Who speaks for our children?
“When the media talk about public schools, we always hear about teachers, salaries, tenure and classroom size- what I want to know is why don’t we hear more about the parents and the students? If policy is focused on students- wouldn’t they see better results?” (Steven Crowder, PJTV)
It seems jaw-droppingly obvious. When we talk about education- we should be focusing on kids, right? After all, the children are the ones attending school (hopefully) and the ones who are supposed to be receiving an education (again, hopefully).
But as Mr. Crowder states- far too often it seems, the real focus of the education debate gets lost in the political turf-war waged aggressively by an entrenched special-interest: the teachers’ unions. While trying to maintain the facade that they are the ones fighting “for” our children, they continue to pursue an agenda that adamantly resists any change that may actually prove beneficial for students- changes like greater parental choice in education.
I know that, perhaps, I am repeating myself here, but when are parents going to stand up and take back control?? We know that overwhelmingly parents support greater choices in education- as Mr. Crowder notes in the video, in DC that number is around 80%- so when are parents going to realize that the unions are not supporting the best interests of their children?
It is fair here, too, to place some of the blame on the politicians - as they continue to place the interests of unions over the interests of children. Not that it is any excuse - but when politicians are hearing from a very vocal group, even if it is, in reality, a very small minority- they can often be mislead into believing that they are are somehow doing the right thing. And so again, it comes back to parents to become advocates for their children and to let lawmakers know they will no longer sit idly by and allow unions to dominate the debate over the future of education.
What parents, and politicians, must remember, is that a union- even when comprised of teachers- is a special interest. Their mission is to protect the interests of their members. Period. The students and parents are NOT a member of the union- and therefore will never be the primary interest of the union.
As a parent, what can you do? Get involved! Call, email, visit your local legislator (or local House of Delegates candidate)- talk to them about education. (Don’t know your local legislators- find them here.) Ask them what they propose to improve education. Are they willing to talk about educational choices- or do they just talk about teacher salaries, tenure, classroom size and funding? Urge them to support school choice and charter school options for families. Remember, many of our own lawmakers are also parents, too- and education issues directly impact them as well. They need to hear from other parents- not just special interests- and they need to hear that parents are supporting education reforms that are focused on children first.
Making education a priority
Hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful weekend!
Over the weekend, I was thinking about our fight for education reform (not that that comes as much of a surprise, I’m sure)- and I had to wonder where it “ranks” for most folks. As I see the political campaigns out doing their door-to-door walks, and watch one campaign commercial after another on tv- I hear about “transportation solutions” and “jobs,” but when it comes to education reforms, things seem to go quiet.
Okay, so I’ve seen plenty of political surveys- and I know that usually generic “education” ranks as a top priority for most voters. Sadly when it comes to “solutions” for education- too many politicians come up short.
Oh sure, we all hear their soundbites: “I’m FOR education.” (What does that even mean??) “I’m for increasing education funding.” (But can you show me where that funding will produce measurable results??) “I support our public schools.” (Gee, that’s great, but what about those public schools that aren’t working for all our kids?)
And what gets me even more is those politicians- like my neighbor- who simply stick the teachers’ union “endorsed” stickers to their yard signs. As if that is going to convince me they are really strong on education. If anything that tells me that they are going to put unions first, which too often means putting kids last.
Derrell Bradford, of E3 (Excellent Education for Everyone)- an awesome organization out of New Jersey working for ed reform- was on MSNBC last week and had a great line about “our schools are organized in ways that make adults happy, but are not serving our children…”
And sadly that seems all too true. But what is worse- why won’t anyone do anything about it?
Shouldn’t parents demand more from the educational system? Shouldn’t we demand more of politicians? They are quick to offer “solutions” for so many other areas of our lives (whether government has any business getting involved or not), but when it comes to our kids, why do so many of them seem more worried about appeasing the teachers’ unions than actually proposing real solutions that will help children to actually succeed?
In this article, Education - ‘the great equalizer’ from One News Now, Mr. Bradford explains:
“Every person has to make education a priority — every child, every parent,” he contends. “It is a serious thing, it is the thing, it is the great equalizer, and it is how we will fix much that ails this great nation.”
And we couldn’t agree more. And in making education a priority, we have to stop letting unions dictate what needs to be done to improve education. Parents need to recognize that the unions are in it to protect their membership- not stand up for children. Parents have to be the ones to stand up for their children and demand better.
He adds that at the same time leaders cannot tell children to take education seriously and then continue to send them to failing schools. Bradford believes that educational choice is key to success — and that with choice, children can get a superior education at a fraction of the cost the government is currently spending per child.
We can no longer sit back and allow politicians to feed us empty lines about “supporting education.” We can no longer allow solutions that do not put kids first. And bottom line- we can no longer accept education reforms that do not allow parental choice to be a part of the solution.
You decide: What “works” in education?
The Heritage Foundation’s The Foundry Blog shares: Universal School Choice Prevails – For Sweden. Yeah, you read that right. Sweden.
In socialist Sweden, universal school choice allows every parent to choose the best school for their child. The voucher program, which has been in effect since 1992 and was created to tackle the kind of problems plaguing the U.S. educational system, provides families with the opportunity to send their child to any type of school they like – public, private, religious, or even for-profit. Stuart Butler, Heritage Vice President of domestic policy studies, explains in Washington Times:
“These independent schools, like the public schools, get a voucher payment for each child. They compete vigorously with one other because the money follows the child to the school of his or her choice. Schools must satisfy their customers … or lose them.”
Sure it’s still Sweden, so there are some drawbacks- schools must all follow a national curriculum and testing- but perhaps there is something to be learned from this model. Schools are given control over their programs and teaching styles, and are actually being forced to satisfy customers, i.e. families? Now that is an ed reform that makes some sense.
Meanwhile, back here in the States, we have teacher’s unions and others actually blocking the doors to children at a charter school. As in last week. September 2009! Really? Is that what the world is coming to? Are unions so threatened by competition that they’ll have members yell at children simply trying to get into their school so they can actually learn?!
Pathetic doesn’t even begin to describe it…
What works? You decide.
It is about student achievement, right?
Well, one would hope.
Sadly, that doesn’t always (usually?) seem to be the case. From Detroit… Detroit News Editorial: “Detroit Federation of Teachers should make school district a model of change.“
In an editorial board interview this week, he noted that the current teacher contract has about 43,000 words in it — none of which includes the phrase “student achievement.”
Sad, but not entirely surprising.
The Editorial Board of the Detroit News adds, “That kind of contract must be replaced.”
And they’re absolutely right. Let’s put the focus back on the kids- and let’s expect them to succeed.
A must read: teacher accountability?
A long article, but well-worth the read. As Joel Klein and New York City struggles to improve the city’s schools, they face an uphill battle (to say the least) with the teachers union.
From The New Yorker: The Rubber Room: The battle over New York City’s worst teachers.
A few highlights (or should we say low-lights?):
Neither the Mayor nor the chancellor is popular in the Rubber Room. “Before Bloomberg and Klein took over, there was no such thing as incompetence,” Brandi Scheiner, standing just under the Manhattan Rubber Room’s “Handle with Care” poster, said recently. Scheiner, who is fifty-six, talks with a raspy Queens accent. Suspended with pay from her job as an elementary-school teacher, she earns more than a hundred thousand dollars a year, and she is, she said, “entitled to every penny of it.” She has been in the Rubber Room for two years. Like most others I encountered there, Scheiner said that she got into teaching because she “loves children.”
“Before Bloomberg and Klein, everyone knew that an incompetent teacher would realize it and leave on their own,” Scheiner said. “There was no need to push anyone out.”
And:
I asked the woman for her reaction to the following statement: “If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances to improve but still does not improve, there’s no excuse for that person to continue teaching. I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences.”
“That sounds like Klein and his accountability bullshit,” she responded. “We can tell if we’re doing our jobs. We love these children.” After I told her that this was taken from a speech that President Obama made last March, she replied, “Obama wouldn’t say that if he knew the real story.”
It’s definitely an eye-opening read. There are so many wonderful teachers out there, and they too should reject a system that tolerates incompetence and rejects consequences for failure.
Shocker!
Just shocking. The national teachers’ union opposes charter schools.
The National Education Association pointedly criticized the Obama administration, saying the president is relying too heavily on charter schools and standardized tests in his attempt to overhaul the nation’s schools.
“We urge the administration to step outside of this narrow agenda,” the nation’s largest teachers union said in a public statement filed Friday with the Education Department.
Interesting that the union would accuse the administration of a “narrow agenda,” when the administration is considering (at least in theory) something aside from the narrow scope of status quo public schools.
Not that we agree with everything they are doing (or how they are going about it), but encouraging charter schools as another option for education reform is a “narrow agenda?” Sure, it could be a broader agenda- they could work to include all kinds of school choice as a means to education reform- but for some reason I don’t think that is what the union was getting at either.
