Education

and the education of our kids suffer and by extension the knowledge base of our community is increasingly beggared. Teachers get a 5% pay raise and the class sizes grow. I was astonished to see recent teacher contracts where class sizes above 40 kids per class was allowed. I was an architect designing schools before I retired, and few have been designed with classrooms sized to accommodate more than 30 or 32 kids. And many studies over the years have noted that teacher to student ratios in classroom above 1:15 exponentially degrades quality of learning. Of course my niece and her husband teach HS in an urban high school nearby and most days only half the kids actually show up in the classroom so that "helps". And yet the non attendees get "alternative" options that allow them to graduate (and the school district to continue to get state $$$ for kids they really aren't educating). Sad state of affairs and I cannot imagine ho teachers work in such a damaged and dysfunctional system.