The Legislative focus on Education

This week, I attended my first meeting on education at the Capitol. Being the self- designated "apprentice" this year, I was excited. It was the joint House and Senate Education meeting on Best Practices and Educational Excellence. Representative Brooks Coleman and Senator Dan Moody are the respective chairmen and made it quickly appearant that "excellence" is now the new buzzword for education. According to these legislators, Georgia's education system is making a fundamental shift from "basic" to "excellent." The state wants to build a cost model from the ground up to measure student's performance with the ultimate goal being a ROI ( Return On Investment) analysis. They called for education to tie dollars to performance recommendations so that Georgia could continue to investing in education. They also called for the system to be transparent - saying that these goals would enable all children to have access a quality education. Legislators expressed concerned about issues such as: involving advocacy, identifying a workable defination of "excellence," defining per student cost, simplying the formula for funding, and encouraging community partnerships with parental involvement.

Buzzwords, vague lofty language, and uncertain short term goals aside, it made me think of how
the decisions that these legislators and administrators ultimately make trickles down to parents like me and the affect my own two kids who receive services through the special education system.

So what are the burning questions, issues, and buzzwords that we as parents need to be focused on and drive home to legislators?

What is on your mind these days regarding your child's education?