Declining Birthrates vs. Declining Performance

By Dale I. Barr, O.D.

If you want your test scores to go up, public school must be for everyone.

It is true that birthrates are declining in the county. It is true that they have been declining in the Moreland area. It is true that this is the major pressure on enrollment rates in the school district. So how do you rate a districts' performance in the face of this pressure? A reasonable person might conclude the following three supppositions to be true:

1) If the enrollment went down at the same rate as the births, then the district was doing a mediocre job.

2) If the enrollment went down more slowly than the births or even increased, then the district was doing a stellar job.

3) If the enrollment went down faster than the birthrate, then the district was underperforming.

I went to the Ed-Data website that has statistics on school districts. I compiled a list of all K-8 districts in the county to be fair and looked at their enrollment data over the last ten years. Births peaked in 1990 and so K-8 enrollment would have peaked around 1997. The data shows clearly that enrollment actually increased slightly over the last 10 years. Of the 18 districts compiled, 10 of them actually had increasing enrollment. Moreland ranks 13th and has declining enrollment.

Now we can argue all day about what that data means and how we got here. In a business with declining market share the common stock shareholders rightfully don't really care. You don't let your CEO or Chairman of the Board give you excuses. You replace them with someone who can get the job done. If you care about not closing anymore schools, you have to do something different.

I believe everyone deserves equal opportunities to receive an education. We need to provide adequate schools, materials and teachers to all children. The goal however, is equal opportunity not equal outcomes. We need to meet children where they are academically and move them forward as fast as they can progress. It is equally shameful to ignore the ones falling behind the curriculum, as it is to ignore the ones racing ahead. It is not only right to spend time and money on the advanced children, it is pragmatic. If you keep them from going to other schools the test scores will skyrocket. We will be opening schools instead of closing them. We will have more money to help everyone. And yet we spend over $20,000 per child at the low end of the performance scale. At the high end of the performance scale we barely spend $20,000 on the entire student body of gifted and talented kids. I'm sorry, I can't choose like that. The top, bottom and middle students all deserve an education at their level. It is a business decision you have to make. Public school is for everyone. It is not just for indigent students.

I recently asked how many books the school library had at my child's reading level. I was told probably none. I was told it was a money problem. If they only had $500 for books they would buy books for the lower level readers. If they had a lot of money they would buy some books for the top performing students also. That isn't good enough in my world. If 5% of your kids are gifted, you better be spending 5% of your budget on them. It is not a money issue it is an attitude issue and a priority issue.

You have to choose which problem you want. Do you want the problem of closing more schools or do you want the problem of opening more schools. The school district test scores drive property values and crime rates. I vote for driving the scores up. Vote for someone with business experience. Vote for me and I'll push like crazy to get it done. Thank you.