Financing & Improving Public Education: Still an Issue of Legal & Moral Responsibility
By Peter
Stern
If the State does NOT want to assume
its constitutional responsibility to provide and finance a quality education to
every child, then legislators need to change the law. Every 2 years lawmakers
appear to look at doing just that.
Currently the State is guilty of violating its mandated
responsibility to parents and their children. Personally, I advocate a
class-action lawsuit against the State by parents and educators. Unfortunately,
it seems like any effort to resolve an educational issue in this state results
from the judicial and not the legislative system.
Roughly 8 years ago a court decision found the current financing
system illegal. Interestingly enough it was the court that originally
determined the current financing method, which includes the “Robin Hood” clause
— forcing “wealthy” districts to provide some of their tax dollars to “poor”
districts. Note that most districts these days are “poor” districts.
If legislators want to privatize education, that’s fine only if
taxpayers don’t have to foot the additional bill for it. Otherwise, legislators
simply are looking to cover their own butts for not providing the appropriate
and adequate financing during the past decade. Case in point: It is the
legislature that has created the current emergency plight of public education by
forcing the court to set up a financing system that ensures educational
inequality among economic classes and is doomed to fail.
Furthermore, if privatization of public education is our next step,
legislators had better put into place a regulated system of tuition and finance
costs. We need only observe what has occurred under the recent deregulation of
higher education tuition costs to note the critical nature of this
issue.
Privatization of public education brings along a whole set of other
issues and problems. Ongoing legislative inept short-term thinking is incapable
of determining, implementing and maintaining an entirely new educational
system. In addition, operating two parallel educational systems under the state
rubric, public and private, is doomed for failure. If the state cannot
successfully manage and monitor one system, how is it possible for it to
maintain two separate education systems?
However, if the real concern is to educate every child equally
(which, of course, it isn’t), then privatization is NOT the automatic
educational road to recovery. Privatizing education merely will ensure the
inequality between the “haves” and the “have-nots” within our
society.
What happened to improving the quality of education or providing
teachers with a professional salary?
smaller class sizes = better student: teacher ratios = more successful learning environment
Eight years ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry self-appointed yet another
Commission on Public Education, which he named “The Texas Tax Reform
Commission”. It was headed by Democrat John Sharp and a host of 23 of the
governor’s major campaign contributors. There were no average parents,
educators, middle-class homeowners or students on the commission. It’s hard to
imagine this group of businessmen arriving at financing public education
improvements that could benefit most schools and Texas families.
Privatizing education is another misguided special interest notion
the governor and legislators have selected so they don’t have to assume the
constitutional responsibility they have been diverting for the past decade and
to ensure the highest quality education for every child.
Isn’t it clear yet to everyone that legislators and businessmen are
NOT the group needed to develop a quality functional public school system with
adequate financing? During the past decade they have proven beyond a doubt that
they are incapable of doing so or wanting to do it.
What we have consistently is an Endless Loop of Public Education.
“Is Our Children Learning?”
In the U.S. our children remain on the back-burners for improving
learning outcomes and developing successful lives. Most states remain “stuck” in
their respective approaches to public education, much as the spinning wheels of
a vehicle caught without any traction in 2 feet of mud after a rain
storm.
Politics all too often corrupts public education.
For example, in Texas 7 years ago, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Cynthia
Dunbar to head the State Board of Education (SBOE). Ms. Dunbar is not exactly
known for her intelligent and open-minded approach to educating Texas children.
A significant point of her discipline is that she wanted public schools to teach
the Bible and NOT to teach evolution.
Another example of politics in public education: Five
years ago, Texas State Education Commissioner Robert Scott decided that all high
school students will take more electives and fewer required courses under a bill
that lawmakers approved in May 2009. Fortunately, the required courses he
referred to are computer technology, health and physical education,
NOT required subjects like math or science.
Students will no longer be required to take two semesters of computer
technology and a semester of health education, while the physical education
requirement has been reduced from three semesters to two. Instead, students will
consider taking 6 credits of electives. Supposedly, the reason for
this was to enable students to select topics that will aid them in
develop skills for entering college. Did it work? No one
knows.
The ongoing changes in public education occur not only in Texas, but
virtually in every state in the nation. What truly is amazing is that every few
years schools are forced via legislative agendas to adapt to another
“enlightened” approach to teaching public education.
Generally, these changes don’t amount “to a hill of beans”
and it is the educational core requirements that children need to
increase to better learning outcomes. Too many children still don’t
learn the basics well. Many do not read at an appropriate level, know how to
spell [texting has added to that problem] or how to perform simple mathematics.
Many don’t know basic living skills either, e.g., how to keep a check book and
pay bills, or how to write a simple letter or a job resume. All too often our
children do not have significant communication and people
skills.
What we need to do is to teach our children the basics of how to
succeed in life and in business. Reading, writing and arithmetic still are the
key to learning and unfortunately, teaching our children to enjoy learning is
not a priority. So, are we really helping our children to improve their
learning outcomes? Not really.
Here in Texas, as in other states, we continue to teach our children
to pass certain exams as a guide to and validation of their success. Is it
working? Hardly. There is a lot of pressure placed on our children and
teachers, without increasing their learning outcomes.
Several years ago the legislature approved incentives for teachers.
Much as in industrial labor, teachers were rewarded for piece-work quantity for
every student who succeeded — success measured by passing standardized tests.
However, the program was marked for failure because our children are NOT
industrial commodities and passing standardized tests are NOT a true indicator
of future success in life.
Most public education programs provide scattered curriculum and
inappropriate teaching methods that are boring and outdated. Most children are
not well-prepared for college, business or life; consequently, most of them fall
through the cracks of the imagined success mold.
Mark Twain is credited with stating, “I never let my schooling
interfere with my education.” How many American children are able to say
the same?
How long will it take for lawmakers, educators, and parents to
recognize that to improve learning outcomes we must reduce class sizes, promote
a love of learning, and teach children that learning is the key to being
successful in education, business and life? Otherwise, we merely are passing
along our children through the public education system much as in the
manufacturing sector where various products move through an assembly line. Mark
Twain might have stated that “Products don’t get to think much going through
the assembly line.”
So, if we want to help our children become successful in education,
business and life we must provide several basics:
o Encourage children to love learning about all topics
o Teach more of the basics — reading, writing, mathematics
o Develop communication, business and life training skills
o Reduce class sizes to promote real learning and interaction
o While it’s nice to provide more electives as options, they are not needed to improve learning skills
o Make classes more interesting by using various methods of learning, e.g., visuals, audio, kinesthetic applications; develop business collaborative in the community
o Eliminate state exams or don’t make them the major measure of success
o Reduce competition among children while promoting group inclusion and real learning
o Evaluate children in a more holistic manner that includes long-term teacher assessment, tests, various learning skills, overall learning outcomes
o Trim the cost of providing public education so that it is more affordable to taxpayers.
o Teach more of the basics — reading, writing, mathematics
o Develop communication, business and life training skills
o Reduce class sizes to promote real learning and interaction
o While it’s nice to provide more electives as options, they are not needed to improve learning skills
o Make classes more interesting by using various methods of learning, e.g., visuals, audio, kinesthetic applications; develop business collaborative in the community
o Eliminate state exams or don’t make them the major measure of success
o Reduce competition among children while promoting group inclusion and real learning
o Evaluate children in a more holistic manner that includes long-term teacher assessment, tests, various learning skills, overall learning outcomes
o Trim the cost of providing public education so that it is more affordable to taxpayers.
In conclusion, it is unfortunate that on the learning evolutionary
timeline public education has remained in the Dark Ages. It is time we reach the
Age of Educational Enlightenment by promoting student interest and an ongoing
love of learning, strengthening the basic core of learning (reading, writing,
mathematics), reducing oversized classes and providing interesting curriculum
and teaching methods that will improve overall educational skills and learning
outcomes of all children.
Peter Stern, a former director of information
services, university professor and public school administrator, is a disabled
Vietnam veteran who lives in Driftwood., TX.
