As I continue to read the articles and attend the candidate forums to become better informed, I find it curious what Barbara McLachlan has to say about the issues with education here in Colorado. As expected, she, like so many others, asks us to support her and Ballot Issue 3A because her ideas and our funding will provide better education for our children.
Bill Zimsky (Herald, Oct. 7) presented irrefutable facts and data about the correlation between per-student funding levels and tests scores/graduation rates of our children. The data is plain for all to see. More taxes and more school funding does not equate to a better education for our young students. What is known to provide better education to our students is a student-centered education system and not a teacher- or administration-centered system.
It is a known fact that the teachers unions are strong political organizations. If you listen close to McLachlan and other teachers, they present their desire for more pay and benefits in a package that sounds like the increased funding will go toward better education. Then, if you do not support their veiled attempts to serve themselves at our expense, they will shout you down for not supporting the children.
No, we support the children. But we don’t support the bloated school district administrations and the self-serving teachers unions. I believe McLachlan was drawn to the teacher’s profession like so many others with a sincere desire to teach and nurture our children. Somewhere along the line she was blinded by the light of the teachers union and drank the Kool-Aid served by the education system administrators. She like so many others lost sight of the mission. Public service gave way to self-service.
We don’t need any more self-serving politicians like McLachlan. And, we don’t need another tax increase to serve the insatiable appetites of school administrators and self-serving teachers.
There is a better way to fix the current problems. The immediate fix is to vote for J. Paul Brown.
Chris Ecklund
Hesperus
