PTA president: School funding top priority

Teresa Hinds

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

A nation of poorly educated children is an unfair assumption to make about America's youth, said the president of the national PTA.

Joan Dykstra, who gave the keynote speech Thursday at the Nevada PTA convention at the Orleans hotel-casino, said recent reports about American students not measuring up to their foreign-student peers have been exaggerated.

"A lot of times statistics can be blown out of proportion, and I think that's what's happened here," Dykstra said. "We are doing a better-than-average job of educating our children. There are great things happening in America's schools."

The problem, Dkystra said, is that society is projecting its own ills onto public education.

"There is more drug and alcohol abuse so people think the world is bad. Therefore, (the thinking is that) public education must be, too," Dykstra said. "It's the overall picture of the crisis of the '90s" that influences opinion about public education, she said.

A top priority for the national association mirrors local concerns: funding for education.

The national PTA is calling for full funding of public education and Dykstra is convinced the federal government can find a way to give states more education dollars.

"We think the funding should be adequate," Dykstra said. "If they're going to mandate a program, they should fully fund it."

That attitude is also carried by the state PTA. Barbara Clark, legislative liaison for the state association, said the group will be calling on the Legislature to fund school construction and third-grade class-size reduction.

"We support developer impact fees and donations of land," Clark said. "If there's going to be growth, then the people moving in here need to support that growth.

"Either you pay for it now, or you pay for it through welfare, prisons or some sort of subsidy."

Although the state PTA supports funding a true 16-1 student-teacher ratio for third-grade class-size reduction, Clark said in reality she doubts that will happen.

"Ideally, every parent realizes the ability of teachers to have more time individually with their child increases when you have a smaller class," Clark said. "Unfortunately, the issue of school facilities is tied into that. If we can't get the state to pay for schools. ..."

Dykstra also said getting more community and parent involvement in schools is the key to more effective educational programs.

"Statistics show that kids do much better in school when their parents get involved in their education," Dykstra said.

Dykstra would like to see schools integrate community values into their programs and policies.

She said every school district should have policies that reflect the community's attitudes on things such as drugs and weapons on campus and adhere to those rules.

"If you want to have chaos in a community, all you need is to have a school board make a policy the community doesn't want," she said. "That makes for continuous conflict. What you want is consensus building."

With a strong community commitment to local schools, Dykstra said financial inequities lessen. "You don't need to have wealth to have a good school district."

The state convention runs through Saturday at the hotel. In addition to attending seminars and region caucuses, delegates will vote on two emergency resolutions: advertising on school buses and charter schools.

Also, Nevada first lady Sandy Miller is set to speak Saturday on technology legislation.