justonepost, typical liberal reaction. Throw more money at it. Your dramatics are baseless.

wando and janesvillecan, read carefully, I said most will end up in jail anyway. Any amount of research will tell you that 90% of prisoners today did not apply themselves to get an education. A FREE education. How easy can the taxpayers make it?

It is for this very reason that I am currently & will continue to send my son to a private school with a class size of 14. Anyone who thinks class size doesn't matter is dead wrong. Once a child falls behind they are screwed in a large class because chances are the teacher will not be able to notice. I went to Marquette & remember freshman history in the theater with hundreds of students - comparing that to middle school is apples to oranges. If that's what some of you want well there goes Janesville further down the toilet. If you want to grow a community & retain the good people that are there the schools are an excellent place to start.

AndrewJackson
Dec 14, 2011 at 11:38 a.m.
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If disruptions in the classroom are the great problem educators say that they are, the disruptors should be removed from the classroon, charged with disorderly conduct, charged wih theft from the taxpayers and taken DIRECTLY to the Rock County Jail. This is where a majority of them will eventually end up anyway. The disruptors then will reside in said jail until either they or their parents realize what an excellent opportunity a free education actually is. Can't wait for the typical lib. reaction about the poor children.
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You may have a point. Throwing children into the Rock County Jail because they are a class disruption may improve the public high schools in Janesville. JUST LIKE, the death penalty for speeding may make our roads safer.
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Fortunately, the United States of American/School District of Janesville believe we can do better. We can find away to work with all students because in the United States/Janesville, all students (even those that mature slower, learn differently or are lazy) have the opportunity of a public education.
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I personally am sick of the conservative, republican, tea party crowd not believing in the greatness of this country. Not believing that corporations can pay taxes, provide good paying jobs and be environmentally friendly; NOT believing that public education can offer the opportunity to EVERY child without the treat of being take to the “County Jail”; NOT believing that the middle-class has the right to collectively bargain with employers; NOT believing that EVERY CITIZEN has earned the right to vote; NOT believing that EVERY CITIZEN deserves access to AFFORDABLE health insurance; NOT BELIEVING IN THE GREATNESS OF THE MIDDLE CLASS OF AMERICA 2011-2012.

teapartysal
Dec 14, 2011 at 12:36 p.m.
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the Janesville teachers made a point of signing a contract before the new laws were passed, knowing full well it would lead to cuts and larger classes. Now they've gotten what they bargained for, let them live with it.
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Shocking, tea party LYING… it is proven common knowledge that the contract agreed to by the Janesville teachers AND THE SCHOOL BOARD (notice you left them out from you HATE-FILLED RANT) was done BEFORE Governor Walker was elected. The School Board, Janesville Education Association and general public had NO IDEA that signing such a contract, typical to previous contracts, would have the economic impact it had regardless result of the governor’s race.
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You are a LIAR.

realitybytes
Dec 13, 2011 at 9:38 p.m.
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“oooh, a class size of 32. There goes these kids education. Nobody could possible learn in a class of that size.....or can they?
If these kids go on to higher education they will likely have Freshmen classes at state universities where the class sizes may be 50+ and held in multi-tiered lecture halls. Class size is NOT the biggest factor in a young adults education. Personal desire to learn IS.”
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That is a pretty big “IF”. As stated in other comments, the majority of students will not go onto a traditional 4 year university. In addition, Parker and Craig are not universities. They are high schools that serve students from a variety of backgrounds with a variety of goals. Students as young as 14 being compared to University students is simply ignorant.
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BTW, the number of students that excel in a particular subject as a result of those “multi-tiered lecture hall” classes…MINIMAL. Universities set them up to reduce the overall number of students and mass educated then because of “general education requirements”. Those classes are not high-quality education environments and I certainly do not want them duplicated at Craig and Parker.

teapartysal
Remember tax payors paid for the school you went to ////////

Teapartysal, if you have a high percentage of low income kids, and you want to give them a decent education, than, yeah, you're going to spend more per student. And as for cutting the "fluff" classes, what are our kids supposed to do when they want to go to college and all they know is math and english? The right is turning this country into an international laughingstock when it comes to education just because you don't want to pay for what should be a basic right. Equal education for ALL CHILDREN. Better schools benefit EVERYONE. Don't complain when every doctor, nurse, scientist, engineer, IT person, etc in ten years speaks with an accent so think you can't understand them. Other countries actually spend the money and put in the community resources to EDUCATE.

teapartysal - Grow up, paying taxes is part of being an adult. I know it sucks, but everyone has to deal with it. As far as not having any children, that really has nothing to do with the conversation. Good schools and good school districts benefit the entire community; they bring/keep businesses, help to ensure an educated workforce, keep kids off the streets....and the list goes on. You benefit from each of these things, so you should have to pay as well.

Andrew, do you have any idea how much it costs to jail someone? What are we going to do, charge the prisoner? And when they can't pay? School is where the kids need to be, and taxes are how we need to pay for it. Taxes just need to go up for the top earners, and like it or not, that's the only good answer.

so wando wants HIGHER taxes for education.. HELL NO. Why should I pay more for schools I don't use.. I have no children. Throwing money at schools has NEVER worked. If it did, the kids in cities like Milwaukee, New York, Chicago, etc, would be testing off the top of the chart, not off the bottom. the Janesville teachers made a point of signing a contract before the new laws were passed, knowing full well it would lead to cuts and larger classes. Now they've gotten what they bargained for, let them live with it.

jnomosby-
First, you better do some more research on high achieving students; they need IEPs just like the lower performers. IEPs take time, with more students in the classroom, there will be less time to spend on each student. If high performers didn't need extra attention, we wouldn't have AP and advanced courses for them to take.

Second, say the contracts for the teachers weren't passed; who is going to be in the classrooms teaching the students? Contract or no contract, the teachers still have to be paid. Even if all the unions were to open their contracts right now and pay into their health care and pensions, there still wouldn't be enough to close the gap in the budget. On the other hand, had the board taxed to the max in the past, we would be much closer to closing the budget gap.

Andrew Jackson-
Great theory, but that would just end up costing the taxpayer even more. It costs a lot less to give kids an education than it does to pay for them to be in jail for the rest of their lives.

If disruptions in the classroom are the great problem educators say that they are, the disruptors should be removed from the classroon, charged with disorderly conduct, charged wih theft from the taxpayers and taken DIRECTLY to the Rock County Jail. This is where a majority of them will eventually end up anyway. The disruptors then will reside in said jail until either they or their parents realize what an excellent opportunity a free education actually is. Can't wait for the typical lib. reaction about the poor children.

I guess more people should school choice milton now. At least they have been able to handle the cuts so far.

My two daughters are soon headed to college, having graduated from parker last year. Their biggest complaint about their education at parker was the distraction caused by other students. Reduce the fluff, concentrate on the core classes, and you'll be able to reduce the class sizes.

huntfish1....If what you say is true, I am questioning this person's educational qualifications for his position.

You cannot compare Janesville High Schools with UW Madison. Only the top performing students at Janesville schools can get accepted to Madison. Janesville schools cater not only to students bound for UW-Madison, but to students of all abilities including students bound for jail. Adding even just a few more questionable apples to each class will impair learning for the whole group. To compensate for this, is the Board going to tighten up what it will tolerate from High School students? I think increasing class size + trying to decrease the number of expulsions will create a pressure cooker for teachers and students.

I only have access to the abbreviated version of this story. This story indicates the MAXIMUM number of students in a class, both currently and in the future. How many classes currently have the current maximum of 30? How many do NOT? What is the average number of students in a classroom? Stories can be slanted either way by leaving out facts every bit as much as they can be slanted by putting them in. Just saying....

For those of you who have not heard what the Great Dr. Earhardt has done to the high school curriculum, here is a rundown. Next year no health classes will be offered at the high schools, two years freshman physical science classes are cut. Social Studies will be cut greatly. This is just a start of what he calls a better plan for students. What a joke. The high schools are going down hill thanks to the school board and Dr. Earhardt. Ask them about it because they won't announce these changes to the public for fear of losing students. Get out now!

Should be interesting trying to fit the extra desks into some of those classrooms; could make for some chaotic fire drill exits. Also, I've heard many complain that there may only be 25 working computers in a lab...so 32 kids and 25 computers...Hmmmm...sounds like this truly IS the best plan for students.

Decrease all class sizes at all levels. There's no shortcuts for education. Cut all the bloat in non-teaching positions at all levels. We must invest in our future citizens.

donnaw - no

What a joke this board is. Sodeman you are really something. Dr. Earhardt downtown you are also worthless. Changing the whole curriculum and also raising class sizes. Wow. So glad we school choiced to Milton this year.

Frank, I am sure that they "said" that. Who is going to make sure of it? If they were serious about monitoring class size Marshall wouldn't have core classes of 34. It's easy to make the rules but if nobody is going to get out there and see what is really going on what good does it do?

doesnt the disruptive student get sent to the principal's office?

Not smart.

You can't compare college class sizes to public school. These are children, not adults. Not only that, but many of them are children who don't want to be there and are a disruptive influence on the class. Every teacher that I have talked to has said that students suffer partly because of more behavior issues from the students when you increase class size. Keep increasing class size and pretty soon, the teacher has to spend all of his time on the few students being disruptive than on the kids who want to learn. Eventually, NONE of them go on to college and few graduate high school. American exceptionalism?

Wondo-as far as honesty: tax to the max would not have solved the budget problem. Do the math. Not signing the union contracts would have solved the entire budget problem and put more money into the classroom.

Wando-two points. First there are colleges and then there are colleges; if you know what I mean. Some you need college prep, others you don't. Second, you are incorrect in your statement about high performers being hurt by less instruction. In our current high school environment, high performers will take guidance and a book and they will run with it. The type of instruction that would assist a high performer would require discussions of concepts and topics rarely if ever available in our current high school environment.

MadCity-since 1 in 4 high school students complete a 4 year college degree, the average high school student does not need college prep activities in high school. Consumer math is fine for them. I specifically stated AP and noted college prep. These students need an introduction to high density classrooms as well as independant study concepts to compete with their future classmates.

jnomosby-I see where you're coming from, but only a small percentage of students are going to schools like UW-Madison where class sizes are so large. Many are going to go on to schools like Blackhawk, UW-Whitewater, or other state schools where the class sizes are much smaller. So the need to put them into "higher density classes" doesn't really exist. Not only that, but when you increase the amount of students in the class, each student is going to get less instruction. This hurts the high and low performers the most. The low performers won't get the personal instruction they need to get over the hump and get the education they deserve. The high performers, who also need personal instruction, won't be challenged and will lose interest. Increasing class sizes is a lose-lose situation, no matter how you look at it.

There's also a difference between the dedication level of someone at a University v. the avereage HS student.

At my first semister at UW-Madison, I landed in a calc class with 300+ students meeting Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We broke into 50 student discussion groups led by a TA on Tuesday and Thursday. If we are getting these students ready for college level classes, we should be putting them into higher density classes sooner. There is a difference between family math and AP math. The principal should make these decisions and school choice will take care of the rest.

Lecture halls are built to accommodate large numbers, the classrooms in these high schools are not. Overcrowding is not conducive to learning.

mom of two, they said tonight that they sometimes ask teachers to take a couple more than the limit. They say they WON'T do that when it's 32. -- Gazette reporter Frank Schultz

So who do we call when our students class sizes already exceed the limit? Now can they sneak in 34 instead of 32? This board amazes me. They make big decisions while sitting behind a table and not getting into the schools to see what is really going on.

oooh, a class size of 32. There goes these kids education. Nobody could possible learn in a class of that size.....or can they?
If these kids go on to higher education they will likely have Freshmen classes at state universities where the class sizes may be 50+ and held in multi-tiered lecture halls. Class size is NOT the biggest factor in a young adults education. Personal desire to learn IS.

we agree. poor management.

saxcat-Let's be honest. They had to do this because our idiot school board hasn't taxed to the rate that they should have in past years. They knew that the less they taxed, the less they would get in state aide, yet they still chose not to tax. We're in this situation because of our joke of a school board president, Bill Sodemann, and the rest of his cronies.

The school board will say they had to do this to save money. What they won;t say is they had to save money because they've been spending too much. Don't blame the credit card company when you max out your card and can't make the payments.