REFORMS EYED BY TEACHERS; CLAIM LAW PASSED ABSENT THEIR INPUT

Teachers at Cape Girardeau Central High School Monday said they resent education reforms dictated by state legislators with little input from classroom teachers.

Teachers talked about their concerns with Attorney General William Webster, who is a candidate for governor in 1992. About 15 teachers attended the meeting, held at the high school at 10:30 a.m.

Webster said discussions within the legislature about education reform and tax proposals cast teachers as "greedy and incompetent."

"If the key to good education is good teachers, I think we need to do more to build up morale. We need to get beyond the bashing and look at what can really be done to improve education," Webster said.

"There has been a lot of blame assessed to teachers and schools," Webster said. "But I think we have such high expectation for what we expect our schools to do."

English teacher Bill Springer said, "The best reform comes from within. I resent the legislature telling us what we need to do to improve our profession."

In particular, Springer said, he is unhappy with the reform provision that would allow experienced professionals with at least a bachelor's degree in a subject to teach that subject in grades 7-12 without requiring an additional degree in education.

"I don't like a plan to employ engineers who are out of jobs," Springer said. "They may have knowledge, but it's ludicrous to think they can come in and teach. They don't have the credentials. It's silly to think that a guy who worked in an air-conditioned office at McDonnell Douglas can all of a sudden come into my classroom and teach 30 students. It's insulting to the teaching profession."

Joe Bradshaw, history teacher, said that state leaders claim education's problems cannot be solved by "throwing money at it."

But, he said, "Many of the problems of education can be solved with more money better teacher-pupil ratios, better salaries which improves morale, more time to grade papers and prepare for classes."

Bradshaw said Central High School teachers teach five classes and have two class periods to prepare lessons. At other area schools, teachers teach six classes with one hour to prepare.

"We're fortunate here," Bradshaw said. "In rural areas that's 30 hours a week on stage, performing, selling kids on ideas they may not want to learn, and five hours a week to prepare.

"Something that would help us do a better job would be to work less hours in the classroom and spend more time preparing.

"When you perform so many hours a week, it stifles creativity. We are forced to rely on curriculum guides and manuals."

Journalism teacher Liz Lockhart said, "The term reform has been bandied about, but the reforms are starting and ending in the school."

Lockhart said, "How about child-labor laws? We have students here working 30 to 39 hours a week. There is a real dearth of child-labor laws in this state."

Teachers told Webster that students fall asleep in class, are late for school and miss school because they work so many hours at after-school jobs.

Lockhart said statistics show students who work 20 hours or more a week have a higher likelihood of dropping out of school. She advocates limiting the number of hours a student could work.

"That one factor could help put us back in control of kids, whose primary job is supposed to be education," she said.

Lockhart added that the final draft of the proposed tax bill was completed in the final hours of the session.

"All the last-minute bargaining was done behind closed doors," she said. "Even those of us attempting to be informed lacked information about the final bill."

Webster agreed. "We are still, three and four days later, trying to sort out what's in that legislation."

Lockhart said she had been to Jefferson City twice this year to talk with legislators about education funding and reforms. "I think they should consult us more often," she said. "I kind of felt that they shook our hands and said glad you're here but didn't really listen to what we said."

Kathy Wright, who teaches science, said legislators need to talk with classroom teachers who are still teaching before legislating reforms. "Students are so different today than when I was in school or when my mother was in the classroom," she said.

Coralie Robertson, who teaches Spanish, said, "I think voters feel they've been burned when they have shown support for education in the past."

Specifically, she cited Proposition C, which provided a 1-cent sales tax for education, and the Missouri lottery, which was advertised as a boon to education. Lottery profits go to the state's general revenue. Proposition C money goes to education, but Webster said that education budgets were "reduced on the backside" an equal amount.

Webster said he has been visiting with classroom teachers across the state as he embarks on the gubernatorial campaign trail.

"With education so much on everyone's mind, I've gotten an earful everywhere I've gone," he said. "Teachers have been candid, and their frustrations have come out."

Webster agreed that legislators should consult educators before making reforms.

"That's my whole point," Webster said. "Teachers have a lot of very positive ideas about what should be done."