Parents, kids, and time

Not too long ago, ABC's 20/20 ran a feature by John Stossel that, among editorial remarks such as "American kids are stupid," compared American schools to foreign schools. Stossel claimed that American students perform worse on international tests the longer they stay in school. American fourth graders perform the same or better than most international students on basic math, science, and reading tests, but somewhere between fourth and twelfth grade, American scores drop drastically. Stossel concludes that it's because American schools, as he eloquently puts it, "are bad."
I have an alternate theory:
I was picking up my son from the after-school program a couple of days before his kindergarten graduation, and I witnessed a pretty sad scene. A little boy was crying in the arms of the head teacher because his parents could not attend the moving up day celebration. In the meantime, my son ran across the classroom to greet me, and the other little boy cried just a little harder, most likely from envy. It turns out this boy is often the last to be picked up because both of his parents work late. Most of the time, their work schedules allow one to be home in the evening fairly early, but on occasion, their shifts overlap leaving the little boy in the school's care for 12 hours.
I can remember how my son reacted a year ago when I picked up a night job. I worked three nights a week as a researcher for a phone company. I did it to pay for a second masters degree in communication, but it took its toll on my relationship with my son. I had twenty minutes twice a week to play. That's all. This went on for six months. During that time, even though my wife was there to play games in the evening and read to him at night, he was angrier, got in trouble more at daycare, and cried occasionally to his teachers just as the little boy did in the after-school program. As soon as I graduated with the second masters, I quit the job. Money was tight, but I didn't care. My son needed me to be there, and within weeks, his behavior issues, anger, and sadness disappeared. He was back to his happy self because I was back to being a parent.
People are quick to blame schools for the deficiencies American students show when compared to foreign students. While any given school can always use improvement, I think the root of the problem is the amount of time American parents spend at their jobs, away from their children, compared to foreign parents. According to "Porch magazine" , Americans exceed "Japan by 137 hours a year and Germany by 260 hours" in the amount of time spent working, and spend "40% less time with their children than they did in the 1960's." Do you think this may account for some of the problems American schools are faced with today?
I had to make some tough decisions to spend more time with my son, but after seeing my son's classmate who spends much of his life wishing he were with his parents, I know I've made the right choice. Maybe American parents should think less about blaming others for their children's social, emotional, behavioral, and academic difficulties and think more about how much their work schedules are contributing to the problem.

Naked Economist? Naked of logic

This blog was originally a reaction to my local media's coverage of local schools, but I just can't help commenting on the Naked Economist's nonsensical rant about the United States Post Office. He even gets in a dig about public education with a question that is nothing more than a presupposition and a false analogy with a question mark tacked on. Here is the comment I left at the bottom of Charles Wheelan's "Naked Economist" blog:

Sure, let's get mad at the postal service and their "inefficiency" at delivering for very little money anything, anywhere, and correctly 99.9% of the time. Your evidence is pathetically anecdotal and seeped in hyperbole, no doubt. Let's NOT get angry at the inefficiency of PRIVATE corporate American companies who pay their CEO's billions while delivering substandard products and outsourcing their labor to China because paying a living wage to an American would cut into their 400 million dollar severance package when they get fired for incompetence. Let's not get angry at PRIVATE big oil for record billion dollar profits and record high prices at the pumps. Let's not get angry at the inefficient use by PRIVATE companies of scarce resources. How many patents of extremely efficient, alternative energy products have been bought and shelved by PRIVATE fossil fuel companies? You're right. Let's get mad at YOUR mailman because you say so, and scrap the best deal Americans have ever had. Imagine what FedEX or UPS would charge for the same services if the USPS was not their competition. Price fixing and gouging would abound. Inefficiency would reign and CEOs would profit at the expense of the many. THAT'S what privatizing is really about.

Biased reporting on WTEN, ABC affiliate in Albany, NY

John McLoughlin, a veteran "reporter" for News Channel 10, an ABC affiliate in the Albany, New York area, recently reported that "17 percent" of Albany school teachers were absent on Friday, April 27. Actually, if he had said it that way, it may have been a report, but he didn't. Instead he said that Albany teachers had a "sick out," and he then editorialized erroneously about teacher workdays and pay.

Among the inaccuracies and inuendos in the report, the thing that disgusted me the most was the source of the attack: Since when does a reporter who works for a few minutes a day reading words on a tele-prompter get to comment on the working hours of people who actually serve the public? It seems downright insolent that someone who gets paid six figures and does so very little for the public good, especially in a time of war, could comment on the wages and hours of public servants who, relative to others with similar academic credentials, get paid so little. I was so disgusted by the "report" that I barely know where to begin, so, to be concise, I will itemize some corrections for some of the major inaccuracies:

Correction #1: "Sick out" is a labor term descibing an illegal strike. News 10 reported absenses as a "sick out" without any qualification or indication that this was in fact a strike. That is extremely sloppy reporting. In fact, it seems libelous to accuse a group of people of committing a crime without even adding "alleged" as is the standard. Further, the ones typically doing the accusing are the authorities, not the reporters. WTEN may be facing a defamation suit.

Correction #2: Teachers are contractually obligated by the State to work at least 180 days, not 176 as reported, and school districts schedule at least 185 days to account for snow days. Most districts do not subtract the extra five days if no snow days are used. In addition, teachers are NOT paid for the summer nor are they eligible for unemployment insurance like other seasonal workers such as construction workers who routinely collect unemployment insurance throughout the late fall and winter. (You NEVER hear people complaining that their state taxes are high because contractors "fire" their workers in the fall so they will be eligible for unemployment benefits, then rehire them in the spring.) Even baseball players are eligible for unemployment during the off-season. Many (if not most) teachers have a second job during their off season: summer.

Correction #3: Most districts require conferences and professional development thus creating the need for more substitutes. This was not reported.

Correction #4: No teacher in the history of teaching has ever been paid $23,000 for unused sick days (as reported). The reason why teachers accumulate sick days is because there is no disability insurance protection. The sick days are in place of disability insurance. Furthermore, these sick day accumulations are capped. They do not accumulate endlessly as implied by the "report."

Query: What are John McLoughlin's hours? How much does he make? What kind of car does he drive? And lastly, where did he go to Journalism school? (I need to know which institution my students should avoid.)