It
is clear that in the near future public education faces tremendous disruption
and change. How this great American institution emerges from this change is of
critical importance to every parent and child in the country. In the city of
New Orleans, the system of public education as we have known it has been almost
entirely replaced by a system of privately run, publicly funded charter
schools. In other cities, like Philadelphia and Detroit, where adequate
resources have long been denied to the public schools and where the public
schools have been struggling for decades, more and more of the responsibility
for educating the children has fallen to charter schools, both brick and mortar
schools and cyber schools.
The
current crop of education reformers argue that these changes are necessary,
that the situation in many inner-city schools demands that we try something
new. There is no question that something must be done to improve the quality of
the learning experiences that children get in the inner cities. What the
education reformers miss is that the public school system, any public school
system, is both a reflection of and a product of the community where it
resides. Reform cannot be focused on one element of that community, like the
schools, and be successful.
We
have seen that in the United States public schools in affluent areas
consistently perform at a very high level. We see this in community after
community, county after county, state after state, all across the country.
Parent income is the single best predictor of student readiness for college and
career. It is notable that in many of these affluent communities, teacher
unions are strong and vocal, charter schools are virtually non-existent and
test scores and every other measure of student learning are off the charts.
Every one of these communities has both been able to and willing to make a
financial commitment to quality public schools. Strong unions have not stood in
the way of strong student learning. Teachers perform at a high level. Principals
and other administrators are both qualified and highly engaged in producing
quality learning.
It
seems obvious that if we are going to improve public education in the
economically struggling inner cities, we must take a holistic view. We must
attack poverty with as much vigor and energy as the education reformers bring
to their lobbying efforts in support of opening more charter schools. We must
provide children in the inner cities with more services than schools in
affluent areas because these children need more help to become proficient
learners. This means wrap around services like medical and dental screenings,
increased availability of counselors to help children navigate the trauma of
their daily lives, home-school counselors that assist struggling families in
providing experiences for their young children that will help them when they
get to school, and professionally run and developmentally appropriate
pre-school programs. All of these things will help and they will help much more
than sending a child across town to a new charter school that has promised to
raise student test scores.
Education
reformers have it wrong. We cannot end poverty by improving educational
opportunity. Education has proven a way out of poverty for a select few of
course, but for most children, the debilitating impact of poverty cannot be
overcome in the classroom. To truly serve these children we must first
concentrate on ending income inequity. If we can make significant strides in
improving the economic outlook of the 24% of American children living in
poverty, improved educational opportunity will be the joyous and very
predictable outcome.
As
we look to future, it may be useful to consider some principles about public
education that, for me at least, seem immutable. A Bill of Rights for the
school child if you will.
1. Every child has a right to a free,
high quality, public education.
2. Every child has a right to attend a
well-staffed, well-resourced, clean and safe local neighborhood school.
3. Every child has the right to be
taught by well-informed, fully certified, fully engaged teachers who care about
the child as a learner and as a person.
4. Every child has the right to a
school that provides a rich and varied curriculum that includes the visual and
performing arts, integrated technology, and physical education.
5. Every child has a right to a school
that provides a rich and varied extra-curricular program including athletics,
clubs, and service learning opportunities.
6. Every child has a right to
instruction that is well-planned, engaging, and collaborative.
7. Every child has a right to
instruction that is developmentally appropriate.
8. Every elementary school child has a
right to daily recess.
9. Every child has the right to go to
a school with adequate support personnel including librarians, nurses, guidance
counselors, and learning support specialists.
10. Every child has a right to an
element of choice in the educational program, including the right to choose to
take advanced level courses.
As
parents it is of course in our interest to see that all of these things are
available to our own child, but it is also in every parent’s interest to make
sure that every child has this opportunity. The world that our children will
inhabit in the future will be populated by an increasingly diverse citizenry.
If we want the best that this country has to offer for our own children, we
must work to ensure that every child in this country has similar opportunities.
For our own children to reap the benefits of the American Dream, to live
happily, freely and securely in the challenging world of the future, we must
make sure that everyone’s children have access to that same American Dream.
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