OUR BLOG

Dear Friends of EEC,

Many of you may have read about the current controversy in Louisiana with the proposed posting of the 10 Commandments in all their public school classrooms. Please see the op/ed that I wrote on this topic recently for context.

More recently, the state of Oklahoma has announced its intent to teach the Bible in the public schools there. I believe this is an issue whose time has come. EEC has a unique opportunity to provide to school districts across the country curricula for doing so while conforming to the guidelines set by the courts. We intend to do so as well as offer consulting services for implementing such a program that could interface with our TAP (teacher assistant program) described below in the Executive Summary of the project.

Being now in the for-profit space, EEC intends to sell this curricula nationwide and hopes to have initial lesson plans available soon for those districts and teachers who want to participate in the operation.

We will be offering memberships in our co-op for a fee that will allow members to share in the income from our operations as well pay for their services under the conditions of the co-op by laws available on our resource page. Also please see the attachments and links below.

Please stay tuned and join us as we move forward with our new initiatives during these exciting times!

William Bronson MA, MTS, DMin – President of EEC

Call me for more information or to join our organization at 239 940 6080

ACLU on teaching Bible in Public Schools

A Proposed Teacher Assistant Program (TAP) for Lee County Public Schools
June 2024 by William Bronson MA, MTS, DMin
Executive Summary

Due to staffing challenges in the public schools, there is a need for an innovative approach to meeting these challenges.

The Teacher Assistant Program (TAP) that follows is based on a small and brief pilot project partially implemented at The Success Academy in Fort Myers last year (2022 – 2023) by Enlighten Education Co-op, a 501c3. Participants included Oswaldo Russian, Chris Ruhnke, Margaret Morris and others. The program was intended to be provided free to the District but for various reasons had to be discontinued due to a shortfall in funding.

The vision was to access a rich pool of educational talent consisting of retired teachers and veterans in our area. It was determined that this talent pool could be activated by offering part time employment at $20- $25 per hour to retirees who would bring their experience and assistance to the aid of full-time teachers who requested such assistance.

In fact, current teachers would be encouraged to assist in the recruitment of their assistants by reaching out to their senior friends, neighbors, and relatives who would be interested in participating.

Currently the District has a volunteer program that could be expanded to include this new category of modestly paid staff of part time seniors who would fit in the space between the current paraprofessionals and regular teachers. They would be designated as TAs (teacher assistants senior) whose credentials would justify a $25/hr compensation. Another category would be TAj (teacher assistant junior) who might be younger persons who are contemplating or studying for a career in education. Finally, TAv would be drawn from retired or disabled veterans. Their targeted compensation would be about $20/hr. All TA would not receive the normal employment benefits considering that seniors may already have pensions and Medicare, etc.

This program would be a WIN, WIN, WIN. The students would receive more individual care. The teachers would receive much needed support. And the seniors would have a place to use their hard earned skills without the stress of full time employment.

For more information contact William Bronson at 239 940 6080 or willbronson7@gmail.com

Or visit our website at www.EnlightenEducationCo-op.org