"What can a parent do to help educate their children?"

By James G Barrett

As we all know, keeping up with your school children's homework assignments and attendance record is nearly impossible to do. I plan on putting the "E" into education through a co-op between private computer hardware, software, and web-hosting companies that will enable a parent to find out about their child's daily homework assignments as well as keep an eye on attendance and other critical information and dates. The parent will be able to check on this secure information via the Internet

As City Councilman I will negotiate with private hardware, software, and web hosting companies to give our schools and parents the tools they need to assist there children in the world of academics. There are so many things that can be done in this digital age and we need to start utilizing them now.

My plan is to entice the needed companies with the lure that they will have their company names as sponsors and donors on the Oceanside A.C.E.N.E.T. (Academic Curriculum Network) website , in addition to being on the cutting edge of school evolution. I guarantee that companies will be standing in line for this opportunity to have this kind of unlimited exposure for the relatively low cost of a few donated products.

Here is how it works:

Near the end of every class period the teacher will take no more than 5 minutes to sit down at a computer terminal in their classroom and pull up an attendance screen. They will check off who is in class and who is absent. They will also enter the details of any homework for that night or any other special notes into the computer. This information will immediately be sent up onto the A.C.E.N.E.T. website via the Internet. Parents will be able to instantly access this information day or night, from business or home computers.

There will be no more "I forgot what the homework is", "There wasn't any", or "I wasn't absent I was tardy". Tardys will show up as tardys and absences as absences.

There will also be provisions for emailing the teacher, the attendance office and other relevant departments. On every other Friday the teacher will post the students estimated grades so that the parents can decide for themselves how best the children's weekend should be spent.

We have the unique opportunity to take an even more active role in our children's education than ever before. We owe it to them and we owe it to our community.