I was happy to open Sunday’s Traverse City Record-Eagle and find a clear and forceful editorial on the shameful inequitable funding of Michigan schools.
http://www.record-eagle.com/ourview/local_story_262200513.html
In case you’re not familiar with this, Michigan communities such as Southfield and Birmingham receive over $12,000 per student from the state to educate our kids, while Traverse City and many northern Michigan communities receive the state minimum of $7316. The editorial, “Michigan can’t allow equity gap to remain” prompted this letter to the editor from me.
Dear Editor:
Thank you for the Record Eagle’s strong editorial on fixing the per pupil funding gap in Michigan schools. With all the shrill partisan din coming out of Lansing and Washington these days, and in an era when genuine bi-partisanship is a rare thing indeed, our two local state representatives, Dan Scripps, D-Leland and Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City have reached across the aisle to co-sponsor the new caucus working on this problem.
Rightly, they decided this is not a Republican or Democratic issue – it’s a fairness issue. As former Representative Howard Walker’s leadership was critical to winning the “2X” formula that narrows the gap between the richest and poorest districts, Scripps’ and Schmidt’s bi-partisan leadership is incredibly important to improving the financial health of northern Michigan schools. Politics sometimes has a bad name, but politics at its best is the art of getting things done. As a parent and TCAPS board member, I applaud Scripps and Schmidt stepping up to the plate to get this right. Their task will not be easy.
Gary Appel
TCAPS Board of Education member
Monday, September 21, 2009
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Internet vs. Brick and Mortar
I was fortunate enough to have some early experience integrating technology and the Internet for student learning. Back in the 80s with the Internet in its infancy and e-mail both proprietary and extremely limited, I approached Apple Computer about linking a small group of California schools electronically using Apple’s own e-mail system. I was directing a science education project at the University of California and I asked Apple to help us set up weather stations at ten elementary schools around California and use the fledgling Internet for the students to share weather data and develop other science related projects. All ten schools had organic gardens – used as living laboratories for the study of science – and were using a science curriculum called The Growing Classroom that I co-developed as a science teacher. Apple donated primitive computers – none of the teachers had computers then - installed phone lines in the classrooms for dial-up (remember dial-up?) and set up student friendly weather stations at all ten schools.
With that, the students were off and running collecting, interpreting and sharing weather data with other students across the state. Teachers took it further than anyone imagined, creating rich learning opportunities with the new tools they had. It was an amazing project for the time and even earned a mention in Scientific American. Clearly, application of technology and the Internet to education has traveled light years since those early tentative experiments.
All this comes to mind because I caught a presentation last week by Republican State Senator Wayne Kuipers to the State Board of Education on his proposed Neighborhood Public Schools legislation. The bill would allow existing public schools, with the vote of over 50% of parents and teachers to essentially secede from their school district and become an independent neighborhood public school. Talk about shifting the educational landscape!
Buried in the legislation and attracting little attention is a provision allowing something called cyber schools. For the first time ever in Michigan, public schools would be allowed to exist entirely without a brick and mortar home. No school to go to. No school cafeteria. No school library. No school gym. No principal’s office. Though it seems like a radical notion, it’s already happening to some degree in over half of the 50 states according to K12, an online education company. http://www.k12.com/schools-programs/online-public-schools/
When I took those first tentative steps over two decades ago to connect students and teachers across great distances, the idea of Internet-only schooling without the schools was beyond fantastic – it was simply too far out to even imagine. Now, it’s real.
But what does that say about our conception of learning? At its best, learning is a social activity where students and teachers engage together in making sense of the world and finding meaning in ever more sophisticated ways as they journey through schooling into adulthood. So I’m anxious about the potential for student isolation. Part of me holds a probably outdated picture in my head of a student sitting alone in front of a computer all day. Is that just a product of the old school side of my brain? At the same time, I’ve seen the creative ways many home school families have built networks and community without the benefit of a brick and mortar centralized place to gather.
Schools face tough budget choices and are looking deeper than they ever have at reducing costs. Are school buildings dispensable? Do we really need all of them?
The whole cyber school idea brings up numerous issues around quality control, accountability and the role of teachers. All the research tells us that the teacher is the most important player in student learning. The evidence is clear. Strong teachers get results. What would a strong teacher on the other end of a fiber optic cable look like? How would they support learning? I’m not sure about the answers, but I’m eager to find out.
As a Traverse City Area Public Schools Board member, I’m studying these and other ideas to understand their implications. I'd like to know your thoughts so I can make informed decisions. Your comments are appreciated.
With that, the students were off and running collecting, interpreting and sharing weather data with other students across the state. Teachers took it further than anyone imagined, creating rich learning opportunities with the new tools they had. It was an amazing project for the time and even earned a mention in Scientific American. Clearly, application of technology and the Internet to education has traveled light years since those early tentative experiments.
All this comes to mind because I caught a presentation last week by Republican State Senator Wayne Kuipers to the State Board of Education on his proposed Neighborhood Public Schools legislation. The bill would allow existing public schools, with the vote of over 50% of parents and teachers to essentially secede from their school district and become an independent neighborhood public school. Talk about shifting the educational landscape!
Buried in the legislation and attracting little attention is a provision allowing something called cyber schools. For the first time ever in Michigan, public schools would be allowed to exist entirely without a brick and mortar home. No school to go to. No school cafeteria. No school library. No school gym. No principal’s office. Though it seems like a radical notion, it’s already happening to some degree in over half of the 50 states according to K12, an online education company. http://www.k12.com/schools-programs/online-public-schools/
When I took those first tentative steps over two decades ago to connect students and teachers across great distances, the idea of Internet-only schooling without the schools was beyond fantastic – it was simply too far out to even imagine. Now, it’s real.
But what does that say about our conception of learning? At its best, learning is a social activity where students and teachers engage together in making sense of the world and finding meaning in ever more sophisticated ways as they journey through schooling into adulthood. So I’m anxious about the potential for student isolation. Part of me holds a probably outdated picture in my head of a student sitting alone in front of a computer all day. Is that just a product of the old school side of my brain? At the same time, I’ve seen the creative ways many home school families have built networks and community without the benefit of a brick and mortar centralized place to gather.
Schools face tough budget choices and are looking deeper than they ever have at reducing costs. Are school buildings dispensable? Do we really need all of them?
The whole cyber school idea brings up numerous issues around quality control, accountability and the role of teachers. All the research tells us that the teacher is the most important player in student learning. The evidence is clear. Strong teachers get results. What would a strong teacher on the other end of a fiber optic cable look like? How would they support learning? I’m not sure about the answers, but I’m eager to find out.
As a Traverse City Area Public Schools Board member, I’m studying these and other ideas to understand their implications. I'd like to know your thoughts so I can make informed decisions. Your comments are appreciated.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Cars and Classrooms
Being a born and bred Michigan kind of guy, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what the decline of the auto industry can teach us about the enterprise of schooling.
And last week I came across a fascinating article in the August 24 New Yorker on the electric car company Tesla and the vision of its founders. One of the co-founders, frustrated in finding a reliable source for a transmission for their electric cars, described his experience in trying to work with the auto industry and its suppliers: “We learned that the car industry is unbelievably good at delivering what they’ve done in the past with a little tweak – faster or in yellow. But if you want something a lot different – a simplified transmission that’s electrically actuated – that’s too radical.”
Education, too, it seems is very good at delivering what we’ve always done with a little tweak here and a little tweak there. I’ve conducted site visits and studied schools and districts in states as diverse as Florida, Alabama and California and schooling looks pretty much the same all over. It’s not just public school systems. Charters, parochial and private schools for the most part are built on the same model. America is not alone. I have visited schools in Japan, India, Egypt, South Africa, and Israel. The floors may be dirt and the kids may work on individual chalk boards, but the similarities to American schools can’t be missed. Though it has evolved, the basic schooling model, used for well over a hundred years, continues to dominate the education landscape.
With this in mind, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan challenged Michigan school districts to truly “Re-imagine” education – to break the mold. He urged all of us in education to be bold; to think adventurously and to experiment. Traverse City Area Public Schools jumped at the opportunity and joined in a regional proposal submitted by the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District to be a “Re-imagine” demonstration site. In August, seventy proposals were received by the State. No more than twenty will be funded. As a board of education member and a member of the board’s curriculum committee, I contributed ideas -- some ended up in the final proposal. I’m happy with the result. It’s a great start. Check it out and let me know what you think. http://www.tcaps.net/Home/tabid/2322/Default.aspx
And last week I came across a fascinating article in the August 24 New Yorker on the electric car company Tesla and the vision of its founders. One of the co-founders, frustrated in finding a reliable source for a transmission for their electric cars, described his experience in trying to work with the auto industry and its suppliers: “We learned that the car industry is unbelievably good at delivering what they’ve done in the past with a little tweak – faster or in yellow. But if you want something a lot different – a simplified transmission that’s electrically actuated – that’s too radical.”
Education, too, it seems is very good at delivering what we’ve always done with a little tweak here and a little tweak there. I’ve conducted site visits and studied schools and districts in states as diverse as Florida, Alabama and California and schooling looks pretty much the same all over. It’s not just public school systems. Charters, parochial and private schools for the most part are built on the same model. America is not alone. I have visited schools in Japan, India, Egypt, South Africa, and Israel. The floors may be dirt and the kids may work on individual chalk boards, but the similarities to American schools can’t be missed. Though it has evolved, the basic schooling model, used for well over a hundred years, continues to dominate the education landscape.
With this in mind, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan challenged Michigan school districts to truly “Re-imagine” education – to break the mold. He urged all of us in education to be bold; to think adventurously and to experiment. Traverse City Area Public Schools jumped at the opportunity and joined in a regional proposal submitted by the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District to be a “Re-imagine” demonstration site. In August, seventy proposals were received by the State. No more than twenty will be funded. As a board of education member and a member of the board’s curriculum committee, I contributed ideas -- some ended up in the final proposal. I’m happy with the result. It’s a great start. Check it out and let me know what you think. http://www.tcaps.net/Home/tabid/2322/Default.aspx
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