Happy New Year! Caring for others shines through during the holidays. So, everyone has had time to think about the importance of public education and how we care about all of America’s children.
Ten years ago, I wrote a book called Losing America’s Schools: The Fight to Reclaim Public Education. So, how’s it going?
Here are questions and concerns about public schools going into 2024. We need to discuss these issues. Feel free to add to the list. Your opinions and ideas are valuable. I welcome debate and will listen to those I disagree with if the conversation is respectful.
I recently wrote; “It’s nice to think: Well, that was then, but now we have a clean slate, a fresh start. Even when we know, deep in our brains, that next year will be largely composed of the same old sh*t, plus some disconcerting new sh*t and perhaps the occasional good news. Which means that columns about education policy and practice are, if not evergreen, enduring.”
And then you posted this (excellent) piece, proving my point. It’s really hard to shed a bad idea in ed policy, even when its outcomes are undeniably negative, even damaging. The only quibble I’d have with your list? Put “VOUCHERS” first.
Thank you, Nancy! Your blog post certainly did hit the high notes, and we certainly seem to discuss the same awful issues year after year don’t, we?
Vouchers could easily be no. 1. I agree.
These are great categories, with thought provoking questions.
Thanks for commenting, Mary!
Thank you for this important list, Nancy. The one that especially resonates with me as a retired teacher of the deaf, is number 23: “How does one create an individual educational plan (IEP) if all students must master the same one-size-fits-all standards [at the same time]?” Demanding that teachers of special needs students accomplish this is absurd and crazy-making. The fallacy the “reformers” make is that when meeting students where they are in order to support their authentic progress, teachers must dumb-down their curricula. Many of our graduates at the RI School for the Deaf were reading grade levels below their assigned grade as measured by mass administered standardized testing. Yet they were able to attend and graduate from college and go on to productive and satisfying lives. The reformers’ ignorance of the complexity of the learning needs of students with cognitive, sensory, emotional, behavioral, and linguistic challenges literally fills a library. Those with the training, expertise, and experience teaching students with complex needs must have the flexibility to teach in ways that reach their students and scaffold their progress. The other issue that makes my blood boil is providing public tax money to send students to private/religious schools that not only discriminate in accepting students and hiring faculty, but may actually be teaching discriminatory and divisive perspectives in their curricula. This is unacceptable in our democratic, pluralistic society. Parents have the right to provide the type of education they choose for their children, but not at the public’s expense, and not at the expense of dismantling public education for the vast majority of children who depend on it. Public education is a public good that must be protected.
“Complexity of learning needs” should be the phrase of the year. Thanks, Sheila! This one size fits all notion has always bothered me about standards.
Thank you Nancy! I would like to add, When will the Democratic Party realize that full throated support for the public schools, not charters or vouchers, is a political winner. There is significant evidence that families are fed up with the waste of tax payer dollars going to evangelical grifters and charter schools that do not open. Fund the schools at the appropriate level and improvement will;l follow.
Thank you, Paul. I wish they would figure that out.
Comprehensive list, Ms. Bailey. I’m grateful for all the work you put into this. Bookmarking it so I can refer to it through the year.
Great, John! I appreciate your comment. Thank you!