For those who care, time to sit down together

For those who really care about the quality of education for the children of the Mat-Su Valley, its time to sit down together.

There probably isnt time to do that before the Nov. 3 election, but that may be all the better. How best to go about providing quality learning for our kids may be political to some extent, but whether we should provide them a good education is not a political question at all not unless there is a strange new kind of politics indeed walking abroad in the land.

In the heat of the campaigns the past several weeks, many loud arguments have been made on all sides by candidates, administrators, instructors and parents, each using various interpretations of numbers and other data to prove their points. In the end, though, what does it matter how much money we spend on education or even how that money is spent?

The bottom line in education remains always: What are the kids learning and how well are they learning it?

The goal is to build a boat that takes our children across the river of basic education to a shore where they will have an opportunity to participate in a fulfilling and meaningful way in the activities of the world. If it costs more money to do that, then we should spend it. If it doesnt, we shouldnt waste the money. And if it takes something other than money, we should bring that into play. But we must get them across that river, or we have betrayed them, ourselves and all who went before us and built the boats that got us to the shore where we are standing.

What seems fundamentally evident is the need for the players in education thatd be politicians, school administrators, teachers, parents or guardians and the students themselves to sit down and reach a basic agreement as to what river should be crossed and what kind of boat can safely ferry our young people across it.

After that agreement is reached and only after that can we reasonably determine what resources are needed to build the learning boat and from where the resources, whether money or resources of other kinds, can best be drawn.

We are suggesting a meeting or series of meetings, probably after the election, attended by delegates from our Legislature, state administration, local school board, assembly, school administration and teaching staff, students and the families of students.

Since they have the same stated goal, they should in short order with politics and egos stripped from the proceedings be able to clarify educational needs and come up with a reasonably precise blueprint for achieving those needs. Then the financial experts among them could help us determine who should pay how much for what. Perhaps Mat-Su, besides tidying up its own house, also can provide a useful example for the many other communities struggling with the same problems.

- Frontiersman