School Advisory Councils and Re: School espouses benefits of phonics-based education plus Delphi Technique.

Hi Marilyn
    In response to your SAC questions below, I didn't know that bylaws existed for public school SACs. Maybe the principal misspoke and is calling the SAC improvement programs bylaws instead. When I was involved with SAC the "rules" seemed to be mysteriously located at the school board or in some FL legislation; and, all of the "improvements" allowed were on the school board's approved list. So it was just a waste of the parents' time. Shockingly one of the SAC officers was called a "legislative adviser" who apparently reported to the legislature or govt committee! If I was doing SAC, I would be suspicious that the bylaw rewrite was a diversionary tactic to keep parents busy and keep them out of the issues that would really improve the education of the children. If I were involved the first thing I would try to find out from my state rep. is what is the current law? Is a "bylaws" rewrite on the agenda? If so, what does the legislature allow? If not, what does the principal want? Maybe he is trying to really help his school children succeed. How is this SAC issue different from previous SAC policies? And how is it that one school SAC can write it's own bylaws, or every school's bylaws? That's why I think the principle misspoke and used the bylaw word instead of school improvement programs - maybe after 15+ years the schools have need of a new improvement list!
    If this email sounds pessimistic it's because my experience with SAC's proved that any ELECTIVE classes or materials such as phonics, ethics, Bible study or for that matter ANY OTHER TEACHING OR EDUCATION MATERIALS were eliminated from the SAC improvements agenda. So the well meaning parents' efforts to actually improve a public school child's learning and success were wasted and diverted.
    BTW Mark should become familiar with this SAC tactic:

Using The Delphi Technique to Achieve Consensus: The Delphi Technique. What Is It? "The goal of the Delphi technique is to lead a targeted group of people to a predetermined outcome, while giving the illusion of taking public input and under the pretext of being accountable to the public." Using the Delphi Technique to Achieve Consensus -- November 1998 Education Reporter ; Why 'Consensus' is NOT a scientific word. ; (Dinos and Rinos (profile) use this a lot. You can observe its use in biased and weak political, social and scientific realms, speeches and reports.) ( I first saw this used in a FL elementary school "School Advisory Committee" (SAC) about 1993 to quash all parental improvement plans. The way it works is the 6 SAC parents with 6 teachers do a fine job designing an effective improvement learning objective say Phonics. The next step is that it is submitted by the "legislative adviser" to the school faculty say 40 school employees for review and they decide "by consensus" not to use it. No appeals, parents thwarted, students lose, dumbed down stupid wins. - ed.) , The Delphi Technique. What Is It?

Someone recently asked me for a list of the problems with public education. This book and book review pretty much answers that inquiry:

Allen Quist FedEd: The New Federal Curriculum and How It's Enforced. 2002, Maple River Education Coalition (A brief book review is available here: http://www.edwatch.org/lewrockwell/yates.htm - ed.)

Here is another at Amazon: The Harsh Truth About Public Schools [Paperback] Bruce N. Shortt
Here is famous The IndoctriNation video (30 min. Youtube)

Homeschooling is an extremely superior alternative. (See hisways.org/usa/index.htm )
Sincerely,
RE Klenk,