4 More Years

4 more years! 4 more years!

That was the chant supporters repeated at President Bush’s victory speech today at the celebration of his election to a 2nd term of his presidency. I am not one of the many who voted for Bush. I understood our decision to attack Afghanistan, but not Iraq. I understand Bush's desire to improve education and the intent of No Child Left Behind, but not his decision to under fund it. I understand confidence, but I'll never support someone who can't ever admit mistakes. Bush's victory speech was dripping with hubris, so I don't expect him to change his course during the next four years.

So when I hear "4 more years," I'm thinking about what they mean for school technology programs.

We’ll be continuing with NCLB, without, I'm sure, adequate funding. My school has done pretty well so far in meeting the requirements of Adequate Yearly Progress, but each annual, required 10% improvement means that all schools will eventually fail AYP at some level. Technology will play a role in this process.

One of the biggest roles in quenching a school's thirst for data. Tracking and documenting AYP and providing technology to support improvement initiatives are just a couple of new uses for technology. That's on top of data needed for grant applications, testing, and test interpretation. In general, we now have to become proficient at importing, exporting, storing, retrieving, and displaying data. The hardware side is affected also, as we now need permanent, redundant storage for data. We're data jockeys now; that's what we are.

I also don't see any funding relief in the next four years. Nationally, our taxes will be going to Iraq, Afghanistan, and homeland security. I don't see how schools are going to make it to the surface in any budget battles that include discussions of our "nation-building" efforts, which could easily spread to additional countries. You could see that in our cowboy chief's smirk right after he talked about working together with "anyone who shares his goals."

Our state budget will be no help either; ISBE is in turmoil as the governor takes it over, and the technology division there has been reduced to two staff members--this in a state with over 2.3 million students--this in a state that ranks 46th in education spending.

Local funding trends are even worse. , tax watchdog groups attend our board meetings and snatch phrases, expenditures, and Board actions to hammer away at mercilessly. It's become partisan politics at its worst, with the "spin" favoring one's own billfold or purse.

In light of these very real challenges, what equipment should we purchase? What software tools will do the most to advance student learning? What database tools will go the farthest in helping us track and pinpoint effective ways to meet our academic yearly progress goals? How long can we keep our existing equipment running?

4 more years. Sigh.