Part Five in a Series of Five: An Educational Deficit and VIP Lists- What Illionois and Chicago's Schools Mean for American Education

It's a fascinating transition of events to observe and analyze the last few months of the traditional school year.  Starting in March, the media usually begins its protocol of documenting school districts' academic progress, or Report Cards as many papers refer to them, publishing the former year's standardized test results.  The effect: a sense of vague optimism for some, unbridled fear of state takeover for others, and customary apathy for the majority as their schools continue to produce lackluster results for a test that may or may not be an accurate reflection of student achievement and teacher competence. 

April and May, much like the spring season's thawing of winter, offer a renewed dedication to the idealistic goals of equal opportunity for all, 100% proficiency in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics (and now Science for good measure) by all students, and greater levels of accountability and sweeping reform for the following year by politicians, administrators, teacher unions and parents alike.  These pledges of overhaul are aimed at warming the public image of the most important, yet beleaguered institution of all, in an effort to melt away the cold, bitter taste of excessive taxation usually being proposed at the same time.  Finally, June comes around, and due to the events of the season: prom, final exams, graduation, summer vacation etc. all other problems evaporate into the humid air. 

However, in this year of program cuts, increased class sizes, greater state and federal oversight, and teacher layoffs in amounts unseen in the last forty years, teachers, parents, politicians, and entire communities can not afford to saunter aimlessly into summer because education in America is at a severe turning point, one that could spell disaster for generations to come. 

Two stories from The Chicago Tribune and one story from The Wall Street Journal from March exemplify the precarious state of educational policy and bureaucracy and convey the current and future mismanagement at the city, state, and national level.  The first could initially be read as a positive piece of journalism- a growing group of Illinois parents, primarily mothers, have rallied to let their state legislators know that they oppose the state-wide teacher cuts, which will mean larger class sizes for their children.  Facing a billion dollar deficit, Illinois is being forced to cut teachers in the same cutthroat manner as California and New Jersey.  Thousands of teachers will be “let go”, as well as thousands of other essential non-teaching staff. 

The angry parents of this piece; however, reflect a small percentage of communities throughout the state- well-educated, concerned parents, whose children’s classes will increase from 19 and 21 students to 24 and 25 per class.  And while their outrage is admirable, the reality is that four extra students in affluent, relatively small districts with strong parental involvement will not be a catastrophe.  But, in larger, lower-middle and lower class communities, school districts will suffer horribly.  The shame of the article is that only two paragraphs address the devastation Chicago schools, unquestionably the most dysfunctional and most needy in the state, will endure.  While an increase from 20 to 24 may not make a huge difference, a jump from 30 to 37 certainly will, especially in schools that lack parental support, adequate resources, and the most qualified teachers.  This type of short-sighted cutbacks reflects no foresight or promise for the future of Chicago, and therefore little less for the future of Illinois. 

Since Chicago’s public schools are in utter disarray, their magnet school system, similar to charter schools, has some of the most competitive admittance standards in the country.  So exclusive are these schools that for the past few years, under the helm of now U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, well-connected business executives and political appointees have been calling in favors for friends, relatives, and their own children to be granted admittance into these top-notch schools.  Often, their wishes were approved.  This type of insider back rubbing and despicable political nepotism conveys the greatest form of corruption in the public sector.  Although the myths of every student and all school districts being equal have certainly been debunked, within districts, large and small, students are still granted equal opportunities.  However, in Chicago, this ideal has been shattered through such callous actions. 

While Arne Duncan has severed any ties to this scandal, much in the same way the Pope denied knowledge of the sex abuse scandal happening under his nose as Archbishop, the Secretary of Education can not deny his recent choices for the monumental Race to the Top funding, which were published back in March as well.  Only two states, Tennessee and Delaware, received the initial federal endowment.  Tennessee will receive $500 million, while Delaware will receive $100 million.  Apparently the two states met all of the essential prerequisites to receiving the money, which include full union and administrative support state-wide, a willingness to have teachers graded by student performance, and have failing schools either turned into charter schools run by the state or shut down completely. 

While some have already started speculating that the choices were again acts of nepotism on account of Vice President Joe Biden’s former state, Delaware, being chosen and the fact that his wife is a teacher there, as well as the belief that President Obama will need the support of Tennessee senators for No Child Left Behind reform, there seems to be little to support this.  The fact that both of these schools have for years pushed for more charter schools and that their unions are extremely weak helped more than anything.  Conspiracy theories aside here, the sadder fact in these two choices was indicated by American Federation of Teachers President, Randi Weingarten, that neither state has a large urban center, which again, need the greatest assistance. 

The unfortunate truth is that this new model for education reform will never be successful as long as politicians force schools to bow to their demands, when it should be the other way around.  The more depressing reality of all these decisions is that when governors and legislators start cutting educational spending to salvage state economies, they fail to realize the long-term implications of eroding the very fabric of a successful state and country- an well-educated workforce.  Finally, the saddest fact of all these intertwined, and now outdated, stories is that America, locally and nationally, is willing to abandon the crises of the most needy for the dilemmas of the most privileged.  Fortunately for everyone though, summer is right around the corner.      

Comments

[James Dugan]

Your article makes such poignant points that it goes beyond a blog. This is a serious contemplation on the state of education that is often used as a political punchline, and now more often as a cruel attack against a system that creates Americans.

We forget how important the first years of any development are. We forget that if you do not invest in the beginning, then there is very little likelihood that the same positive or negative impact will ever occur in the process of maturation. For polticians to be involved in the educational process is good, but for them to determine what is right or wrong from a distant perspective of numbers is the ultimate disrespect for institutions that are determined to correct the inadequencies of society applied to the young.

A good school is much like the Platonic ideal that does not exist. A school is grinding effort of learning, failing, pushing, stopping and mostly pulling. To judge schools on specific days or by numbers without visiting the institutions, meeting its students, reading their files, listening to the teachers, is like trying to follow a baseball team by the statistics. A human institution is easy to attack when you dehumanize.

As your article states and predicts, tagging teachers who are supervisd and evaluated by trained state officials as well as those teachers being trained and tested by state criteria and then basing their pay or worth based on the variables not in the school's control is illogical. Do schools fail? Yes. Do they succeed. More than they fail. But to blame them for societal ills is like saying Calculus is just adding and subtracting.

I appreciate your remarks and keen perspective. I appreciate you speaking for the poor and people in the schools and I appreciate your sincere reflection instead of the rash of dictation and sensational pieces of attack that derides our school system that offers an education to every American who seeks it. Journalism must protect and seek the good of society also, and not just regurgitate the tide of politicos looking to save a buck or their own careers.