The Board of Education is broken. It was clear last night that the Corda happy speak club wanted nothing to do with actually talking about the biggest issue Norwalk faces. The incumbents called for higher standards. Riiiiggghhht. Nothing like calling for a senseless measure when nothing gets measured. The challengers all see the problem for what it is, and each described the impact of allowing a bureaucratic monolith to spend unchecked.
Education success can only happen in the classroom, and for all the consultants and curriculum specialists and instructional advocates, nothing absolutely nothing will happen until teachers get to concentrate on teaching in the classroom. Which means, they shouldn’t be buying supplies or their classroom. Which means that they should be able to flunk a non performer without interference by parents or the school administration. Which means that someone on the BOE needs to get angry that so much money is wasted in unused “curriculum enhancement” textbooks, and that all this money is wasted in operational mucks by Opdahl.
In short, No Administrator Left Behind, should become the focus. Get the instructional administrators out of the office and into the the study halls where they can run their instructional experiments on live bodies instead of theoretical bar charts.
We don’t need more programs and more consultants, as suggested by the incumbents. We need more support for our teachers, more oversight on a lax, detached and incompetent administration.
In the end, none of the Democratic candidates are concerned about how little money trickles down to the actual students. The Republicans all raised that issue, suggested ways to look at doing better and empowering teachers.
The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. There has to be a change. The choice is yours.
