Urban school district superintendents resemble car salesmen in their passionate pushing of the latest pointless ornaments to the resource-guzzling Humvee of educational reform. Maybe it’s all about resume padding. Check this from Rachel Norton’s April 9 SFUSD Board of Ed meeting notes:
In large part, the Board was fine with the Superintendent [Carranaza]’s decision to put a large chunk of the additional money (about $2 million …) into a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) initiative. Among other things, the money would go to hire a STEM Director, three program administrators and 14 teachers on special assignment to develop curriculum and support schools in expanding their STEM focus.
It’s easier to damn than to dam the flood of this STEM nonsense, but Krashen speaks truth, with lots of footnotes, in the face of the tide. And Robert Skeels drains more of the deceptive deluge via NPR and The Atlantic: “…numbers released by the National Science Foundation show that people with doctoral degrees in those technical fields are struggling to find work in their industries…” and “Worse yet, as of 2011, approximately one-third of people graduating with a doctoral degree in science, technology, math or engineering had no job or post-doctoral offer of any kind.”
So let’s get on with bridging that oh-so-scary oceanic STEM gap, shall we SFUSD? I’m sure the SFUSD teachers who agreed to furlough days over the last several years are “for the most part fine” with continuing pay cuts. After all, what could improve classroom teaching and student learning more than the hiring of three more program administrators and 14 more teachers on special assignment?
The PEEF money that Carranza and Norton are “fine with” dumping into an idiotic STEM initiative would more than appropriately cover the $1.7 million needed for a furlough day’s restoration.
Weeding the Collection 