“So maybe the ‘optics’ are unfortunate,” reads the opening sentence in the Kansas City Star editorial on Pianogate, “but the Kansas City, Kan., school board ought to be applauded for investing in its students.”
For starters, any editor who uses “optics” in a sentence should be sent to Bad Boys Island along those who who use the word “meme.” However, given the cuts at the Star, that may be where they’re heading.
More importantly, the school board did not invest in its students. The word “invest” implies putting up your own money.
What the school board did was put up other people’s money. They spent it on a $48,000 piano all the while denouncing those people and their governor for not giving them enough of it.
This is not a question of “optics”–whatever those are. This is a question of industrial strength ingratitude.
“Imagine the outrage if state legislators started wondering about the cost of gymnasiums and football pads,” opines the Star in a dazzling non-sequitur.
For what it’s worth, given the budget crunch, I would have no gripe if school districts turned the support of football teams over to parents and local boosters.
As for the pads, that’s a safety issue, and a 48k piano is no safer than a $499 Casio keyboard, 96 of which could have been purchased for that same price.
And correct me if I am wrong, but don’t hundreds, nay thousands, of schoolchildren make use of the gym, often at the same time? Unless a couple kids are playing chopsticks, only one person at at time gets to use the piano.
Finally, if I might skewer the most sacred cow in the Star’s cattle pen, Sumner Academy is not the “high-achieving high school” that the Star purports it to be.
This is called “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” According to US News & World Report, only 48 percent of its students are “proficient” in reading, 51 percent in math.
In Blue Valley High School, according to the same source, 96 percent of the students are proficient in math and 99 percent in reading. All the Blue Valley high schools have comparable numbers.
Yes, granted, Sumner does outperform other KCK schools like Wyandotte High, where only 12 percent of the students are proficient in reading and 5 percent in math.
These are the kinds of numbers that cut to the heart of the issue. Taxpayers wonder why the KCK district is paying its super $234K a year for such miserable results.
They wonder too if that $48K might be better spent teaching Johnny how to read.
This really put a burr under your saddle. Is it your school district?
Rich, you taking aim at the high salaries of administrators is spot on. However, you seem to go well past that and attack any expenditures on public education. With states in general and school districts in particular, spending money on education is bad, correct? Taxes should be cut to the bone and school districts need to lower expectations to match up with the minimum amount of funds from Topeka. If parents have high expectations for the education of their children, they should either move to Blue Valley or just send their kids to private schools where they can pay for it out of their own pocket, right. If you want you kid to learn music, hire your own tutor. Sports important to you? Buy your own gear and coaches. In your world, government should get out of education and let the private sector run the show. Public education brings zero benefit to our city, county, state or country. Starve government to shrink it and let all the chips fall where they may. Does that pretty much sum up your perspective?
Again, I agree with you that the salaries of administrators is way out of line and with the current situation in Kansas, that is a logical target of scrutiny. Consolidation of school districts is something to look at as well. Attacking the salaries of school teachers and curriculums is way past the line however, in my humble opinion. Talented and educated individuals need to go into the private sector as they have no value or role to play in the public sector, correct? Efficient use of our tax dollars is as important to liberals as is is to conservatives. Money doesn’t solve all problems but having the money to address areas of need is critical. I guess we just disagree on the value and importance of public education and the role government should play in that arena.
Well written, Stomper.
I would be interested more in comparing this purchase to the consultants and their programs which were also purchased.
Best close the public schools and open work houses for those not born to the manor, eh?
We are far from the bone in addressing waste in education spending. The average Johnson county student receives close to $11,000 in spending, EXCLUDING capital costs associated with education (new & remodeled buildings, smart boards, district offices). The “all in” amount exceeds the cost of sending a kid to all but the most elite of the private schools.
Are kids test scores going up since we no longer use chalk, Big Chief paper and number 2 pencils? Is reading comprehension increasing now that we have wi-fi, tablets, and computers to aid studying? In districts like KCMO, increased spending up to 1 Billion dollars did nothing to raise learning.
Reward the good teachers and move out the glorified babysitters that haunt every school district.
“Are kids test scores going up since we no longer use chalk, Big Chief paper and number 2 pencils? Is reading comprehension increasing now that we have wi-fi, tablets, and computers to aid studying?”
No, they aren’t, but they FEEL better about themselves. And in the end, isn’t that what our goal really is? #participationtrophy
Democrat union teachers and administrators are laboring in the classrooms working for our kids 24/7!!! —
that is .. 24 hrs a week
7 months a year.
Forward.
1000 more pianos and you can cover the cuts Brownback announced today. Happy hunting. I will note that people deliberately aren’t attacking sports expenditures as it would interfere with their bubba strategy of anti-intellectual grandstanding.
teachers and administrators — even the $250K /yr type — can “district hop”
say .. put in their time at a SM district — get a 50% pension — drive a few miles to Blue Valley — do the same job at full pay — while still drawing the pension.
You could twinkle my ivories for $48K.