Why isn't it treated like a Crisis?
Even though our military has only been engaged in battle in the war on terrorism for less than 6 years since 9-11, the media and the public refer to the current situation as a crisis. Our military units win each battle that they fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and enemy casualties average about 10 times higher than our own. However, Americans like to see immediate results. We want our military to win and win quickly - no excuses.
Should we treat our public education situation as a crisis? If not, why not? Should we continue to accept excuses, or should we demand quick results?
As the war in Iraq approaches its 4th anniversary, the American public wants to see immediate solutions for victory. It is not acceptable to most people for the military to blame the insurgents for the continuing fighting, nor to use the changing nature of warfare as an excuse. We want our military leaders to develop solutions to the military problem right now. We pay them to adapt to their changing environment and to provide answers. Very few people doubt the public’s right to question our elected and military leaders over military matters because they work for us. We say that we can support our troops while still opposing the conduct of the war. While the facts show that the military is suffering the lowest casualty rate of any war in history, we do not minimize our casualties because every single life matters. We do not accept excuses for failure.
When the government decides to raise taxes or impose new business regulations, the business lobbies jump into action. They organize to protest this governmental intrusion on their bottom line
As our public schools pass through their 4th decade of slow decline against national and international standards, we make no demands of our educational leaders. We allow them to tell us that students and parents are to blame for their failures and that the nature of education has changed. We always grant them their demands for more money and their pleas for more time. If we question the performance of our schools, we are told that we are attacking teachers; we cannot support our teachers if we oppose the conduct of our schools. While the facts show that many high school graduates cannot read well or perform basic math, we brag that we are average, and we praise our educational experts for only failing to graduate 30%-40% of our kids each year. We accept any excuse for failure.
While the business community has to continually reach further across the country or the globe to find qualified employees, and as their bottom line is continually impacted by high school graduates who cannot add or subtract without a computer, the business leaders remain silent on educational issues, calling them political.
Can D11 not do much better than it is doing with the nearly $500 million that the public gives to it each year? Doesn't every parent have a right to expect a first class education for his or her children, and shouldn't those who call themselves educational experts be held accountable for educational results today and not at some hypothetical point in the future?
The educational battle has been fought for decades, and there are no clear signs of improvement. Until the community decides that a crisis exists, and until the community decides that it is time for the the high paid administrators who claim to be experts to actually develop a plan for victory, then those signs of improvement will never come.
Should we treat our public education situation as a crisis? If not, why not? Should we continue to accept excuses, or should we demand quick results?
As the war in Iraq approaches its 4th anniversary, the American public wants to see immediate solutions for victory. It is not acceptable to most people for the military to blame the insurgents for the continuing fighting, nor to use the changing nature of warfare as an excuse. We want our military leaders to develop solutions to the military problem right now. We pay them to adapt to their changing environment and to provide answers. Very few people doubt the public’s right to question our elected and military leaders over military matters because they work for us. We say that we can support our troops while still opposing the conduct of the war. While the facts show that the military is suffering the lowest casualty rate of any war in history, we do not minimize our casualties because every single life matters. We do not accept excuses for failure.
When the government decides to raise taxes or impose new business regulations, the business lobbies jump into action. They organize to protest this governmental intrusion on their bottom line
As our public schools pass through their 4th decade of slow decline against national and international standards, we make no demands of our educational leaders. We allow them to tell us that students and parents are to blame for their failures and that the nature of education has changed. We always grant them their demands for more money and their pleas for more time. If we question the performance of our schools, we are told that we are attacking teachers; we cannot support our teachers if we oppose the conduct of our schools. While the facts show that many high school graduates cannot read well or perform basic math, we brag that we are average, and we praise our educational experts for only failing to graduate 30%-40% of our kids each year. We accept any excuse for failure.
While the business community has to continually reach further across the country or the globe to find qualified employees, and as their bottom line is continually impacted by high school graduates who cannot add or subtract without a computer, the business leaders remain silent on educational issues, calling them political.
Can D11 not do much better than it is doing with the nearly $500 million that the public gives to it each year? Doesn't every parent have a right to expect a first class education for his or her children, and shouldn't those who call themselves educational experts be held accountable for educational results today and not at some hypothetical point in the future?
The educational battle has been fought for decades, and there are no clear signs of improvement. Until the community decides that a crisis exists, and until the community decides that it is time for the the high paid administrators who claim to be experts to actually develop a plan for victory, then those signs of improvement will never come.
posted by Craig Cox | 5:31 PM
2 Comments:
This is exactly spot on. It is as if the public education system resides in some netherworld or parallel universe where accountability, high expectations, and consequences simply do not exist. And if you do start to demand them you are viewed as some strange creature who must be destroyed lest anyone actually starts realizing that this part of our society just does not operate rationally and is really fu#%?! up.
The only way, I fear, things will change will be for the system to continue to bleed studets (and thus money) unitl such time the whole mess either crumbles or the 90+% of those who did not vote in the last D11 election (I think because they have already given up on the district)say "enough". Until then the looters who currently run D11 (and all of public education)get to keep playing make believe. This would be fine (and funny to watch) if it were not for so many kids being screwed and our nation's future not being put at risk.
Any guess how many kids D11 will be down to by next year? How about at the end of Johnny's term? Can anyone say D-2 Part Deux?
My concern is that people will not wake up to the fact that there is a problem until it is too late. Even now, there is a wealth of information showing that not educating kids has ramifications beyond not getting a high school diploma or not being able to go to college. For instance, check out the following story - it talks about the high percentage of prison inmates who are illiterate, etc. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?ile=/c/a/2006/12/27/MNGF6N6FSS1.DTL
Do we want to fix the problems with public education, or do we want to keep filling jails and prisons? I vote for educating kids. That won't happen, though, until we start hold the education establishment accountable. Today, a teacher can fail to teach a kid to read, yet that teacher will still have a job the next year. And, the teacher who comes in early, leaves late, and works to be prepared, is paid the same as someone who puts in the minimum time. How many good teachers have we lost because of frustration with the current system?
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