Public Education 2022-2023: The 90%
I am not a fan of toxic positivity and platitudes. I approach my work from a more objective standpoint of owning what I can control, influencing what I cannot, and if it is within my wheelhouse, doing the best I can. I enjoy a good challenge, and I like working with leaders who recognize difficulty and rise to the occasion. I have been fortunate to work with a lot of hard chargers over the years, people who step up when the work is difficult, and remain focused and tough when the work is a little smoother. In my experience it is far more efficient and useful to be the best within your locus of control, do what you can to advocate and inform outside of it, while not suffering the distractions of things you can’t immediately change.
As we prepare for this school year I’ll give some honor to those educators who have helped shape me: Toetta Taul, Aletha Fields, Troy Petrie, Melody Ward, Mike Thomas, Sara Ridley, Erica McClure, BJ Ritter, Christy Rogers, Carmen Coleman, Keith Davis, Beth Carter; to name a few. Every one of them are people who stepped up when the privilege of educating students was difficult, and when the work was smooth, they remained laser focused. Every one of them combined skillset and mentality. An ability to do the science of teaching so well, mixed with a tenacious heart for students. I think the best educators do that: thread the needle of the art of teaching with the science. This is a hard thing to do, to balance great care with the precision of pedagogy that brings results for students. This is a commendable type of person in our field. We’ve all worked with folks like them that inspire us, and it is important that we recognize them, and aspire to hone our craft in that tradition. These are the types of people that recognize what is needed, buckle down, and get it done.
“Education makes a people easy to lead but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.” - Peter Brougham
I offer no platitudes other than this job is meaningful and worthwhile. I believe educators should be among the best compensated and respected PK-12 of any profession. I believe that what we do is the public good. I believe that a great teacher, a caring assistant, a strong principal, a kind bus driver, and a wise superintendent can truly change the trajectory of one child to thousands. The value of a strong, well-funded, and respected public education institution is worthwhile to the betterment of all society. Frankly, if you stand in opposition to that, we have no room to have debate. I believe firmly in this as a fundamental bedrock of our nation, and will not waver.
“Education is the vaccine of violence.” - Edward James Olmos
Public education serves the common good. If a student drops out of school they are twice as likely to be unemployed, and three times more likely to receive public assistance. The wage gap and income inequality aside, I think in general, reasonable people can agree we would like to see a healthier economy, more people with access to the workforce, and less dependence on public assistance. In addition 41% of all prisoners had interrupted, or did not complete high school. Again, prison reform and sentencing aside as those are other topics, reasonable people can agree that completing high school is within society’s best interests. If you need a more fiscal viewpoint: it costs roughly six times the amount of money a year to incarcerate someone than it does to educate them. Without branching too far into another topic, it is important to note that statistic itself needs significant work.
High school graduation has a myriad of other positive benefits. Longer life expectancy, less dependence on chemical substances, alcohol, higher voter turnout, less likelihood to break the law, higher median income, and more access to housing, opportunities, and the list goes on and is exhaustive. Outside of graduation school provides a safe place, hope, food, nourishment of the mind, opportunity, and access to the world. It is a place where someone can write the opening chapter to the book of their life, discover new things, find meaning, build relationships, and attempt to make sense of the complex world around them. School is necessary, worthwhile, and an educated populace is a societal good. Again, the value of a strong, well-funded, and respected public education institution is worthwhile to the betterment of all society. Frankly, if you stand in opposition to that, we have no room to have debate. I believe firmly in this as a fundamental bedrock of our nation, and will not waver.
Having established this is a good thing for society, I believe that public education remains the answer. Certainly private education, even homeschooling can be successful. I’m not going to malign them, but I’m also not interested in debating the effectiveness of those who by nature exclude students. It is easy to “claim success” when you handpick those who are allowed to get success. Public education educates everyone. Private schools do not. I’m not interested in the argument that vouchers or tax credits would suddenly help more kids get into private school, because frankly, private schools will do what they have always done which is refuse admittance, or create barriers for any kid that doesn’t fit their chosen demographic, religious or socioeconomic. If folks want that, that’s fine. Go that route, but don’t for a second come for public education. It remains necessary, and the consistent eroding of this institution is doing society no good at all. Again, this is a bedrock of our nation, and I will not waver in this belief. We serve the 90% of students who attend public school, or roughly 51 million kids.
“Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” - Malcolm X
We serve those 90%. Every day from the nutrition services folks preparing their breakfast, the bus driver picking them up, the principal opening the door, the teacher teaching the class, the custodian cleaning the halls, the district administrator trying to get resources (hopefully), to the board members trying to make the best decisions for their constituency. We are the ones who serve that 90%, with the laudable and worthwhile goal of preparing them with their passport for tomorrow. Nine out of ten students. The vast majority. No matter who they are, or what they need. We serve them. We serve them lacking resources. We serve them as respect for the profession erodes through constant attacks by those who wish to impose their narrow minded worldview. We have seen funding continue to remain stagnant, or be increased marginally in one area while be slashed in another. We have listened to the uninformed tout “per pupil spending” like that number really means anything, or that they can even explain what the numbers represents to begin with. We have listened to the calls of the un and ill informed, and it has only amplified over the last half decade. Yet, we serve those 90%.
“Education is the key that unlocks the golden door to freedom.” - George Washington Carver
When folks talk about “the district” they’re talking about us, me, the people I mentioned above, the people who serve the 90%. We serve any student that walks through the door. Doesn’t matter their color, their background, their origin, their needs, their ability, their gender, their identification, we serve them all. We don’t get to say no to them, we don’t get to turn them away, the 90% that show up, we serve. We do our best. I have not, in near twenty years as an educator met anyone who walked into a school and said “I’m going to be terrible today”. Granted, there are some in the profession that make mistakes. Find me a profession that doesn’t. Then do me and us the credit of not amplifying the mistakes of the narrow few, and instead focusing on the success of the profession. We are tasked with making it work with the 90%, no matter what their needs are.
“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” - Will Durant
What we do is not perfect. It never was, and it never will be. What we do requires answering mistakes of the past, and changing for the better for the future. We must as a profession clearly understand the model of factory education has to go. The quiet blessing of the pandemic is at least we can’t dance around it anymore, we know now, clearly, in front of us, we have to change the basic model of much of what we do. We have to adapt and remain nimble. I know, fellow educators, we know how to be nimble. We know how to pivot when we need to. We just have to do it on a larger scale.
We must as a profession clearly understand that over testing and trying to dissect every aspect of the classroom is not the way. I am not against measurement, but I am against measurement as a weapon, or at the expense of what matters most, time instructing students. Our 90% need all the time we can give them. This is an area we need to improve, and more importantly an area we as a profession need to push back on forces outside the profession. I haven’t yet met a lawmaker who can explain to me an “accountability system”, maybe it’s time they should. Or if they can’t, then stop sacrificing schools on the altar of testing.
We must as a profession answer for a system that was designed for people who look like my skin and has marginalized for too long people who do not. Now, we have to face the arrows of those who don’t understand what we do, don’t want to understand what we do, and want instead to feed their own ego and agenda because of something deeply lost inside of them. Yet, we still serve the 90%, and will continue to do so. Our system is supposed to by nature teach everyone that walks through the door, but it is critical we teach them the truth. We teach them to critically think. We are honest about our mistakes of the past. We are objective about our successes. We are forward thinking in the society we wish to leave them, as our 90% will make it better for those they leave it for as well. To do this, we have to be honest. Our 90% deserve that honesty and respect.
As we stand on the threshold of 2022-23 things will not go back to the “way they were”, nor honestly, should they. We can say that it’s going to be a tough year, we can say that it’s going to be difficult, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. Whatever the latest distraction is, minimize it. We have spent far to much energy on hyper focused crises of the moment. This is just meant to distract from the important work. Our 90% don’t need all that extra noise. We tend to, as a profession overcomplicate things.
Let’s lay out a couple of facts:
These are five basic facts that won’t change. If it was 2016, these facts would remain the same. If it was 2006, again, the same. 1996, still the same. Kids are going to show up, they will have needs, and we are good at addressing our kid’s needs. Let’s be crystal clear on that: we are good at that. Granted, there is always room for improvement, but believe the fact that this team, these leaders, your teachers, we are good at our work. Folks outside the profession need to remember that we are experts in our field, with many years of experience and wisdom. Our field needs the internal leadership to bulwark against the external foolishness.
We are good at our work, and our collective voices matter. Defense of this institution, this common good is a worthwhile position. As they come back this year, remember that. Remember what we do matters, and that our voice matters as we push for change in our profession. Never forget the common good, and the importance of our role. Frankly, never let the rest of society forget that either.
Our 90% are counting on that.
Fulk