D-200 schools - value received?

A reader made a comment today to my May article about school taxes.

His comment was,
"2010 to 2011 the District 200 increase was 14.26%
2009 to 2010 the increase was 6.89%
All this time inflation was below 2% and property values were decreasing 40%
How does this happen?"

And then this morning readers of the Northwest Herald were treated (trick-or-treat) to the results of McHenry County Schools on their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). You know, under No Child Left Behind.

Which forces the question - which child are we talking about, who hasn't been left behind?

Check out your own school district and your child's school.

Me? I'm interested in Woodstock District 200.

Two schools in D-200 (only two (2)) met the AYP. For those who have already forgotten what AYP means, that's Adequate Yearly Progress.

It's Halloween today. Now there's a scary word ... "Adequate".

Is "No Child Left Behind" a bust? Just look at this number ... 92%. This is the percent of students, as a whole or within each of nine subgroupings, who must meet or exceed the reading and math standards set by the state - and this is up from 85% last year.

This is an impossible standard. Who were the idiots who created this, in the first place?

Why is it impossible? I can tell you one of the answers. When a high school teacher can't explain a simple, basic mathematics problem, is it any wonder that all schools in the District 200 system, except Greenwood Elementary and Woodstock High School, failed to meet the AYP?

Here was the problem: A customer buys a $2 cup of coffee at Starbuck's every business day for a year.
Assume 5 days in a week.
Assume 21 business days in a month.
Assume 12 months in a year.
Easy-peasy; right?

OK, here we go (I was visiting the class that day, along with a teacher who was visiting). This is how the problem was worked out in front of the students:
Assume 5 days in a week. $2 x 5 = $10/week
Assume 21 business days in a month. $10 x 21 = $210/month (See anything wrong yet?)
Assume 12 months in a year. $210 x 12 = $2,520/year

What's the correct answer? $2,520 or $______? (By the way, the correct answer was on the hand-out that was distributed to students, before the problem was worked out on the board.)

The teacher had been with District 200 for more than 20 years. How much of a merit raise should that teacher get?