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Show Accreditation Dear Jack: The Uintah School District is having growing problems. District staff have recently been asking for public input to help solve the problems. There are alternatives which have not been explored, ex-plored, but which very likely will not be explored or admitted as alternatives by school staff. It is possible to have better educational programs as low as an estimated two-thirds of present per capita costs, if certain things could be implemented, which are not popular with educational associations. This is supported by education research and experimentation with alternative programs, as well as sound fiscal programs. It will be necessary for the public to make demands and insist of some very significant changes in the direction of education before it can be hoped that the best education will be provided, and in the interest of the taxpayer who is paying the bill. This is partly due to a conflict of interest which exists when education decisions are made by people who do not have to prove their merit by their effectiveness, nor be concerned about costs. On the other hand, those who are dependent on the effectiveness of education and who have to pay the bill, really have little influence on local education decisions. When they are invited to give input, certain guidelines are provided to keep the options within the parameters school authorities are willing to accept. The options are based on "sacred assumptions" the public has been led to believe are beyond question. It is not necessarily so. My experience and. training in education, which includes administration, ad-ministration, working with school budgets, writing accreditation reports and serving on accreditation committees, com-mittees, have acquainted me with several options or possibilities which could improve the quality of education at a reduced cost. Several projects in school administration ad-ministration which I completed at the University of Utah, were designed to improve education and reduce per capita costs. I always received good marks and favorable comments from my professors, on these projects. Of course, those professors, who were knowledgeable in education, were men whose thinking was not controlled by a union of educators. I believe the taxpayer tax-payer and recipients of classroom education would respond favorably to better programs if they were acquainted with some of the possibilities. For the public to be able to consider some of the alternatives, it will be necessary to sacrifice some very expensive ex-pensive sacred cows. One of these is called accreditation. Accreditation associations are neither public nor government agencies. They are private self-serving organizations whose mystical hold on the public is intended to question the sanity of anyone who questions their aims and methods of achieving those aims. Their control is achieved through a local government agency which is also duped by their threats. Accreditation associations are private enterprises whose first loyalty is to themselves. They do not serve education, nor the taxpayer; thev use them. Benefit to education, if there be any, is a by-product, not an aim. Some of the regulations they foist upon school districts are very expensive, ex-pensive, others do nothing to improve the quality of education, while others are nothing more than common sense which the public would insist on any way. Most serious, is the fact that they interfere with implementation of better alternatives and cause a perpetuation of some problems which should be eliminated. When the public is willing to question the value of accreditation, with a willingness to hazard the threats of the accreditation associations, they will be ready to explore some of the alternatives alter-natives young people need, and the taxpayer deserves. For the present, my two children still in school, are attending a non-accreditated non-accreditated private school. The demands society will make upon them in the future and the responsibility they will have to assume in our complex world, insist that I have to provide the ' best education I can for them. Consequently, Con-sequently, I am supporting a system that has only reason for existence, and is very effectively justifying its reason for existence. The reason is to provide a quality education for responsible citizens of tomorrow. Sincerely, RE ID GOODRICH |