Montgomery Herald
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
www.montgomeryherald.com

Candidate discusses Education issues

By Mary Parsons

The Young Democrats of North Carolina (YDNC) hosted a Saving our Schools town hall gathering at the East Montgomery High School media center Jan. 24. The panel featured Larry Kissell, Congressional candidate, Zack Hawkins, president of YDNC and Representative Melanie Wade Goodwin as moderator.

Around 35 students, teachers and citizens from Montgomery and surrounding counties came to discuss challenges today's education system faces.

Kissell spoke about the pressures that students and administrators face under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. "Great name, terrible program," Kissell said. He began with addressing the rigorous testing process that demands students get a 3 or 4 on an End of Course test (EOC) in order to get credit for the course and graduate from High School.

Other issues addressed under NCLB included Judge Manning's threatened state take over of low-performing schools.

"I think Judge Manning is on the right track," Kissell said. "We have to provide more resources, but I hate the idea of a school being declared a failure," he added about the stigma that attaches to students, teachers and counties when that happens.

Goodwin added that threatening to have the state take over low performing schools takes the power away from counties.

Rochelle Bostic, guidance counselor at East Montgomery, suggested that Montgomery County look hard at ways to attract the best teachers possible by focusing on the quality of life. "We just don't have the same things to offer as other counties," she said.

Goodwin agreed that rural areas have a hard time because they have a lower tax base than more urban areas and thus offer lower supplements.

Jennifer A. Wadsworth, president of the N.C. Association of Teen Democrats, suggested the county look into the Teach for America program, which places promising and highly qualified teachers in rural areas.

Principal Trent Taylor pointed out the shortage of young people entering into the field of education. "We could take all the education graduates this year and only fill the three largest districts," he said, and added that schools must recruit out of state for their teachers as a result of the shortage.

Hawkins mentioned the low pay of teachers in rural areas as a reason for the shortage. "Many people go into teaching knowing they're probably going to have to get a second job," and asked what could be done to raise pay for teachers.

Kissell responded that the N.C. General Assembly has done "a great job raising pay for teachers," but added that teachers in larger cities still make much more than those in rural areas. "If we want to be competitive, we must find a way to supplement pay and increase the number of people that want to go into education."

Other issues discussed were the increased structuralization of today's classroom, students' recognition of current teachers' discontent, failure to prepare students for college, and high drop out rates.