Complete Election Results

Franklin County

General Municipal Election

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

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Election Summary Report
FRANKLIN COUNTY
MUNICIPAL ELECTION
Summary For Jurisdiction Wide, All Counters, All Races
Unofficial Results
04-07-09
04/07/09
21:40:51

Registered Voters 0 – Cards Cast 13614 0.00% Num. Report Precinct 52 – Num. Reporting 52 100.00%

FRANKLIN COUNTY QUESTION
Proposition C Total
Number of Precincts 52
Precincts Reporting 52 100.0 %
Total Votes 13424
YES 4380 32.63%
NO 9044 67.37%

MERAMEC VALLEY R-III BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 13
Precincts Reporting 13 100.0 %
Total Votes 3636
BENTON KELLEY 909 25.00%
KATHLEEN RUST 504 13.86%
MIKE BUTLER 1107 30.45%
MARY CLASBY-AGEE 1098 30.20%
Write-in Votes 18 0.50%

UNION R-XI BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 17
Precincts Reporting 17 100.0 %
Total Votes 4772
VIRGIL L. WEIDEMAN 867 18.17%
RON SOHN 949 19.89%
GARY H. YOUNG 1075 22.53%
SARAH FREDERICK 405 8.49%
TRACI CANBY 541 11.34%
JENNIFER SLAY 709 14.86%
JOHN PACE 216 4.53%
Write-in Votes 10 0.21%

ST. CLAIR R-XIII BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 11
Precincts Reporting 11 100.0 %
Total Votes 2190
STEVEN PELTON 780 35.62%
MIKE MARLER 682 31.14%
GILBERT HOFFMAN 711 32.47%
Write-in Votes 17 0.78%

LONEDELL R-XIV BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 4
Precincts Reporting 4 100.0 %
Total Votes 664
EDWARD L. ROSE, JR. 58 8.73%
TRACEY S. MEDOWS 171 25.75%
JOSEPH M. THARP 241 36.30%
KATHLEEN GALLO-REED 191 28.77%
Write-in Votes 3 0.45%

SPRING BLUFF R-XV BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 8
Precincts Reporting 8 100.0 %
Total Votes 467
STEVEN STUMPE 265 56.75%
MICHAEL HOFFMAN 200 42.83%
Write-in Votes 2 0.43%

SPRING BLUFF R-XV UNEXPIRED TERM
Total
Number of Precincts 8
Precincts Reporting 8 100.0 %
Total Votes 294
JILL WAGNER 68 23.13%
EDDIE TYREE 27 9.18%
NATALIE D. COUNTS 60 20.41%
JIM GOODMAN 139 47.28%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

STRAIN-JAPAN R-16 BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 266
JEFFREY SMITH 64 24.06%
MARK THURMOND 126 47.37%
SCOTT CASSIDY 75 28.20%
Write-in Votes 1 0.38%

SULLIVAN SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 8
Precincts Reporting 8 100.0 %
Total Votes 1876
CHAD JOHNSON 602 32.09%
PHILLIP B. THOMURE 635 33.85%
SHANNON JOHANNING 637 33.96%
Write-in Votes 2 0.11%

WASHINGTON SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 16
Precincts Reporting 16 100.0 %
Total Votes 6329
DIANE BRUNWORTH 2002 31.63%
DANIEL CONTARINI 2030 32.07%
TODD GEISERT 2252 35.58%
Write-in Votes 45 0.71%

RICHWOODS R-VII BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 12
ED BOYER 4 33.33%
JAMES VANDIVORT 1 8.33%
JUSTIN SOHN 0 0.00%
CRAIG THURMON 1 8.33%
PAMELA SCHROEDER 6 50.00%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

CRAWFORD COUNTY R-1 BOARD MEMBER
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 0
DAVE KLINE 0 N/A
DARREL J. BOSSE 0 N/A
MICHELLE VOLKMANN 0 N/A
Write-in Votes 0 N/A

CRAWFORD CO. R-1 QUESTION
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 0
YES 0 N/A
NO 0 N/A

GASCONADE CO R-I PROP 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 119
YES 44 36.97%
NO 75 63.03%

GASCONADE CO R-1 PROP 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 120
YES 46 38.33%
NO 74 61.67%

GASCONADE CO R-II PROP 1
Total
Number of Precincts 8
Precincts Reporting 8 100.0 %
Total Votes 1003
BETH WITTE 255 25.42%
BRENDA L. SIECKMANN 295 29.41%
HARVEY HENNINGTON 80 7.98%
J. SCHAEFFERKOETTE 371 36.99%
Write-in Votes 2 0.20%

GASCONADE CO R-II PROP 2
Total
Number of Precincts 8
Precincts Reporting 8 100.0 %
Total Votes 613
YES 376 61.34%
NO 237 38.66%

GASCONADE CO R-II PROP 3
Total
Number of Precincts 8
Precincts Reporting 8 100.0 %
Total Votes 605
YES 365 60.33%
NO 240 39.67%

PACIFIC FIRE PROTECTION DIR
Total
Number of Precincts 9
Precincts Reporting 9 100.0 %
Total Votes 1353
MIKE WALTON 648 47.89%
KEN QUENNOZ, SR. 705 52.11%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

UNION FIRE PROTECTION DIR
Total
Number of Precincts 11
Precincts Reporting 11 100.0 %
Total Votes 2273
AARON P. BOCKHORST 535 23.54%
JIM M. VAN LEER 1081 47.56%
BENJAMIN GRIMES 649 28.55%
Write-in Votes 8 0.35%

SULLIVAN SPECIAL ROAD COMM
Total
Number of Precincts 6
Precincts Reporting 6 100.0 %
Total Votes 886
ROBBIE MILLER 493 55.64%
ALBERT ROHRER 393 44.36%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

CALVEY CREEK SEWER 5 YR
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 56
Write-in Votes 56 100.00%

CALVEY CREEK SEWER 3 YR
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 52
Write-in Votes 52 100.00%

BERGER WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 35
LISBETH FIELDS 28 80.00%
BARBARA FLINT 7 20.00%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

BERGER WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 45
ALFRED F. EGGERT 28 62.22%
Write-in Votes-Rory Baker 17 37.78%

GERALD MAYOR
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 337
OTIS SCHULTE 119 35.31%
NANCY SCOTT MUIR 33 9.79%
BRAD LANDWEHR 80 23.74%
ED ADAMS 104 30.86%
Write-in Votes 1 0.30%

GERALD WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 182
MICHELLE STEEVER 180 98.90%
Write-in Votes 2 1.10%

GERALD WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 114
CRAIG McCORMICK 99 86.84%
Write-in Votes-Daniel Maxwell 15 13.16%

VILLAGE OF LESLIE TRUSTEE
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 49
DAVID GREENWALT 17 34.69%
CHRISTY G. CONWAY 14 28.57%
SCOTT D. MILLER 14 28.57%
Write-in Votes 4 8.16%

VILLAGE OF MIRAMIGUOA TRUSTEE
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 46
TINA M. LAWRENCE 23 50.00%
CONNIE SHOEMAKER 19 41.30%
Write-in Votes 4 8.70%

NEW HAVEN MAYOR
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 202
GEORGE PANHORST 195 96.53%
Write-in Votes 7 3.47%

NEW HAVEN JUDGE
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 192
SCOTT FULFORD 188 97.92%
Write-in Votes 4 2.08%

NEW HAVEN WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 106
NATHAN BAILEY 104 98.11%
Write-in Votes 2 1.89%

NEW HAVEN WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 94
ALAN J. BELL 93 98.94%
Write-in Votes 1 1.06%

VILLAGE OF OAK GROVE TRUSTEE
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 66
KEN HAYES 26 39.39%
RICHARD RAY 20 30.30%
MICHAEL B. CROW 19 28.79%
Write-in Votes 1 1.52%

PACIFIC WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 228
MIKE BATES 149 65.35%
STEPHEN FLANNERY III 79 34.65%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

PACIFIC WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 320
CAROL JOHNSON 167 52.19%
WILLIAM HOHMAN 85 26.56%
CLINTON HAFLEY 67 20.94%
Write-in Votes 1 0.31%

PACIFIC WARD 3
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 191
WALT ARNETTE 182 95.29%
Write-in Votes 9 4.71%

VILLAGE OF PARKWAY TRUSTEE
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 210
NEIL HINSON 34 16.19%
ROBERT J. PELTON 46 21.90%
LARRY D. VARNER 32 15.24%
CHARLES A. BALL, JR. 42 20.00%
ROBERT W. WILSON 54 25.71%
Write-in Votes 2 0.95%

ST CLAIR MAYOR
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 333
RON BLUM 324 97.30%
Write-in Votes 9 2.70%

ST CLAIR JUDGE
Total
Number of Precincts 3
Precincts Reporting 3 100.0 %
Total Votes 336
NICK GASAWAY 332 98.81%
Write-in Votes 4 1.19%

ST CLAIR WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 173
CONNIE MARROCCO 169 97.69%
Write-in Votes 4 2.31%

ST CLAIR WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 154
DON PIERCE 152 98.70%
Write-in Votes 2 1.30%

SULLIVAN MAYOR
Total
Number of Precincts 4
Precincts Reporting 4 100.0 %
Total Votes 833
JAMES K. SCHATZ 177 21.25%
J.T. HARDY 655 78.63%
Write-in Votes 1 0.12%

SULLIVAN CITY COLLECTOR
Total
Number of Precincts 4
Precincts Reporting 4 100.0 %
Total Votes 818
JUDY McPHERSON 499 61.00%
FREDA BRADLEY 319 39.00%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

SULLIVAN JUDGE
Total
Number of Precincts 4
Precincts Reporting 4 100.0 %
Total Votes 754
DON PETERSON 750 99.47%
Write-in Votes 4 0.53%

SULLIVAN WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 278
MIKE RYAN, JR. 273 98.20%
Write-in Votes 5 1.80%

SULLIVAN WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 363
MICHAEL H. LOHDEN 361 99.45%
Write-in Votes 2 0.55%

SULLIVAN WARD 3
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 102
ROBERT HATHMAN 35 34.31%
DENNIS WATZ 67 65.69%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

SULLIVAN QUESTION
City Transient Guest Tax Total
Number of Precincts 4
Precincts Reporting 4 100.0 %
Total Votes 829
YES 303 36.55%
NO 526 63.45%

UNION JUDGE
Total
Number of Precincts 5
Precincts Reporting 5 100.0 %
Total Votes 926
LENEIGHA DOWNS 910 98.27%
Write-in Votes 16 1.73%

UNION WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 166
JIM ALBRECHT 164 98.80%
Write-in Votes 2 1.20%

UNION WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 447
WILLIAM ISGRIGGS 218 48.77%
BILL MARTINDILL 203 45.41%
TORI KARIM 26 5.82%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

UNION WARD 3
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 280
TAMMY STOWE 170 60.71%
MICHELE SCHROEDER 110 39.29%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

UNION WARD 4
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 159
DONALD WURDACK 153 96.23%
Write-in Votes 6 3.77%

WASHINGTON WARD 1
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 493
HERB DILL 226 45.84%
WALT MEYER 266 53.96%
Write-in Votes 1 0.20%

WASHINGTON WARD 2
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 480
JOHN C. RHODES 440 91.67%
Write-in Votes 40 8.33%

WASHINGTON WARD 3
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 415
CONNIE GROFF 398 95.90%
Write-in Votes 17 4.10%

WASHINGTON WARD 4
Total
Number of Precincts 2
Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 %
Total Votes 458
ROGER LANGENDOERFER 227 49.56%
TIM BUDDEMEYER 231 50.44%
Write-in Votes 0 0.00%

Lessons From 40 Years of Education ‘Reform’ – WSJ

Let’s abolish local school districts and finally adopt national standards.

By LOUIS V. GERSTNER JR.

While the economic news has most Americans in a state of near depression, hope abounds today that the country may use the current economic crisis as leverage to address some longstanding problems. Nowhere is that prospect for progress more worthy than the crisis in our public education system.
[Commentary] Martin Kozlowski

So, from someone who realized rather glumly last week that he has been working at school reform for 40 years, here is a prescription for leadership from the Obama administration.

We must start with the recognition that, despite decade after decade of reform efforts, our public K-12 schools have not improved. We can point to individual schools and some entire districts that have advanced, but the system as a whole is still failing. High school and college graduation rates, test scores, the number of graduates majoring in science and engineering all are flat or down over the past two decades. Disappointingly, the relative performance of our students has suffered compared to those of other nations. As a former CEO, I am worried about what this will mean for our future workforce.

It is most crucial for our political leaders to ask why we are at this point — why after millions of pages, in thousands of reports, from hundreds of commissions and task forces, financed by billions of dollars, have we failed to achieve any significant progress?

Answering this question correctly is the key to finally remaking our public schools.

This is a complex problem, but countless experiments and analyses have clearly indicated we need to do four straightforward things to bring fundamental changes to K-12 education:

1) Set high academic standards for all of our kids, supported by a rigorous curriculum.

2) Greatly improve the quality of teaching in our classrooms, supported by substantially higher compensation for our best teachers.

3) Measure student and teacher performance on a systematic basis, supported by tests and assessments.

4) Increase “time on task” for all students; this means more time in school each day, and a longer school year.

Everything else either does not matter (e.g., smaller class sizes) or is supportive of these four steps (e.g., vastly improve schools of education).

Lack of effort is not the cause of our 30-year inability to solve our education problem. Not only have we had all those thousands of studies and task forces, but we have seen many courageous and talented individuals pushing hard to move the system. Leaders such as Joel Klein (New York City), Michelle Rhee (Washington, D.C.) and Paul Vallas (New Orleans) have challenged the system, and elected officials from both sides of the political spectrum have also fought valiantly for change.

So where does that leave us? If the problem isn’t “what to do,” nor is it a failure of commitment, what is stopping us?

I believe the problem lies with the structure and corporate governance of our public schools. We have over 15,000 school districts in America; each of them, in its own way, is involved in standards, curriculum, teacher selection, classroom rules and so on. This unbelievably unwieldy structure is incapable of executing a program of fundamental change. While we have islands of excellence as a result of great reform programs, we continually fail to scale up systemic change.

Therefore, I recommend that President-elect Barack Obama convene a meeting of our nation’s governors and seek agreement to the following:

– Abolish all local school districts, save 70 (50 states; 20 largest cities). Some states may choose to leave some of the rest as community service organizations, but they would have no direct involvement in the critical task of establishing standards, selecting teachers, and developing curricula.

– Establish a set of national standards for a core curriculum. I would suggest we start with four subjects: reading, math, science and social studies.

– Establish a National Skills Day on which every third, sixth, ninth and 12th-grader would be tested against the national standards. Results would be published nationwide for every school in America.

– Establish national standards for teacher certification and require regular re-evaluations of teacher skills. Increase teacher compensation to permit the best teachers (as measured by advances in student learning) to earn well in excess of $100,000 per year, and allow school leaders to remove underperforming teachers.

– Extend the school day and the school year to effectively add 20 more days of schooling for all K-12 students.

I can predict that three questions will be raised about these measures:

First, how can we set national standards when we have a strong tradition of local school autonomy? The answer is that the American people are way ahead of our politicians here: Poll after poll shows they support national standards.

Second, won’t this take many years to implement? No, if we follow a focused, pragmatic approach. While ideally we want all 50 states to participate, we can get started with 30. The rest will be driven to abandon their “see no evil” blinders by their citizens as the original group achieves momentum and success. Moreover, we do not have to start from scratch on the national standards. Experts can quickly develop an initial set just by drawing on existing domestic and foreign programs.

Third, how do we pay for all of this? In three ways: We will save billions by consolidating the operations of 15,000 school districts. The U.S. Department of Education can direct all of its discretionary funds to this effort. And we need to drive into the consciousness of every American politician that education is not an expense. It is, rather, the most important investment we can make as a country.

H.G. Wells remarked that “history is a race between education and catastrophe.” For the first time in America’s history, we may be losing that race. We can win, but we have to act quickly and decisively.

Mr. Gerstner, a former CEO of IBM, was chairman of the Teaching Commission (2003-2006), which reported on ways to improve the quality of public school teaching.

Failing our children – WSJ

Failing Our Children

Posted By WSJ Staff On November 23, 2008 @ 6:28 pm In Uncategorized

Three education experts on what needs to be done in our schools, and why we haven’t done it

Most people agree: Our education system isn’t working. Too many of our kids aren’t getting through high school. Our students score poorly on international standardized tests. The teaching profession does not attract — or retain — enough of our brightest minds.

The trick is getting a consensus on how to fix it. To talk about solutions, John Bussey, the Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, sat down with three people who have spent a lifetime thinking about education: James Comer, a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine Child Study Center; Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education; and Louis Gerstner Jr., former chairman and CEO of IBM Corp. Here are edited excerpts of that discussion.

[1] JOURNAL PODCAST: Lou Gerstner, Jr., former Chairman and CEO of IBM Corporation, gives an overview of the priorities and recommendations made by the task force on education.

JOHN BUSSEY: Lou Gerstner, we have a multitude of school districts spread out over counties, cities, states, over diverse demographies. The federal government doesn’t have a lot of levers that it can pull. What should President Obama do? What would you recommend?

LOUIS GERSTNER JR.: The first thing I want to ask the president-elect to do is to ask the important question: Why? Why have we failed to reform the public schools after all this time?

The first possibility is that we don’t know what to do. Well, let me assure you, we know exactly what to do to fix the public schools. We need high, rigorous standards, we need great teachers supported by high compensation for the very best teachers.

Louis Gerstner Jr. Louis Gerstner Jr.

We need more time on task, we need a longer school day, we need a longer school year, and we need accountability and measurement in the system so we can constantly adjust what’s going on. That’s it, it’s all we need. So, the problem isn’t that we don’t know what to do.

Next possibility is, Well, maybe we didn’t work hard enough on it. Well, my God, have we worked hard enough on it. We have had millions of pages of reports, thousands of task forces, they just come out like the spring flowers. We have every kind of report, and we’ve studied it to death.

And by the way, along the way we’ve had some great successes. We’ve had some great heroes. People like Joel Klein are heroes in our country. The woman who’s running the public-school system in Washington –

MR. BUSSEY: Michelle Rhee.

MR. GERSTNER: — is a great hero. The guy running the school system in New Orleans is a great hero today. We’ve had lots of things that show that when we do it right, it works, but systemically, the system continues to fail.

Change the Model

MR. BUSSEY: How would you alter that system?

MR. GERSTNER: I’m going to say to the president-elect that the fundamental thing we have to do is change the governance model and accountability and execution model for education in this country. And what I’m going to suggest is that he convene the 50 governors, and the first thing they do is they abolish the 16,000 school districts we have in the United States. Sixteen thousand school districts are what we’re trying to cram this reform through.

Now, when I took over IBM I found I had 81 profit centers. Oh my God: How am I going to create change with 81 profit centers? How’d you like to create change with 16,000 profit centers? These organizations stand in the way of what we want to do.
Now, the governors could decide, we’ll keep them as advisory, we can keep them as community support, but they will not be involved in the fundamental direction of public education in America. Second, this group of governors will then select 50 school districts, plus I’d say 20 major cities, so we got 70 school districts. Seventy instead of 16,000.

They will within one year develop a national set of standards for math, science, reading and social studies. Twelve months after that they will develop a national testing regime, so that there’ll be one day in America where every third, sixth, ninth and twelfth grader will take a national test against a national curriculum.

Third, these governors and mayors will come together and develop a program of national certification for teachers. Teachers must have the capacity to teach, they must prove that they can teach, they must be tested that they can teach, and then we’re going to put a program in to pay the best teachers incredibly higher salaries — $40,000 to $50,000 more than they currently can make for the very best teachers.

And finally, we’re going to then allow all the school systems in the U.S. to innovate, to go out and figure out how to get it done. Let those principals and teachers in those schools figure out all the possible ways that they think they can meet those standards, and stop choking them with regulations and requirements. And so, we will do what we would do if we were trying to create a change in an organization. We would set very clear goals, and then we would free up our people to go and deliver, and if they don’t deliver we change them.

Those Who Can’t

MR. BUSSEY: Dr. Comer, it’s a business model for the school systems, you see economies of scale, standardization, reducing the profit centers. Does this work?

JAMES COMER: I agree with much of what was said. What’s missing, I think, is a focus on preparing teachers and administrators to be able to support the development of students, to create the culture that allows them to support the development of students. That’s not what they’re prepared to do right now. I don’t think we will reduce or improve the graduation rate in inner cities and in difficult environments unless teachers and administrators are able to do that.

We don’t prepare them to support the development of children in part because we have a model that is inappropriate. We’re using what is essentially a business model in schools, a manufacturing model. That works well if you’re dealing with inanimate objects, but when you’re dealing with children, young people, who are immature, underdeveloped, who must be moved from that underdeveloped state to well-functioning adults capable of learning, applying that knowledge at work, family members, citizenship, it’s a more complicated process.

MR. BUSSEY: How is it done? Is it through the training of teachers?

James Comer James Comer

MR. COMER: To get systemic change, you’re going to have to change the way teachers and administrators are trained in schools of education. And wherever they’re prepared, they will have to know how to support development, and how to create cultures where you can support development and help children grow. And how you embed the academic learning and material in the activities that you create to support their development; and simultaneously improve academic learning, to the point that they can meet the standards that we’re talking about. And at the same time improve the kind of non-academic learning that’s necessary to be successful in school and in life. And the kind that employers keep calling for — the education that will give them imagination, curiosity, personal discipline, responsibility, all of those things need to be built into the curriculum and instruction.

MR. BUSSEY: Does standardization work with this process?

MR. COMER: Sure it does. But in addition to standards, you have to focus on preparing teachers and administrators to be able to help the kids grow, so that they can meet standards.

The Federal Role

MR. BUSSEY: Joel Klein, what can the feds do to help?

JOEL KLEIN: There’s a reason why we’re still stuck in the same ditch. That doesn’t happen by accident. There are strong and powerful forces that maintain the system, because it works well for lots of people, just not the kids.
And if the president were to ask me, I would tell him there are two things that he ought to focus on, both mentioned by Lou. The first is national standards and national assessments. The tragedy is not simply how many kids aren’t graduating. The tragedy is how many kids are graduating wholly unprepared for anything that follows. The easiest way to improve the graduation rate in America is to lower the standards. And lots of people have done that, and as long as we keep doing that, we’ll delude ourselves into thinking we have a decent graduation rate, but in fact our kids will be wholly unprepared.

In New York City, and this is highly controversial, we put a letter grade on every school, based on progress. And we do that to make the system transparent and actually allow people to bring the house down on us. Because you put a letter F or a letter D on a school, and even middle-class schools that think, because they have a lot of bright kids there, they’re doing a great job, but they’re not remotely doing a great job.

Our kids in Ohio are not going to compete differently in a global economy than our kids in New York. It’s sort of silly to have all of these different standards and assessments. And also, it makes the attack on assessments easier because by having 50 different ones, you’re not really investing in getting the economies of scale.

The magic ingredient in the game I play is high-quality teaching. We don’t remotely have enough of it because we don’t reward it properly, we backload the pay scale. The real money goes into the people who are in the system a long time, gets rolled up in a defined-benefit pension plan, makes it very hard to attract new talent. We don’t reward excellence, we don’t give hardship pay, we pay the same thing for a science teacher and a math teacher that we do for a physical-education teacher. If any university did that, they’d go under.

I would repurpose almost all of the federal dollars that are now in it. That’s a lot of money, $30 billion to $40 billion. I would repurpose that to teacher excellence.

MR. BUSSEY: Is the system that exists now too cumbersome to remove teachers who are underperforming? Is that issue high on your list?

MR. KLEIN: I don’t think you’re going to get that until you have meaningful, widely accepted accountabilities. And then you tie it to teacher value added. But you can’t do everything from Washington. There are massive collective-bargaining agreements out there. But what you can do is make transparent how underperforming the system is.

And then let the cities, let the states, whoever’s going to be responsible, do the innovation, partner with the people that Jim is talking about, and others. And don’t try to micromanage from, much less from D.C., but not even from a large central school district. Give the people the accountabilities, make it based on progress. Don’t base it on what ZIP Code you’re in because those kids may start at a different level. Base it on progress.

MR. BUSSEY: Do you buy this idea of shrinking the number of school districts so that you can standardize the 50 state districts and maybe 10 or 20 of the big cities —

MR. KLEIN: It may be a good idea, but that seems to me the least politically feasible right now. On the other hand, national standards, done with governors, done with experts, benchmarking against what’s going on, that will set the framework. If you don’t have the right horizontal and the right vertical axis, it’s very hard to do the measurement.

Why Teachers Leave

MR. BUSSEY: Dr. Comer, back to the teachers for a second. Why is it that 46% of teachers parachute out of the plane before five years?

MR. COMER: Well, the No. 1 reason that they give is that the administration of the programs and schools that they’re in, there are problems there. And second is that they have no ability to influence what goes on in their buildings.

But the third reason is that they weren’t really prepared to work with children. And that is the one that I’m most concerned about. Learning really takes place in that interaction between the teacher and the child. And we can do all we want beyond that. If we don’t make it possible for that teacher to influence the development, promote the learning, then it doesn’t take place.

The teacher and administrators have to be able to create the culture that will support the development of children. Last month, I was in a school, a high school in Virginia, that had had five principals in seven years. Total failure. The last principal has now been there four years and has a terrific school. So when we talked about what went on, this was someone who believed in development, who brought in a staff that believed in development, and they created interactions among the teachers and the students that helped them grow. And because of that, they were motivated to learn and they were able to achieve at a higher level.

MR. GERSTNER: I think there’s something very important to understand here. Up until 1960-65, we had a captive labor force in our schools. Any bright, ambitious woman who wanted a career went into teaching or nursing. We had this incredible group of people that we underpaid and they taught our kids.

What have we done since then? We have to compete now to get teachers. And what’s it like to be a teacher? Well, first of all, you go to a teachers college, which are the backwaters of a collegiate place. They are awful. If you don’t get into any other things, you go to the teachers college, where they teach you teaching math. You don’t get math from the math department in the university, you get teachers math. And they don’t get the support, they don’t get the kind of training that Dr. Comer’s talking about.

And then what do they look forward to? They look forward to, on average, 20 years later they’re going to make $46,500 in the United States. And that’s the good news. Because the bad news is, they’re going to make $46,500 regardless of whether they’re good or bad, because everybody’s going to get the same. So which half do you think leaves in that first five years? The half that has choices.

And so, we have got to start what Dr. Comer said, to change the way we train teachers. We’ve got to make the profession one that’s respected again. We’ve got to pay them, the best ones, a lot more money. And then we’ve got to hold them accountable so that the teachers that are not performing get moved out of the system.

Joel Klein Joel Klein

MR. KLEIN: The countries that succeed, they tend to draw their teachers from the top quarter, top third of their graduating college classes. These are people who have been academically successful, who believe in assessment, because they’ve lived under it and it’s served them well. In the United States, we draw teachers from the bottom quarter of our college graduates, and our kids in high-poverty neighborhoods get the bottom quarter of the bottom quarter.

And all the incentives are misaligned. You wait for the 20 years, because then it’s actually when it starts to get good, because you’re getting across-the-board pay hikes. So whenever I pay a three-year, 10%, across-the-board pay hike, the people who are locked into the system are getting $8,000 and $10,000 and $12,000 raises, all rolled up in a defined benefit, which means that I’m not getting any return on that money. Whereas the people I’m trying to attract, the young kids who I want to stay in the earliest years, they’re getting the same 10% on $40,000 or $38,000.

So, in effect, we’re rewarding the wrong things. That’s why I think if the federal government were to come in, tied to a real accountability system and said, “This is what we want to reward in teacher performance, we’ll use federal dollars, and if you go to our most challenging schools, it’ll be 1.5X; and if you do it in math and science, it’ll be 2X.” And if it were to use the federal billions in a way that started to create excellence, you’d attract different people, they would be incentivized in different ways, and you would begin to create a culture of excellence.

MR. BUSSEY: You mentioned Michelle Rhee. She’s the chancellor of the Washington, D.C., school system. And she has approached the union with an idea of virtually doubling the pay of those excellent teachers, so long as the union was more willing to allow for firing of those teachers who fell below standards. And the union reaction to that was, “Look, you know, is it really fair to judge teachers who are performing poorly without considering the lack of resources that the school system provides them? And the lack of training?” So, there was immediate resistance there, and a kind of a regression to the status quo. Wouldn’t you run into that same problem with a broader — ?

MR. KLEIN: Sure, sure. But in the end, the same two teachers with the same kid get entirely different results. It’s no different at IBM, it’s no different at Yale, it’s no different in the New York City public-school system.

I will show you the same kids in two different schools, the very same kids, getting entirely different outcomes. The key feature of that is the quality of the teaching, the engagement with the students, the personalization, all of those things. And what we need to do is start rewarding that. So what Lou says, which half do you think is leaving: We want the people who are hitting the ball out of the park to play for our team.

MR. GERSTNER: We’ve got to do it. Thirty-eight percent of middle-school students in the United States, in urban settings, are taught a subject by a teacher that hasn’t even minored in the subject, let alone majored in the subject. Can you imagine? The American people go to an airport, and over the PA system comes an announcement, “Well, we don’t have any qualified pilots today, but we found these guys out here who have agreed to fly the airplane.” That’s what we do to our kids every day.

MR. KLEIN: And make no mistake, that’s directly correlated to poverty. The kids with the greatest needs don’t remotely get their equitable share. So, I have middle-class schools that find it quite easy for every vacancy to attract lots and lots of talent to those schools. And we have some of the best middle-class schools in the country in New York.

On the other hand, I’ve got high-poverty schools where each year I’m sending in 15-20 new people, and it starts this downward cycle that Lou is describing, and that’s another reason people leave, because they find it demoralizing. People want to be part of a successful culture.

MR. COMER: I want to make one more point about when we start trying to weed out the unsuccessful teachers: I don’t think we should wait until they’re teaching. We should be eliminating people who aren’t good teachers, or don’t have the potential to be good teachers, long before they ever get to the school. I’ve always said that about a third of the people are prepared to be teachers; about a third could, with better training, be teachers; but about a third should sell used cars, maybe, or something. But they just shouldn’t get in there in the first place, because they don’t relate to children well.