“In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less.”… Lee Iacocca
“They’re behaving like teenagers demanding a new car.”… Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallon’s reaction to teachers striking for improved funding for schools, improved pay for support staff and sufficient funding to return from a 4 to a 5 day school week.
All over the country, public school teachers are agitating and striking for better pay and improved funding for schools. They’re demonstrating that quality education is worth fighting for.
Teaching: there are few professions requiring so much preparation (most teachers now have Master Degrees) and ongoing effort – both during and after the normal workday – and are of such critical importance to our children and the long-term health of the nation. Public education has been viewed as the most important civic institution in our country, yet teaching is one of the lowest paid professions. While starting salaries for teachers and other professions may be similar, when experience is factored in, teaching quickly falls to the bottom of the list.
What we’re seeing today is the result of the crisis brought on by the movement to privatize public education. It’s the perfect example of a self-fulfilling prophesy.
If you want a predetermined outcome – the failure of public education – you act to assure that outcome. You drastically reduce funding at the federal, state and local levels which increases class size and decreases student achievement. You keep salaries low to discourage the best and brightest from entering the field. Your reduced funding impacts a district’s ability to hire critical ancillary staff like counselors, school psychologists, classroom aides and nurses. Your lack of funding forces the elimination of enrichment classes like art, music, physical education, technology and technical classes. You have no funds to purchase updated text books and curriculum materials; some in use today are falling apart with age and use. You leave it up to teachers to purchase classroom supplies because funds are so tight that even basics like paper are sometimes rationed. You can’t afford to purchase current technology for either students or teaching staff. Some buildings are forced to remain in serious disrepair putting students and staff at risk. You use pension funds as the state piggy bank.
You see to it that educational decisions are made by politicians, not educators, so you work to keep school board members as elected officials. You see to it that teachers and administrators are excluded as much as possible from the decision making process. You demonize unions and their members. Finally, after all this damage is done, you emphasize standardized testing as the only measure of success. Ta Dah! Prophesy confirmed.
And just to assure a final death blow, appoint and confirm a totally unqualified Secretary of Education who has never taken a course in the subject, whose children never attended public schools and whose expressed goal is to privatize the “failing” public school system.
Ah, but the good news is there’s an alternative. It comes under the rubric of “school choice.” Vouchers are traded in for students; when students move from public to private schools they get to take their funding with them. If the student isn’t successful and is returned to public school, that funding rarely follows the student back. Charter schools get to pick their students; public schools serve everyone who walks in or wheels through the classroom door.
There are some companies on the stock exchange that own for-profit charter schools that aren’t required to hire certified staff, use state required curriculum or the same standardized testing required by public schools. Yet they’re publicly funded while being privately run. Such a deal.
Failing charters – and there are many – often go out of business in one location just to pop up in another. Based on 2017 Florida data, privately run charter schools were three times more likely to fail than traditional public schools. This isn’t an argument against all charter schools; there are many outstanding ones – just as there are many outstanding public schools. But in the latter case, their success is often in spite of politicians, not because of them.
Self-fulfilling prophesies work both ways. If federal, state and local government were committed to quality public education, that’s where the resources would go. Public schools would be able to hire the best and brightest and pay them accordingly.
James W. Frick, educator and administrator, said “don’t tell me what your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what you value.”
If politicians won’t fight for the best public education possible, then teachers, administrators and parents will. It’s about time we all say “enough is enough.” It’s about time we valued our most important asset, our children, and committed to the long term goal of an educated, inquisitive citizenry, capable of critical and independent thinking, who know the value of life long learning and know how to learn to learn.
Whatever problems exist in the world, they will not be solved without the benefit of quality education. It’s worth the price because without it, the cost to all of us will be immeasurable.
Villager Marsha Shearer is a frequent contributor to Villages-News.com
