Our Democracy Depends on Effective Public Schools

Public schools are an essential ingredient in the survival of our very democratic way of life.  Our rule by informed consent requires that our citizens are able to understand the language that they hear; are able to read and comprehend what they have read; are able to discuss through verbal and written discourse the issues of the day; and, be able to differentiate between sound bites, propaganda, demagogy and the facts of a situation or position.

This essential role of public schools is being undermined by drop out rates that are alarming.  Nearly 30% of all high school students fail to graduate from high school, nation wide.  Of particular concern are those who live, survive and attempt to gain an education in the poverty laden, crime riddled, drug infested, violence prone inner cities of our nation.  In these areas like East Oakland, the drop out rate reaches 50 to 60 percent of our young people.

Many of these future parents and leaders of our nation who live in the inner city cannot understand classroom English. The reason for this is that the language that these children hear in the home and on the street, is not the language that is used in the classroom. As a consequence they are unable to comprehend and retain what they have been presented in class; they are limited in their ability to read and understand what they have read.  They are not able to spell or write a complete sentence, or hold a discussion of much of anything beyond basic social interactions and survival issues on the streets. 

These young people are unemployable and are bound to continue to live in poverty with few if any options open to them.  70% of the children born in such inner city environments are born to illiterate, single young women, many of whom are children, themselves.  Marion Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense League has written:  “These young people are clearly on the path leading from the cradle to prison pipeline.”

So, how has California gone from the finest education state to 48^th in the past 50 years?  Our decline in effective education has been caused by special interest groups and those who are farthest away from the classroom who has adopted one flawed educational fad after another that has failed. These decisions were often predicated on the practice that our educational “philosophy of the moment” was dependent on the next funding source that is available to the educational community. Bill Gates pouring 2 Billion dollars into “small schools” is an example of this.  After 10 years and disappointing results, Gates withdrew from supporting small schools.  Oakland adopted small schools due to Gate’s funding source and, now, is without funding to continue an ineffective experiment.

Another current fad is recruiting college graduates with no training in education, providing them with a 6 week overview of how a district like Oakland operates and then placing these newly recruited graduates in special education and inner city classes.  Would we allow someone with a 6 weeks overview of hospital procedures to practice medicine in the emergency room?  Education needs to be acknowledged as the profession that it is and not something that just anyone can do.

Professional educators who have been trained and are experienced in curriculum, pedagogy, finance, classroom management, evaluating a student’s needs, creating a lesson plan and are aware of the culture in which they find themselves working are the ones who have been excluded from the creation of educational policy.  These are the very people who should be the leaders of any educational reform in this country.  Our survival as a democratic society depends on trained, experienced, professional educators.

Thanks for stopping by…

Namaste,

Jim