And This is the Problem

The following was posted online by a friend on Facebook and at my school. I felt the need to respond.

The major problem I have with this whole story is the last line.  This story presumes that all these things required government involvement and regulation.  It also presumes because the government regulates these things, that it is socialism.  Socialism is the ownership of companies by the workers, but its is more realistically interpreted when the government owns and operates the business in the stead of the people.  That is how it realistically happens.  The fact of the matter is we are already a socialist nation.

The government owns banks, auto manufacturers, the student loan industry and several other things in the last 100 years.  Government involvement in health care is not bad but when our President talks of wanting a single payers system where the government pays for all health care, that is socialism.  The problem is that most people do not know or recognize socialism, or fascism, anymore.

I do have some other issues with this story as well.  I will deal with those now.

First, a I thought monopolies were not a good thing.  When they are run by a government, especially for an essential service like power, that is even more dangerous.  Also someone please tell me where in the Constitution where the federal government has any power to regulate "energy."  If anything this is a reserved power for the states to determine.

Second, the FCC is hugely unconstitutional.  How can the federal government regulate what I say and see on TV, like George Carlin's seven words you can't say on radio.  I believe the 1st Amendment states that Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech.  The FCC is a censor to our speech and abridges that liberty.

Thirdly, long before the National Weather Service people predicted the weather using things called almanacs.  I am not suggesting that we go back to those times but that was a service provided by private individuals, like Benjamin Franklin, long before the government got involved.  Also, there are plenty of satellites in orbit that were made by other people.  The Weather Channel I am sure has its own, that it paid NASA or another space agency to launch into orbit.

Fourth, the regulation of time is a power granted to the Congress is Article I, Sectio 8: "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures," and therefore I have no problem with that.

Fifth, where in the Constitution does it say Congress can regulate a product like cars, how they are made, which fuel they can use, what standards they are built too.  The free markets can do this.  Cars are safer now because people have demanded safer cars in all make and models.  Not because Congress said so.  Also it is the job of the government to maintain roads, Article I, Sec. 8: "To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;"  This is also why the mail thing is not that big of a deal, but the point could me made that they are very bad at doing their job since they are always over budget, every year and not allowed to make changes to make them solvent.  I say make them fully private and let competition feed the lower prices of mail and package shipping.

Sixth, unions were doing a good job of protecting us from big business LONG before OSHA was passed.

Seventh, fire and police departments are an essential government function, even before they became professional careers.

Eighth, the internet may have been created by DARPA, but it is largely supported and spread through private enterprise.

My Perfect School: Disciplinary Procedures

One subject I have failed to broach in the subject of my perfect school is the disciplinary system.  I will address several issues related to that topic.

As stated before there will be a manager responsible for managing the disciplinary issues related to student in the school.  Students sent out of class according to the teacher's progressive discipline plan and their rules will go to this office.  The teacher will be required to fill out an incident report as soon as possible for the crime committed by the student.  The student may choose to write their own incident report to be added to the teacher's report.  This can be done immediately or upon the reception of the teacher's report.  The discipline manager then will contact the parent regarding the behavior in class.  If need be they will set up and appoint to meet with the parent and the student about the class behavior.  They teacher may be included in this meeting.  Discipline will not be meted out until these steps have been satisfied.

What is the discipline you speak of?  Instead of using detention the school will implement a community service reparation program to discipline students for bad behavior.  A student can be assigned a specific number of community service hours to complete as their punishment or discipline for their bad behavior.  The idea is to make the student give back or better the community in response to their behavior.  The discipline manager will assign community service for any breach of the school rules, observed by any member of the staff or faculty.  The teachers or staff will submit reports or escort students to the discipline office for the behavior in question.  I want it to go through the discipline office so that their is consistency in the disciplinary procedures of the school.

Teachers are expected to successfully implement a progressive discipline plan, approved by the Discipline manager, in their class.  They can use community service as well as part of their plans, but it must be included as part of their progressive discipline plan, spelled out in course expectations and give to students and parents.  Either way the forms will be routed through the Discipline office to record the amount of hours completed by all the students.

Being Late the Class.  God this is the biggest hassle for me as a teacher.  The key with this procedure is to make is simple and easy to follow.  Students deemed late the class or tardy will be automatically assigned one hour of community service for each tardy.  They teachers will have simple quarter sheet forms to give the student upon their late arrival into class.  The student will get one copy and the other will be given to the Discipline Office.  The teacher is expected to record this in the attendance program as well, but this serves as the student's reminder and proof of the rule infraction.

Electronic Devices.  They have some use inside the school building but not much.  My though  is that if a parent needs to reach a student they can call the school.  All phones will be confiscated by school police prior to students entering the building.  To get back the device students would be required to pay a fee; five dollars seems reasonable to me.  If a student pays the fine they may get it back at the end of the day.  Also they may make arrangements with the school police to complete community service hours to pay off the fine. 

That leads to another part of school discipline.  Students may do community service to "work off" any fines that they have incurred over the course of the grading period and/or school year.  Students who fail to pay off all their fines by the end of the school year will not have grades released to them or their parents until they are paid.  If a student transfers the school will not send transfer grades until the fines are paid.  A student may be removed from school for failure to pay fines before the start of the next school year or grading period.

A student's behavior justifies a suspension of several days then they will be given the choice of several community organization with which they can donate their time.  The school will expect them to report to one of those organizations the day of the suspension.  A student whose behavior justifies expulsion will be removed from school immediate.  If the parents and student wish to appeal the decision they may do so to the Committee of the Whole (the whole faculty) at their next staff meeting.  The teachers will then examine the evidence and determine if the student will be welcome back to the school or uphold the expulsion.

I am sure there is a whole host of other issues I could address in this post but I will leave it at this today.  I welcome all comments and questions on this system.  Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

My Perfect School: School Managers

I am so sorry to my regular readers for the lack of posts in recent weeks.  I am particularly upset with myself for not posting my U.S. Constitution lesson this past Saturday.  I will try to change the reliability of my posting.  I do need some help though from my readers.  Please email me or post suggestions of topics I could address in my blog, from Public Policy issues to my perfect school or any other topics you believe I should write about.  Thanks for your help.

Today's post will deal with some discussions I have had recently about administration in my school.  I have said before there will be no central administration, at least with what you expect in a typical school.  I am going to be giving a tad bit more details on the setup of my school's administration.

The school would have various managers over specific areas of responsibility.  The managers would only have a limited scope of power.  In the end though all power in the school resides in what I call the Committee of the Whole.  Large decisions must be made with the consent of the teachers in staff meetings held often.

Committee of the Whole.  The Committee of the Whole would be made up of all licensed faculty at the school.  Managers are hired by them after being interviewed by the current department managers.  All decision making power over the school and its policies are made by the Committee of the Whole, while in meetings.  Specific actions of the Committee will require between a simple majority and different levels of a super majority (2/3. 3/4, 4/5), depending on the decision being made.  These powers would be outlined in the school constitution, charter and/or by-laws.

Committees.  The school would use committees headed by the appropriate school manager to address specific concerns, issues, problems or possible changes to the school charter and by-laws.  The committees would be made up teachers from all available departments.  These teachers would share the items discussed in the committee and represent their department in the meetings.  The committees have no power to make binding decisions.  All possible solutions and decisions must be approved by the Committee of the Whole.

Evaluation Manager.  The primary responsibility of this manager is to evaluate each and every teacher, manager (except themselves) and staff member in the school.  A large part of this job would be observing each teacher in the classroom.  It would be at least once or twice a quarter, but I would expect them to do far more than that.  They would also compile the observations of other teachers, parents and students to complete the evaluation.  With these observations and evaluations they would talk to each teacher addressing what needs to be improved in their teaching.

Also near the end of the year, the manager would compile a list of teachers who may or may not need to released from the school during the next school year.  They would distribute the necessary evaluation information to all the teachers in the faculty.  They would then vote to either retain with probation or release said teachers.  This process would be made so that no one would know what teachers are being referred to in the files.  Each teacher would be assigned an ID number known only to the Evaluation Manager.  Teachers may or may not be able to figure out who is who, but privacy would of the utmost importance to this job.  If there is an emergency issue the evaluation manager may temporarily suspend a teacher, on reduced pay, until the Committee of the Whole can render a decision about the case.

Discipline Manager.  The discipline manager would oversee all discipline and attendance issues in the school, basically a Dean but with more specific powers.  They would keep track of all attendance reports.  If a student is sent to their office by a teacher for behavior they will contact the parents, assign punishment (I will deal with that issues in greater depth in a later post.) and/or schedule parent conferences with the teacher if needed.  If there is a case of an expulsion or another disciplinary decision which is appealed by a parent or student, then they will submit the necessary paperwork to the faculty.  The student will then get a chance to have their appeal heard by the Committee of the Whole.  The committee will then render its decision about that specific case.  They would also oversees and approves teachers progressives discipline plans.

Academic Manager.  This manager would oversee all academic information and reports about the students.  They would be responsible for report cards and transcripts.  They would maintain the programs to record and report grades to parents and students.  This manager would also create and maintain the school's master schedule of classes as well as the academic handbook.  Since this manager handles the master schedule then they would also be responsible for creating and changing student schedules.  Teachers would play the role of academic advisers to students during the scheduling process.  Classes will be assigned though by prerequisites and student choice.



Department Managers.  These are what most schools call department chairs.  They would be selected by the individual departments and elected to serve for a specific number of years, between two or three.  They are responsible for submitting observations and evaluations to the evaluation manager of the school at least once a quarter.  They would also interview prospective teachers applying to work at the school for their department.  Either the department would choose the individual to be hired or it could be left to the Committee of the Whole.  They would be required to attend manager meetings.  In these meetings the department managers would be given information to share with their departments.  They would also be responsible for relaying any concerns or problems from the faculty to the managers.  They may select individuals from their department to serve on various committees.

Building Manager.  The building manager is responsible primarily for the upkeep and scheduling of the school facilities.  This includes regularly scheduled maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. They are also responsible for the scheduling of school facilities, like athletic practices, extra curricular activities, rallies and assemblies.  As a side responsibility they make arrangements for substitute teachers.  This could be a position in the school not run by a licensed teacher since its responsibilities largely are not academic in nature.

Financial Manager.  The financial manager does not need to be held by a properly licensed teacher.  They are responsible for the major financial decisions and planning of the school.  Each year they will submit a budget to the Committee of the Whole for its approval.  If cuts need to be made then those decisions will be made by the Committee of the Whole.  They also over see pay checks and tax information.


If there are any other ideas about specific managerial positions or areas feel free to address them in the comments.  Also please submit ideas on topics to be addressed in this blog.  I appreciate all your help and feedback.  Have a great day.