School Starts This Week - For Me

Throughout my adult life, I have been a vocal proponent of education.   As most parents do, I have shared with my children the importance and value of education.  Fortunately, all have chosen to continue their education beyond their high school years.    Throughout my career, I have always been supportive of those choosing to continue their educational pursuits.  Never once have I told someone to keep working when they had the desire for more learning.  However, when it has come to my own continuing education, I have rejected the idea out of hand.  Yes, I have my college degree but I have resisted time and again any idea of going back and spending any time in a classroom. 

That will all change this next week when I begin a series of classes at one of our local technical schools.  Long overdue but never too late.     At fifty-nine years of age, I have decided to embrace rather than reject our technological age.  I have been computer literate for quite some time.  However, if you compared it to how we grade out our youngster's reading levels, I would probably only grade out as computing on a third-grade level.  My knowledge has been specific to the work I do rather than in more general terms where it may be applied to any number of fields. 

It's only a continuing education program that I have enrolled in.  A big step for me though.  I am somewhat anxious about it all.  My son has repeatedly told me that I will not be the oldest in the class nor the only one looking to grow their understanding of the technological age.  His reassurance helps but there's still part of me filled with anxiety.  I really can't remember starting elementary school.  I truly have no recollections of those early years and the fears that I must have felt in starting school.  I do remember the anxiety of starting high school and even more when I went away to college.

Obviously, I survived those opportunities as I surely will this one.  There is a difference though.  This time, I am doing it because I want to.  Not because I have to or because it is the expectation.  I'm going back to further my education and develop a better understanding of today's possibilities and realities.  It's exciting and my anxiety is different as I put these words to it.  By embracing this new knowledge, I am taking a step forward with my life and choosing not to allow life to move on without me.  That's a big deal. 

I have many friends who like me choose to opt out of learning these new technologies.  They too only learn what is absolutely necessary to perform their jobs.  No more for me.  I have made the choice to understand what will make me competitive in the years ahead.  Approaching 60 years of age, I don't want to give away my maturity and experience in the workplace because of my inexperience and lack of knowledge of how to perform fairly commonplace functions on the computer. 

Over the course of the next year, I will be taking one class after another building my skills, knowledge and understanding of what will make me competitive in the workplace.  I suspect like many of the skills and learning I have experienced in the past, some of the information and education I will learn will go unused.  However, it's the whole piece that makes it valuable.  Looking back on my college education, it was the whole experience that prepared me for life and the workplace. 

I'm excited and ready to learn.  It feels good to take my own advice for a change.  I'm going back to school.  How cool is that.  Hope to see you there.      

Why Eliminating The Department of Education Is A Bad Idea.

About every three years or so as America prepares for one more Presidential election, invariably the Republican candidates for President, will speak of their plans when elected to eliminate the Department of Education.   This is a very popular position within the Republican Party and has been since it was officially established as a Cabinet level agency in 1980.  For many, the Department of Education is seen as one more bureaucratic agency staffed to the gills with unnecessary and politically appointed cronies wasting taxpayer money. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth when one takes a closer look at the Department of Education's mandate and how they perform.  The original Department of Education was created in 1867.  The early emphasis was to collect information on schools and teaching to be able to assist states establish effective schools.  Over the last 130 years, not much has changed in terms of mission.  The Department of Education provides school administrators and educators with information on teaching that works. 

The Department's official mission is, "to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access."  That mission is particularly important today as the United States is faced with extraordinary challenges within the global economy.  Our citizens must be able to compete and it all starts with arming our young people with the education they need.   Education is the only answer for our nation to be competitive.  Leaving that to the individual 50 states seems less than productive and frankly, a bit hit and miss. 

The Department employs its mission by fostering a continuing dialogue with educators and adminstrators improving education and educational results.  The Department serves as facilitator of the dialogue; disseminator of information and results passing them on to all states and their respective leadership.  Secondly, the Department of Education demands access be available for all citizens and offers incentives and rewards for excellence. 

There is no question that the Department of Education has grown substantially over the years, especially since its Cabinet level inception in 1980.  The Department currently has the third largest budget of all discretionary spending in the United States only lagging behind the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services. That is a huge amount of taxpayer money.  The Department's 2012 budget is estimated at $77.4 billion.  Almost ten times that amount is allocated for the Department of Defense.  ($670.9 billion) 

Although the Department of Education's budget has increased significantly, the staffing levels have not.  Out of all the Cabinet agencies, it has the smallest staff.  In fact, the administrative costs of the Department of Education are only 2% of the entire discretionary budget.  Only 1% administrative costs of all the grants and loans the Department administers totaling $120 billion.  Truth be told, the Department of Education is a fairly lean governmental agency compared to its counterparts not only in government but also in the private sector. 

In effect, the Department of Education does better than most charitable organizations in the United States by delivering 99 cents out of the dollar to their recipients.  This includes assistance to states, school districts, colleges and universities and most important of all, students.  One may not always agree with the appropriations designated for states and their programs.   However, one federal agency makes a tremendous amount of sense when the goal is to provide access to all Americans as well as the opportunity to find success through education for all of our students.