The Echo

CSD board member, John Young, on the STATUS QUO of Ed reform in today's NJ:

I cannot help but wonder lately: Why is education such a politically charged topic in our state?

I also wonder how Delaware's Race to the Top reforms are really affecting our children where needed most, in our classrooms.

As a school board member, I am elected to govern a district on a seven person board focused on one goal: student achievement. For as simple as the one goal is, the pathway to that goal is convoluted, politically savage at times, and full of mines.

Budgets, segregation, discipline, regulations, fiscal rules, property taxes, charter laws, and student testing are all examples of the sometimes competing interests in our public schools system.

Then, we deal with what seems to be the bigger problems like cake knives, camping tools and pink hair, often exaggerated by the media. Yes, that's sarcasm dripping through. We get distracted from our singular goal when things like these happen and they add no value to our students' education or lives.

So when I had the opportunity to walk Glasgow High School with our governor a few weeks ago and later when I got to listen to the platitudes-laden sound bites from our U.S. Secretary of Education from his visit on March 23, it clicked for me.

Nobody in Delaware really knows what they are doing.  Continued HERE