It's time to Stop The Attack on Our Schools & Teachers! Please join Friends of Dexter Community Schools

If you pay attention to the mainstream media you might have noticed this:  our schools are under attack.  Our teachers are under attack.  Our administrators and boards are under attack.  Parents, children, even the janitors are under attack (really – I actually saw a post recently that proposed janitor pay be tied to children’s test scores).  Wow.  It kind of makes you crazy if you follow it too closely.

It’s time that we turn the tables.  Instead of legislators claiming our schools are failing, we need to let them know that they are failing our children.  Most schools are doing well and Dexter is no exception.  While the governor claims his proposed budget will increase funding to our schools, the fact is we will see a reduction in the per pupil allowance.  Our legislators have dipped into the School Aid Fund year after year (40% from our district in the past 12 years, 20% of this in the past two years alone), and they must be held accountable.  Our district should not have to figure this out all alone.  We, community members, must enter the discussion at the state level – and quickly.  We must demand reinstatement of the funding.

Like many of you, I believe our schools are serving our students well. Sure, there are things that could be improved but overall, my husband and I feel very fortunate that we are able to send our children to Dexter Community Schools.  I used to think the continued cuts to funding would eventually stop – that someone would stand up and say enough is enough.  During the lame duck session in December, two onerous bills were proposed and the state superintendents sent out an appeal to their districts urging us to contact our legislators. I called and asked who, in the district, I could contact to add my voice.  There was no group.  So I formed one.

We are Friends of Dexter Community Schools.  Our email is Friendsodextercommunityschools@gmail.com (note, no "f" in of).  So far we have over 75 members of the community who have joined via our facebook page or e-mail list.  We are parents, teachers, administrators, community members and board members.  We hope you will join us. 

Our group has three purposes:
1.    Ensure parents know what the legislators are proposing regarding school funding and encourage all to share thoughts so that legislators know what our priorities are.  Here’s a flavor of that  discussion:
I know this might not happen, but I’d like to see a maximum of 18:1 per pupil ratio for at least the elementary level  and ensure that we have choice within our schools – advanced classes, arts, foreign languages, help for children who are struggling.  Most likely you have different ideas.  If funding cuts continue, instead of discussing how best to educate our children, all we’ll be able to do is figure out what we can combine or eliminate.  There are so many facts to share but I’ll start with this piece, for now.  David Arsen, MSU professor, wrote an excellent article that points out that between 2002 and 2011, our schools have lost 24.5% in funding or $2,645/child. Yes, our economy has suffered. But, working the economic decline into the picture, if we had not raided the School Aid Fund to pay for other things, and devoted the same percentage of income to public schools that we did back in 2002, we would have $1,589 per child more right now. No change. No increase in taxes. Instead we took money from the School Aid Fund - $1 billion – to help finance a $1.8 billion tax cut for corporations just last year!  The School Aid Fund should be a protected fund. Our children deserve, and we expect our schools to deliver, an excellent education. This cannot happen if the district has to constantly figure out how to do the least harm.  Prof. Arsen’s numbers reflect averages throughout the state – our district has seen larger percentage declines.
2.    Facilitate dialogue between parents and teachers so that parents know what’s happening in the classroom – how are funding decisions being made in Lansing affecting our classrooms.  How have per pupil ratios been affected, have we had to cut programming, has pay to play decreased participation, how are our teachers doing?
3.    Share ideas on how we can help improve our schools with the goal that if they remain strong, parents will seek our district out, and fewer will feel the need to move to other educational establishments (cyber schools or charters).  Ideas proposed thus far include starting a Science Olympiad using community volunteers, improving the elementary math curriculum (which the district is now doing), discussing scheduling challenges at the high school level, and discussing ways to help improve performance of children “in the middle”.

If this is of interest to you, please join your name with ours.  Our group is not alone – there are others throughout the state forming as well.  Together we can and will make a difference.  It takes a lot of guts to speak out publicly, to stand up for our children, to risk criticism.  We teach our children to do this and hope they will grow up to be strong and empathetic; we hope they will be able to make independent decisions.  We need to lead by example.

Please join us:  email:  friendsodextercommunityschools@gmail.com or facebook.  Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you.