Solve For X: Progressive Musings on Education Reform

The recent trend in education reform has been essentially a war on teachers and, by proxy, teachers unions. Certain factions want to place the full responsibility for declining student test scores on “overpaid” and “lazy” teachers. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking with West Warwick Senator Adam Satchell, who is a public school educator. Satchell said, “They (taxpayers) don’t care about how much goes to books or facilities, they have a problem with the number of teachers and their salaries.” The argument of teachers having short work days, summers off and salaries well above the median income is often made.

However, teachers have the responsibility of creating lesson plans; shaping minds; and acting as mediators, moderators and babysitters while simply running classes. Teachers must be able to tailor learning to each student and deal not only with students’ emotional baggage, but also their parents and guardians who each believe their child is the only one who matters. Furthermore, teachers must try and balance actual education with the false metrics of standardized tests.

So who is right? The administrators and organizations dedicated to reform? Or the educators who are forced into a losing proposition?

There is no compelling argument against the need for education reform. However, the students’ voices often remain unheard in the cacophony of debate. In Rhode Island, the emergence of the Providence Student Union (PSU) decided to stop waiting their turn and rather took their turn by contesting the NECAP testing requirement for high-school graduation. The well-organized union had more than the intended effect by impacting the length of tenure held by Rhode Island Education Commissioner Gist. The student union proposed a public debate between students and Commissioner Gist. Gist declined the invitation, but the point was made. Aaron Regunberg, an organizer of the PSU, said, “PSU, as an organization, is against NECAP, not against Gist as a person.” Regunberg has been an outspoken opponent of the NECAP high-stakes testing as a graduation requirement since leaving Ocean State Action’s “Where’s the Work” Campaign late last year to organize the Student Union.

A wise person once told me, “When hitting a dead end seeking answers to difficult political questions, follow the money.” Following the money leads to charter schools. Privatization of what was once a successful public service is a trend that spans all aspects of public sector services. The big-box education corporations are champing at the bit to point out the failures of the public school systems and offer their own solutions. “We can’t do any worse,” they say, “but we can do it cheaper.”

By closing the public schools and replacing them with government subsidized corporate schools, these companies can bust the unions and hire younger and cheaper teachers. And they reserve the right to cherry-pick students and eliminate problem children, inevitably raising the margins of test scores at the cost of enlightenment of young minds. In Chicago, more than 50 public schools have been closed and public funds allocated to subsidize charter schools.

Is this the future for Rhode Island? For the entire country? It seems like yet another Band-aid solution to a deeper problem. In fact, it is not just one problem, but many problems, like uninterested students, impoverished demographics and parents involved in schools but not in their own children.

Perhaps a start is to change the educational system for the educators themselves. In fact, Rhode Island could be the test case for this. America certifies almost twice as many teachers per year as the country needs. Other countries with higher standards of educated students often only accept the top tier students into teacher training programs at universities. This ensures that the best educated individuals are becoming teachers and shores up a level of rigor that commands prestige and respect by both students and parents/guardians alike, allows for independent leeway within the classroom and justifies a high level of compensation.

Here is another suggestion: standardized testing that shows comprehensive understanding of a holistic education. Rather than checking boxes with a number 2 pencil, how about written answers to complex problems incorporating various math, language and social studies skills? Finally (and here is the big kicker) a vested interest in education with the payoff of a college education paid for courtesy of the government.  If you score high enough on a comprehensive examination, demonstrating a cognitive understanding of 12 years of well-rounded education, you get what every other civilized nation provides their brightest, hard-working students who engage and apply themselves: a university education without the baggage of an average of $78,000 in student loans billed to them upon graduation.

If, however, the system remains as it is, the state and the nation are doomed to fall further and further behind nations like Korea, Finland, Poland and Canada. We have lost manufacturing and we will increasingly need to import intellect in order to keep up with the rest of the world. I say we use Rhode Island as a Petri dish to grow a new breed of educator and a system that the rest of the country can strive to emulate.