Sunday, June 3, 2012

Privatization of schools

On another post Anonymous wrote:

I couldn't find the place to start a new post, but thought this was a scary harbinger of things to come. Notice how the desirable schools have very few spaces available for vouchers while the school that uses television instead of books has plehttp://news.yahoo.com/louisianas-bold-bid-privatize-schools-220651571.htmlnty of space.




12 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/pittsburgh/lynn-cullen-live-052912/Content?oid=1528606

We need to listen to voices like Cullen's to get prespectives other than those we are spoon fed.

Anonymous said...

hey i got a idea lets privatize Central Office that be a good place where to start

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know the administrator to employee ratio for the Pittsburgh school district? Has it increased or decreased since the departure of Dr. Thompson?

Anonymous said...

Im not sure but I have lost faith in Dr. Lane and give her a vote of no confidence.

Anonymous said...

I hope you are on the school board.

Anonymous said...

5:39 PM Of course it increased since the departure of Dr. Thompson. MR had to move departments out of Central Office to make room for all the new people. I was moved from Central Office last June after 10 years there, walked into the building recently and only recognized a few familiar faces. And they are continuing to hire new people.

Anonymous said...

How can they be hiring if they are laying off 285 teachers? You think it would be logical to have a hiring freeze across the board. No theses idiots keep hiring people who never work with children. Beyond Belief, very sad, these people do not give a rats ass about the children. Every one knows larger class sizes is negetive no matter how "Effective" the teacher is or how the PR department spins it.

Digusted Parent

Anonymous said...

Is it safe to assume that the following people from Bellefield need to be replaced?:

French & Lippert: These two have done nothing but pay consultants to do the job in which they are paid to do. Their job is not to hire consultants... Lipperts PELA program has done nothing but produce incompetent principals....French does nothing but blame teachers for poor test scores and bullies principals into putting teachers on improvement plans.

Linda Lane: She just allows the two mentioned above to do whatever they please as long as it is the latest "fad."

Marlene Harris: I mean how many times will the HR department head allow this woman to improperly place people into positions, lie employees, miscalculate seniority?...I would need a caculator to add up all of the grievances that have been filed against Hr because of her stupidity.

Anonymous said...

from www.alleghenyinstitute.org/component/content/article/484.html

what is the student-to-teacher ratio in the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS)? According to the most recent audited data (2009) the District shows 27,922 students and 2,315 teachers giving a ratio of 12 to 1.

In 2000 the District had 38,560 students and 3,377 teachers for an 11.4 to 1 student ratio.

how many students are there for each non-teaching employee-administrators and secretaries, principals and janitors, cafeteria workers and librarians? In 2009 there were 2,570 non-teacher personnel putting the ratio at 10.8 students per employee.

in 2000 there were 20 students per non-teaching employee. What has happened to cut the ratio in half?

First, the administration category, which includes administrators and managers, legal services, and clerical and other non-professionals, grew 63 percent from 572 employees in 2000 to 934 in 2009.

All told, the ratio of administrative employees to students more than doubled over the decade.

Second, the category of instruction not counting teachers (principals, supervisors and assistant principals, librarians and support staff) grew by 176 percent from 306 employees to 846 employees.

Here's why: the category now has close to 700 professional and support staff that were not listed as a separate classification in 2000. The ratio of instruction employees to students has nearly quadrupled resulting in the decline of student-to-employee ratio from 126 to 33.

Doubling the ratio of all non-teacher employees to students over the past ten years while the teacher ratio stayed level and several schools were closed ought to raise some serious questions. It certainly goes a long way toward explaining why the District's per student costs continue to spiral upward. Even the most strident defenders of the District must wonder what can possibly explain the enormous growth in non-teaching personnel. If the student-teacher ratio had fallen 50 percent over the period and each teacher had only five or six students a lot of eyebrows would certainly have been raised. But the startling rise in "hidden" back office and student support functions has gone virtually unnoticed.

How does Pittsburgh's non-teaching employee ratio compare to other school districts? Last year (Policy Brief Volume 9, Number 48) we looked at some other districts to see their non-teaching personnel count in light of the school district consolidation plans that were being discussed by the General Assembly at the time. We found that, on a student-to-employee basis, several districts were higher than PPS' student-to-non-teacher ratio including Allegheny Valley (13.4), North Allegheny (17.6), and Bethel Park (14.1).

Anonymous said...

I don't think we know exactly how many non-teaching administrators we actually have. Some fall through the Pittsburgh Promise crack and Gates programs, even though PPS pays their salaries.

Anonymous said...

Abuse of tax payer dollars by out of towner who dont care what we think?

Anonymous said...

How about get rid of the police and commanders who do nothing and pay the security what they deserve and the security that is useless get rid of! The commanders are all about politics and their heads are huge!