Decorah Board Members

This Monday's lecture the class heard two members of the Decorah Board of Education speak about some important education issues. One member had been on the board for many years and the other was fairly new. The first topic which we talked about for a while was how budget in school districts is controlled, issued, spent, etc. They explained that the school board actually doesn't decide where the majority of the money goes, in fact they only deal with around 10% of the money. I also found it interesting when they described how the budget worked. They said that there were certain cylinders that money went to, and only went to. In other words, certain money can only be spent for certain things. Now knowing that I can understand better why some things in my high school were lacking while others were progressing. The next topic brought up was, yet again, the No Child Left Behind Act. They said that they thought that the act was overall a positive change because it set a standard for schools to hold them accountable. The data they now have helped them to see where they were and where they needed to go. After some questions from the class, the board members made the point that as future teachers, it's important to have a good attitude about it because it is the law. I agree with their stance on having a positive attitude about it, but I still have some issues with the act itself. The third question and topic brought up dealt with increased national competitiveness. The male board member came up with the good point through telling a story that many times for some of those high-achieving foreign schools, they don't have as good of social or emotional skills, or, in other words, they have high IQ's but low EQ's. I definitely agree with his point, because not matter if someone can do calculus like no other or name all the elements alphabetically, if they can't carry a normal conversation with someone or speak properly in public, they have not developed correctly. The board members then brought up the Iowa Core Curriculum which, apparently, will go into effect by the time we are teaching. They didn't give too much information about this act, but they did say that it will be highering the expectations of Iowa's education. Finally we touched on the topic of second languages. The male board member was very in favor of second languages because he said that other countries learn English to accommodate us, but when foreigners come to the United states, they are expected to learn English. I thought he made a very good point with that statement, and I agree with incorporating second languages into elementary schools. The only issue, of course, as with many of these ideas, is that we don't have the funding. Overall I thought that this group interview was very informative and interesting, and I thought that the board members did a great job of answering questions and giving their opinions.