Why US Education Deserves Our Praise and Funding

John T. Harvey, an Economics professor at Texas Christian University, recently posted an excellent post to his Pragmatic Economics blog from Forbes. Here is an excerpt from that post:


"My immediate motivation for addressing this issue is the fact that over July 15-16, my wife, Melanie, and I will be attending the Save Our Schools conference in Austin. She has been a 4th grade teacher in Everman, Texas for 18 years, and I don’t know anyone who works harder than she does. I always tell people that she is the one with the real job. She gets up at 5:30am every morning, leaves the house about the time the kids and I are rising, goes in early to work to get things ready for the day, spends the school hours teaching lessons about mathematics, literature, science, civics, citizenship, friendship, achievement, disappointment, dedication, right, wrong, pride, humility, and more, and stays late to organize materials and set up special projects. During any given day, she may serve as instructor, mentor, counselor, intermediary, motivator, nurse, and disciplinarian. When she finally comes home around 5:30pm or 6:00pm, there are often papers to grade, parent calls to make, lesson plans to write, or other required (if not always important) tasks. To those looking for a cushy 9:00 to 3:00 job, this ain’t it. If it weren’t for the summers, when she finally gets to recharge her batteries and spend some quality time with the rest of the family, I would have begged her to quit years ago. Incidentally, she used to be a very successful (record-setting, in fact) office manager in the private sector. So much for, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.”

Melanie’s experience does not appear to be unique. Data from 2008 indicate that hours spent by teachers on instruction is higher in the US than in any other OECD country. And Christiana Stoddard and Peter Kuhn (2008) found that, since 1983, teacher on-the-job hours have increased by roughly one hour per week, while after school time devoted to work has jumped by 34%. It is also common for teachers to spend a not insignificant amount of their own money on materials for their students and there are at least a few training sessions they are expected to attend during the summers (on their own time).

One might interject here that there are plenty of jobs where the employees work long hours. Quite right. But teachers aren’t asking for our pity, only our respect. And this is something they sorely lack."

Continue Reading:
http://blogs.forbes.com/johntharvey/2011/07/08/save-our-schools/

Teachers Aren't the Enemy

Pedro Noguera and Michelle Fine recently wrote an article for The Nation entitled "Teachers Aren't the Enemy." It is to appear in the May 9, 2011 edition of the The Nation. The article provides a good summary of the current attacks on teachers and some of the organizations across the country that are rising up to counter this ill-conceived assault on education. Here is a portion of the article:

"Public school teachers and their unions are under a sustained assault that is still unfolding....

A disturbing bipartisan consensus is emerging that favors a market model for public schools that would abandon America’s historic commitment to providing education to all children as a civil right. This model would make opportunities available largely to those motivated and able to leave local schools; treat parents as consumers and children as disposable commodities that can be judged by their test scores; and unravel collective bargaining agreements so that experienced teachers can be replaced with fungible itinerant workers who have little training, less experience and no long-term commitment to the profession. In this atmosphere of hostility to public schools and teachers, it has become nearly impossible to have a rational discussion among educators, parents, advocates, youth and policy-makers about what should be done....

To have the greatest impact, the unions must find a way to mobilize parents, young people and communities. Without their support, teachers will not succeed in countering these assaults."

Read the Full Article:
"Teachers Aren't the Enemy"

Parents Across America Position Paper on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act

From Parents Across America:

"As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, aka No Child Left Behind), Parents Across America, a national network of public school parents, will be calling on our U. S. Senators and Congressmen this week to share our concerns about the direction of federal education policy, and offer our proposals in a new position paper."

Here is the link to the paper:
Parents Across America Position Paper on ESEA 

What Works and What Doesn't

Link to a flier from Parents Across America on What Works and What Doesn't in Education Reform:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/49025237/Flier

The Funding Behind the Attack on Public Schools

This article published on April 20, 2011 examines the funding behind the attack on public schools. Here is a quote from the article:

"Regardless of where one stands on the issue of school choice, behind the curtain of this effort is an interconnected network of right wing think tanks and billionaire donors, funded by foundations including those of the DeVos and Koch families and the Scaife, Allegheny, and Carthage Foundations of Pennsylvania's own Richard Mellon Scaife. The leaders of many of these DeVos/Koch/Scaife-funded institutes openly voice their ideological objections to all forms of public education....

Betsy DeVos` organizations have had significant legal problems. All Children Matter was fined 5.2 million dollars for funneling campaign money into Ohio in 2006 through their various state networks and lost its legal appeal in February 2010. Misconduct has been reported in several states, including a case in Wisconsin that resulted in a fine."

 Read the Full Article:
The Funding Behind the Attack on Public Schools

Certified Teachers and Best Practices Are More Prevalent in Public School Math Education

‎"Overall, this study provides strong, nationally representative evidence that teacher certification and some reform-oriented instructional practices both correlate positively with achievement and are more prevalent in public schools than in their demographically similar private counterparts.

...The findings regarding teacher certification have significant implications for current debates on school reform. Even with the rough certification measure employed in this study, the relative lack of certified teachers in private schools explained a portion of their deficit in student achievement. These findings raise questions about alternative certification paths, particularly those designed to circumvent the core content and experiences offered in existing programs.

...Overall, this study suggests that institutional-level reforms such as school choice and deregulation—based on assumptions regarding the superiority of private-style structural models—might not produce the benefits that some reformers have anticipated."

http://www.classsizematters.org/Lubienski_2008.pdf

A Rationale for Defending Public Education in Ohio

I agree that we need to make cuts in response to the economic challenges. I think benefits and compensation has been reduced in response to changes in market conditions. I have perceived a growing negative attitude toward public schools—probably enhanced by “Waiting for Superman” and the Oprah effect that publicized it. Certainly, there are inequities and abuses. I won’t defend those. I do feel an obligation, however, to counter that message by advocating for the public teaching profession and the many successes that occur every day. I don’t hear as much from this perspective right now and I feel a need to try to balance it from my perspective. When you look at the Ohio state budget simulator created by the Columbus Dispatch there are no easy answers. Certainly, I believe that the public sector should be constrained as much as possible to promote as many resources as possible to the private sector. The private sector is always more efficient and leads to more economic growth than the public sector. However, I do believe that there are some public goods that need to be provided by the public sector. I believe that national defense, police, fire fighting and for the most part education fall in that category. I also feel that there are some market failures that need to be regulated by the government to prevent negative externalities. I believe we need some oversight of markets to ensure effective and efficient competition. I don’t want the public to have such a negative view of public education that they drastically cut resources to it and feel that private schools are going to effectively pick up all of the slack. I think that could have many long-term negative consequences for the economic growth and security of our state.

The Value of Public Schools in America

As a democratic society based on the free enterprise system, we do not guarantee that every child will be born into a family that earns a comfortable income. We do not guarantee that a child will not be born into a low-income family where his or her guardian may have to work two jobs to meet expenses. We cannot keep a child from being born into a dangerous neighborhood that is riddled with crime. We cannot guarantee the quality and effectiveness of the parenting each child will receive. The one thing that we can do as a society, though, is to provide that child with a safe and meaningful public school education. We can provide our children with a well-trained, professional educator who provides their students with a safe learning environment and communicates that their teacher cares about them and their development as people. The teacher can model respect, intellectual curiosity and how to learn. We can communicate to that child through the quality of the educational facilities and quality of the teacher that they matter to the society. In spite of the obstacles that child will face, he or she will have the opportunity to work hard during school, develop as a person and be cared for during the school day. That child will have the opportunity to take the same achievement tests and college entrance tests as other students and demonstrate their merit for a high school diploma, college education or more. Without that opportunity, a greater proportion of society will not be prepared to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens in a democracy. People are entitled to the fruits of their labors. Disparities are going to naturally emerge based on ability and circumstances. But at least as a society we can do our best to provide each child an equitable opportunity in the race of life. If we do not provide this opportunity to all students, we will not be able to fully develop and utilize the talents and abilities of our citizens. We as a society will suffer as we are less efficient and productive as a society. We will also diminish our ability to claim that we are meritocracy where rewards are allocated to those that have earned them through merit. We will look instead more and more like a society where the rewards are given to those who are able to buy the best education for their children and provide them with the social capital to be successful in life. The poor will not receive those opportunities and will be more likely to earn a low income themselves. Social mobility is necessary for our society to be able claim to be a democratic meritocracy. Quality public schools are essential for social mobility and for producing educated citizens capable of participating in a democratic society.