Messing with education again.

Byline: Frank Lepore

COLUMN: Frankly Speaking

Guess I've just been out of the educational loop too long. It's just that it is quite difficult for me to applaud our governor's latest proposal to strive for "quality education" in the Commonwealth.

While on paper, a few of the proposals have merit - at least in the eyes of the do-gooders - the eventual outcomes are fraught with uselessness costly to the taxpayers with little or no realistic results.

As a child of the Depression, I am violently opposed to the glib proposals to initiate reforms now and pay later ... as much as 10 years down the road.

I think it is inconceivable to incur such debt and expect our children to assume such debt later ... and who knows what the debt may be later once politicians and professional educators get control of the "debt."

We are consistently warned by financial experts to beware of mounting credit card debt and are also cautioned to pay our bills as quickly as possible. Why should the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ignore such advice? Can it really be counted upon to raise the necessary funds for such an ambitious operation without eventually bankrupting the already overburdened taxpayers? Past history of such proposals would indicate that taxpayers will again be left holding the bag.

In my opinion, proposals such as prekindergarten classes are sheer folly. I wonder how true family unity and harmony can be developed by removing 3-year-olds from the family. Soon the Commonwealth will be clamoring to take the children from the womb to begin "educating them."

Much better perhaps for both the children and family to remain in the family unit in order to develop more closeness and familiarity. Please note there are more and more families who are opting for home schooling in order to promote the warmth of a family.

It seems that once again, a few politicians joined by a segment of "professional educators" advocate such radical changes in educational methods. One may have severe doubts that such advocates have presented us with a smoothly running machine for our citizens. Witness the dead ends in Iraq and Afghanistan, the escalating costs of oil and the dependence on foreign oil ... with resultant disasters and the generally flat (or worse) economy.

Earlier and positive action on these and many other fronts would not have placed our nation in such difficulties today. And these same "leaders" have the brainpower to advocate drastic changes in educational policy today?

The No Child Left Behind program, designed to benefit education, has been a real disaster if the earlier proponents would only own up to it. There are just as many children still being left behind with billions of dollars down the drain.

Among the governor's proposals are those designed to lengthen the school day. He is recommending longer school days and a lengthier school year. I wonder about the true effectiveness of either of these proposals.

Such recommendations will obviously interfere with normal after-school activities, such as sports for some and work for others. And such activities are not the only ones that would make one hesitate at such plans.

If any of these people making such grand proposals had been teachers or administrators for any real length of time, they might have noted a few of the students' idiosyncrasies.

After lunch, the attention span of most students begins to wane - even signs of drowsiness may occur. Lengthening the school day will not bring increased interest ... just the opposite. If parents are involved in disciplinary matters now ... wait until a lengthier school day is the order of the day.

Yes, if the same teachers are used for a longer school day, their effectiveness also begins to wane.

The long school day would not - and should not - be put into play without added compensation for teachers and administrators. If taxpayers howl now at total school costs, the outcry for even higher school budgets might bring an outcry heard around the world.

Similarly, there would be howls about the costs of a longer school year. Again, such a program would interfere with many other summer activities and work plans.

One of the favorite ploys of politicians and others is to come up with varying plans designed to improve educational performance. Indeed there is always room for improvement in the educational scene and realistic proposals would be welcome.

However, in the final analysis, any concrete improvement is really dependent on quality teachers and not pie-in-the-sky proposals.

Frank Lepore is a freelance columnist for The Record. He worked in education, both at the high school and college levels, for many years.