*Some* kind of reform

Feb 1, 2008 - Robert Flanders, a lawyer and a former justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, and the chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Regents, on Bold vision for R.I. school reform.
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TT - Flanders was nominated in 2006 by Republican maverick U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee to fill a vacancy on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, an offer President Bush did not take him up on. Flanders is very active in civic politics. In the appointment of Flanders as Chair Commission to Strengthen Research at the University of Rhode Island, his other appointments were noted and there are dozens. Not everyone, however, is enamored with the R.I. Supreme Court.

Flanders may, however, be a good choice to solve two major problems in education in Rhode Island - unfunded teacher pensions and teacher strikes that delay the opening of schools.

It is illegal for public school teachers to strike in Rhode Island but that hasn't stopped strikes. Historically, the teacher unions in R.I. have been politically active. In 1975, one-third of teachers in Rhode Island walked the picket line. (Time magazine)

Today, however, the state faces a serious fiscal crisis, largely due to the costs of education, the burden of teacher pensions and the untenable cost of providing health care for those retired teachers. The crunch means that the state anticpates even more labor action, which is why the governor appointed Flanders to a commission to study how those contracts are negotiated.

The NEA view is aptly expressed in this opinion piece that should be read before reading the Rhode Island Economic Snapshot produced by Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) committee. A press release from the state focuses on the problem that is both endemic (Look at the release date.) and historical. Spending is even worse.

In a 2006 press release, the governor notes that while inflation has risen at an average 2.9-percent annual rate during this period, the state has been increasing spending by almost three times the rate of inflation. That's not a national economic problem; it was a choice of political expediency.

It will take political will to solve the problem. But it shouldn't be called "school reform." Children are the very last concern of educrats or politicians or teachers unions. Otherwise, they wouldn't have graduated illiterates for decades while they literally bathed in filthy lucre.