Panel: Candidates must teach education plans

LIMA - Whether it was the federal government's role or funding, discussion during a voter roundtable on education always came back to teachers - what they make, what they teach and what they handle.

Large unfunded federal mandates have put "teachers on a treadmill," said Apollo Career Center administrator Rick Turner, 37.

A school is no longer just a place of learning, added Lima schools Special Education Director Brenda Ellis, 56.

"Now teachers have to be involved in the social side. There's a teacher, an aide, a social worker, in some schools there is a mental health worker," Ellis said. "As society comes with its ills, it doesn't just stop at our door. It comes in the schools and schools have to deal with mental issues, social issues before we can even get to the education."

At one time, nurses and teachers had the same starting salary, said St. Rita's Medical Center administrator Jim Reber, 61.

"Now nurses make double that starting," Reber said. "To me that's symbolic of the resource starving we've done to education. I worry about the threat to the workforce of the future."

Participants in a Lima News roundtable discussion on education and the presidential candidates said they hadn't heard much from Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama about education.

That perception is reality: The candidates have not spent much time discussing education. Eight years ago, President Bush made education and No Child Left Behind a signature issue; this campaign season, education has been drowned out by the Iraq War and the economy.

Participants spoke of a looming teaching crisis in this country that won't be evidenced for another generation when today's students enter the workforce. Ellis said teachers, especially African-American men, are harder than ever to recruit and some districts have taken to "growing their own" by encouraging high school students to enter the field.

Linda Haycock, 44, manages the Haycock Foot and Ankle Center and is a parent with children in Shawnee schools and college. She likes Obama's ideas to help students with college costs and teachers with big loans with tax credits, scholarship help in return for working in high-need areas and mentoring programs

"If you're willing to put out $100,000 for your education and then earn $25,000? That doesn't make economic sense," Haycock said. "He's talking about giving scholarships and make it more of an honorable thing and lucrative and sought-after position."

Educators said No Child Left Behind dumps unfunded mandates on districts and taxpayers and produces students who can pass tests but lack critical workplace skills.

"We're making students good at school and not necessarily productive," Turner said.

The other area in which the federal government is deeply involved, special education requirements, frustrated dairy farmer Roger Sanders, 55.

Sanders said he's not against special education across the board, but is concerned about how much it costs a school district to have special needs students, especially those with severe disabilities, in classrooms.

Sanders said he knows of a situation in which a district is paying thousands of dollars to keep a child in a classroom when that child may never have the capacity to learn.

His comments drew a sharp response from Ellis, who also reminded him that the federal government requires their placement in the classroom, but No Child Left Behind holds districts accountable when those children don't make progress.

"We give each child what they need," Ellis said. "Special education has changed. We're educating them to work in the community. We have a program with some of the lower functioning children and Lima Memorial Health System, for example. They become tax-paying citizens."

Schools are working on old models and outdated thinking, Turner said.

"Ohio is starting to get it right," he said. "There are some good models on technical education. (Career education has) been doing that a long time. Our society is slow to change. We take summers off so students can work on the farm ... The same thing has happened with how we teach kids."