King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector ordered the Seattle School Board to revisit its decision to use the "Discovering Series" math textbooks, calling the Board's decision to use them "arbitrary and capricious".
Meanwhile over in Kirkland, school officials have ordered the script of a school play version of "Snow White in the Black Forest" to be rewritten to remove content not in conformance with the Lake Washington School District's "human-dignity and anti-bullying policies". Among the "offending" material:
* Lines in which characters call each other "stupid"Worrying about this is the best use of some administrator's time?* Joking references about the King being "senile"
* The action of characters making the "crazy gesture" -- rotating the pointer finger next to the ear
Again, the problem with government schools is not want of "ample funding". It's that the school system insists on wasting so much of the more than ample funds it already receives.
There are plenty of things that kids need to be protected from today (and then taught how to deal with on their own), but I never would have thought fairy tales would be among them...
Posted by: Brian on February 5, 2010 06:51 PMWhat we need to do as a state is to lay the burden of education on the shoulders of the parents. Tell them that the schools are their schools, and have them take control.
With the parents in control, they will have no one to blame but themselves when things go wrong. And they will have more incentive than anyone else to see that everything goes right.
Posted by: Jonathan Gardner on February 5, 2010 10:09 PMIn a nut shell this is what is wrong with public education. They know they've got you by the balls and they don't have to give a damn. Is there any wonder public schools bureaucrats are the most arrogant bastards on this earth?
The mealy mouthed bureaucrats of public education modus operandi is to lock the children in their care into politically correct straight jackets, indoctrinate them on how to serve the state and discourage independent thought. A proper education is only a distant secondary consideration.
And for all you naysayers, simply look at the numbers. The state funds about $7k/year per kid, and property taxes add a bit more. By comparison, you would be hard pressed to find ANY private school tutition for under $12k..and most good ones are in the $16k-$24k per year range.
Same issue with vouchers...even if the state issued them, they would only cover half the private school tuition, so only the wealthy would be able to take advantage of it.
Posted by: Proteus on February 7, 2010 12:29 PMoh yeah, it doesn't. the person who wrote the play is salaried.
Posted by: mike on February 7, 2010 10:16 PM