God Bless the Principals, Who’ve Got Their Own

I was thrilled to read that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $18 million to provide leadership training for California’s school principals and vice principals (Nov. 6). Thus, the principal training law signed by Gov. Gray Davis has a combined funding of $63 million.

But, wait. Upon further review, is this the best use of the $18 million? Don’t get me wrong. The gesture is overwhelming and much appreciated. Yet why would so many dollars be spent for individuals who, by definition, should be well-trained already?

I would assume that if you’ve been hired or promoted to principal or vice principal, you’ve acquired strong organizational and managerial skills. Right? I understand that everyone in education and business needs continued training. It’s ongoing. But $63 million is questionable. Why would we spend millions of donated money, coupled with 160 hours of training, for individuals who should be professionally capable?

Instead, we need to fund our classrooms. Fewer students per class. Better resources. Newer books and technology. The dollars are needed there.

Rory Zaks

Torrance

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The fact that Gates is putting up $18 million to fund the training of school administrators is evidence that the degrees in school management aren’t worth much, though school administrators command high salaries. I would suggest that school administrators be required to have degrees in public administration, as is required of city managers.

In my 34 years of teaching, I’ve encountered school administrators who had little command of the laws and finances that pertained to their district or schools, and I suspect that they had little understanding of teaching itself, since they had spent minimal time in the teaching profession before moving into administration. I’ve had administrators tell me that they learned school management by “on-the-job training.” Is that enough for leading multimillion-dollar schools and professional teaching staffs who are highly skilled and know what they are doing?

Bill D. Holder

Cypress