few teachers -- if any -- can overcome.

I believe that I could take the teachers from the best school in the system and exchange them with the teachers from the "worst" school and that the results in terms of student progress would be the same. The best schools would still be best and the worst schools would still be the worst.

I am a graduate of the finest public school for gifted students in New York City, Stuyvesant High. I have also been an administrator of one of the most underachieving schools in New York City, Andrew Jackson High. I do not see that the teachers in Stuyvesant were more gifted or that they worked harder. In fact each day I would watch the teachers from Jackson leave, weighed down with papers, exhausted after a full day of trying to convince their students that education, and the things they were trying to teach, were the keys to the good life for these young people.

The reality is that industry and commerce must provide programs for these students whose world is not the academic. Labor unions and industry must open their doors to apprenticeships where meaningful trades and skills can be learned and where employment awaits. This is reality. To tell every student that he is inferior because he does not go to college is doing a disservice to these young people.

To hold teachers accountable for gains that may not be possible, shows a total lack of understanding.
-- Robert T. Marsh, Largo

Fixing our monster system

I have been a teacher in the Pinellas County schools for 16 years. I believe that the entire educational system has become a "monster."

Here is how to fix it. Do not do any academics in kindergarten. Go back to the days of learning how to get along with others, practicing gross motor and fine motor skills through play and learning how to see the teacher as the authority figure who kindly and gently facilitates and inspires learning.

Forget about starting children in school at the preschool level to get them ready for kindergarten. There is no sound reason to begin academic studies before the age of 6.

Instead, provide financial assistance/tax breaks to enable one parent to stay at home and parent their children. Children need to develop a strong sense of security early on, before they are thrown into the world. Along with this, provide ongoing parenting classes for the public as well as requiring parenting classes in high school. At the middle school level have required classes on child care (baby sitting).

Finally, teach the basics in academics first and branch out as children get older. Offer job training for students who are not suited for or do not desire college. Build into all their studies the highest values of our society and encourage questioning and creativity. Our children are smart regardless of what is reflected in the test scores, however, they are in desperate need of being taken care of and nurtured during the years that form who they are.
-- Alexandra O'Brien, Largo

Parent involvement is vital

Re: Inner-city obstacles for students undercut Bush's education proposal, by James Klurfeld, Jan. 29.

Klurfeld writes that "Unless we find a way to involve parents effectively in their children's education, especially in their infant and toddler years, these proposed remedies are likely to be as successful as the efforts to improve urban schools over the last 30 or 40 years: not very."

I recommend that all parents who have not read Klurfeld's article should find it, read it and put it into practice. Statistics show that 20 percent of our adult population is functionally illiterate. Parents, give your children a proper start at school: Read to them often, teach them the alphabet, how to count, how to be obedient and respectful. The kids will prosper, and the teachers can spend their time teaching. Sound difficult? It does take time, interest, patience and encouragement. That is called parenting.

If you know a parent who is unable to perform these tasks (one of the 20 percent mentioned above), encourage him/her to call the Upper Pinellas Literacy Council at (727) 298-3080, ext. 242. Adult students are tutored individually on a confidential basis. All tutors are qualified volunteers, and there is no cost. All calls will be answered.
-- W. Richard Trainor, Palm Harbor

Budget supports juvenile justice services

Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed juvenile justice budget for fiscal year 2001-2002 supports a broad range of programs, targets prevention to juveniles most at risk of becoming repeat offenders and substantially closes the mental health and substance abuse treatment gap. It also recognizes the important roles that local communities play in reducing juvenile crime. The Times editorial, Cost of juvenile justice (Feb. 1) misread, in part, the intent and substance of the budget plan.

First, let me make it clear that the governor and I support retaining a full continuum of services to reduce delinquency. One of the strengths of Florida's juvenile justice system is that it is under one umbrella, allowing for coordination and continuous re-prioritization of resources so we can apply lessons learned in how to reduce juvenile crime. We owe it to victims and to taxpayers to fund what works, not what has been popular or customary.

Second, our budget proposes to maintain core funding of $65-million for prevention. Since the 1994-1995 fiscal year the department's prevention budget has grown from $43.7-million to $65-million, a 49 percent increase. During the past couple of years, the department has evaluated youth most likely to enter and re-enter our juvenile justice system. We know for example, that of all juveniles arrested for the first time in Florida, only approximately 14 percent become serious repeat offenders, yet they account for 67 percent of all repeat arrests. More important, we can identify those juveniles by high-risk characteristics like school failure, substance abuse and gang affiliation when they first touch our front door. We now are targeting resources to intervene with these offenders the first time we see them with the right services, treatments and sanctions. Simply by being smarter, we can substantially reduce juvenile crime. Other youth not likely to enter the juvenile justice system can be served in a wide array of programs outside of juvenile justice; a 1998 Florida Government Accountability to the People Commission report indicated there are approximately $1-billion in other prevention programs available for youth in our state.

Your editorial suggested we propose to cut $6-million from programs aimed at helping truants and runaways and more than $20-million from what Florida invests in prevention, early intervention and non-residential programs. Yet no reduction in services to truants and runaways is contemplated. While the budget recommends funding a small portion of such costs from federal funds and a 7.5 percent local match, the number of youth served is expected to increase. The only reduction involves one-time funding of $10-million for projects previously sponsored by individual legislators. We do propose replacing some day treatment programs with intensive supervision of offenders, an approach just as effective but at half the cost.

Third, while the editorial indicated our intent to ask counties to share in costs associated with juvenile detention, we are not asking the counties to take over juvenile detention. That was tried prior to 1974 and proved to be a failure. The state also fully accepts responsibility for funding and operating programs for juveniles who have been adjudicated by the courts and received some sanction. However, until a court makes a decision on what it will impose on a juvenile offender, it is our belief that local communities have some responsibility for costs associated with pretrial or predisposition activities.

Finally, the biggest concern with your editorial was not with its contents but rather its omission. The governor's proposed budget includes funding of historical proportions to address critical mental health, substance abuse and other specialized treatment needs of our most troubled juveniles. Expanding mental health and drug addiction services not only salvages young lives, it should reduce recidivism, thus better protecting the public. In 1999, specialized treatment was provided in only one out of every 24 juvenile residential program beds, even though half the offenders needed these rehabilitative services. Thanks to the governor, and with the support of the Legislature, our proposed budget would provide specialized treatment in one out of every 2.6 beds for juvenile delinquents -- nearly closing, in just three years, the treatment gap.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about the budget to visit www.myflorida.com. Gov. Bush's budget has set clear and appropriate priorities aimed at continuing efforts to reduce juvenile crime and delinquency. We welcome local government participation and look forward to the health dialogue that is necessary to reach common goals for all of Florida's citizens.
-- W.G. "Bill" Bankhead, secretary, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Tallahassee

Don't cut Healthy Start services

Re: A budget flaw, editorial, Jan. 27.

As a practicing certified nurse-midwife in the community, I have personally taken care of at-risk pregnant women needing more than I could give them in a single prenatal visit. The services provided by our local Healthy Start Coalition have demonstrated repeatedly that they are of untold benefit to the patients I serve and their newborn infants.

Yes, I can tell the women who smoke to quit or cut down, but when they attend the smoking-cessation course provided by the coalition, their babies have higher birth-weights than women who don't participate and continue to smoke despite what their midwife or doctor tells them. From receiving vouchers to attending childbirth education classes to parenting classes, to the early intervention program for our "at-risk" kids and drug-free families program, Healthy Start services reach far and wide.

I am truly concerned these necessary services that have contributed to lowering the infant-mortality rate in our county will be seriously affected and diluted. With only 50 percent of services being given now, a 30 percent reduction in the proposed budget by Gov. Jeb Bush will sorely affect what social services are available.

I foresee an overextended coalition no longer happy to hear from me as I inform them of yet another needy candidate requiring their services -- services that ensure pregnant women will have healthy babies.
-- Karen Raymund CNM, board member, Healthy Start Coalition, St. Petersburg

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