The LuLac Edition #1675, July 12th, 2011

PHOTO INDEX: PARENTS AS TEACHERS LOGO.

SILLY STIPENDS!

The Times Leader reports that The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board is mulling the idea of paying one parent at each of eight schools $500 a year to work on boosting parental involvement in the schools. The money would come from a federal grant and target a fuzzy mandate from the federal law known as “No Child Left Behind.”
District Coordinator for Federal Programs Michelle Williams made the suggestion at Monday’s work session. She said the district receives $25,000 that is to be used expressly to increase parental involvement in schools, and that numerous efforts have failed to bring the number up.
Williams said the money would go to a parent chosen by the district who is available on weekends, is a good communicator and is motivated to deal with other parents. Another $1,000 would go to a parent who would be a liaison between parents and the district. All told, that means $5,000 of the grant would be spent on such stipends.
Okay, here’s my take on this. How much money have we thrown at education over the past decade in the State? The answer: plenty. Now we are appointing and paying parental captains to get people involved in the schools? Isn’t this what parents did about twenty years ago for free? Isn’t this part of the parental responsibility? I know the federal money is available but c’mon. Do we have to pay parents to be interested in their kids schooling? Are we so crippled intellectually and socially that a school needs a coordinator to shame parents into caring about their kid’s education? This program came from President Bush’s “No child left behind” program. It is not only liberals and progressives that sometimes have wrong headed ideas that cost money. If a parent needs to be coordinated to care for the child’s education that is indeed a travesty. This would not be needed if more parents took an interest in their child’s learning capabilities before they started school. This would not be needed if more parents did not treat education as a product they can buy at the big box store for 9 months out of the year instead of instilling in their kids that education and learning are life long, 25/7 endeavors. Amazing!