The week of Nov. 14 is the annual celebration of American Education Week. It is a time to reflect upon the cornerstone of our democracy: our public schools.
As an educator, I am often frustrated when politics interferes in my work. But educators cannot escape the fact that every decision made in public education is political. No matter how sincere we as educators are in our efforts to help children, we would be naïve not to recognize that our world is controlled by political agendas.
This fact is made even clearer in the recent hype with the release of the new movie, “Waiting for Superman.” If you dig behind the story, you can’t help but recognize that it is great piece of propaganda for the age old education reform battle cry that private industry can do a better job educating our student than government run schools.
But the real bottom line is that public education is a lucrative business and it represents to those in the corporate world an untapped resource.
For years, anti-education forces have fought for money to be sucked out of public schools and funneled into vouchers programs. When that didn’t fly, they turned to the concept of privately managed schools with public funding. It is no wonder that the New York Times has written several stories about charter schools that have become the favorite cause of hedge fund executives.
The movie uses the same old trick: first convince the audience that there is a problem—children who are not getting an adequate public education, then offer an alternative to the “so called” problem—offering more charter schools to improve public education.
There are some facts about charter schools that are not included in the movie including that four out of five charter schools are no better, on average, than traditional public schools, and sometimes are much worse. While charter school lotteries can be selective in which students they accept, public schools accept all students regardless of social or home conditions that can negatively affect a child in school. Some of the more successful charter schools are unionized and some of the less successful ones are not.
The film holds up Finland’s educational system as a world model, but doesn’t mention Finnish educators are unionized and granted tenure, or that Finnish families have universal day care, preschool programs and health care – all things reputable studies have shown to help children do better in school.
There is no doubt that there are very good charter schools out there, just like there are good public schools. But the charter school movement is fraught with its own problems. High turnover of staff because of poor salaries and unreasonable workload and in some cases charter schools under investigation for unsavory financial actions.
The movie producers also did not interview one successful public school teacher or principal or superintendent. In fact, there is no mention of any successful public school.
The movie also purports that teachers alone can overcome the ill effects of student poverty. While good teachers are powerful indicators of student success, it would be foolish to believe that a teacher alone can undo the damage caused by poverty or a negative home environment.
But despite demonizing public schools in general with highly selective reporting and editing, there is a silver lining in that the film riled public education activists and prompted well-reasoned analysis regarding difficult funding and social issues.
This is a debate we should welcome. We have long encouraged a larger discussion and dialogue about the public education system, and have many research-proven recommendations that should be studied as a way to improve our public schools.
During this American Education Week I want to thank all those teachers and support staff who are committed and dedicated to our children. I want them to know that despite the political agendas working against them, that they are appreciated for their hard work. Here’s the bottom line – we don’t have to wait for Superman— he/ she is are already here – waiting in their classrooms each morning for our children.
Brad Siegfried
President, Philipsburg Osceola Education Association
President, Central Region PSEA
