Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter
The nomination of Betsy DeVos was fraught with criticism from the left. She was derided for having “no experience with public education, no political experience, no government administrative experience,” and her support for school vouchers/charter schools, among many other things. Notably, most of the criticism came from educators, many of them members of the teachers’ unions, who have had many years and more than enough funding to fix failing public schools, with little (if any) success.
Which all begs the question – if your student is enrolled at a failing public institution, why should he/she be forced to remain enrolled there?
Recently, someone shared the experience of “Madeline” (the mother of a Philadelphia school student) and “Steve” (the student himself). Their names have been changed for the purpose of this article, which as Madeline explains, is more than likely necessary, so they do not face reprisal from public school educators and administrators. For her and her son, having a choice has meant the difference between years wasted in a failing school, and a real chance at a real education.
Madeline and Steve, both African Americans, live with Madeline’s husband in West Philadelphia, where most families are hard working but underpaid by any standard. Steve attended John Barry Elementary School (Grades K-8) from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. They both described the school as “terrible,” among several other less than savory terms. Every day there were fights, with girls pulling hair out, and kids would turn over desks/chairs before running through the halls while class was in session. Teachers would try to break up fights, but would more often call security, who would remove the offending student. If the issue couldn’t be resolved, parents would be called, who wouldn’t always show up to take the child away. If teachers took away phones from students who used them during class, they would curse at teachers and administrators with little fear of reprisal, sometime assaulting teachers.
Security consisted of one police officer. Lockers were not considered safe, and oftentimes items left in them would be stolen by other students. The food was considered to be “awful” by Steve, and the bathrooms were filthy, with urine and feces on the floor and by the drains. Classes were approximately 30 students each, with the principal changing every year. Notably, Steve was academically ahead of his classmates – most of the students did not want to be in school, and were extremely disruptive. Steve had one good teacher, but he noted that the teacher had difficulty actually teaching anything, since there were so many disruptive students. Steve stated his only positive experience from the school were his field trips to a farm and a circus.
If you look at the performance of John Barry Elementary School, you can see this for yourself. Reproduced below are the PSSA charts for Grade 3 (the one grade listed that Steve was in attendance for), and unsurprisingly they are far below the SDP average. Also below is the teacher attendance for John Barry, which is far below the SDP average as well.
Madeline (unsurprisingly) did not want to keep Steve in John Barry, seeing it as a hostile environment to not just learning, but Steve’s safety, and his development as a person. She feared that leaving him in this school would bring out the worst in him, and that could lead him to a life of crime or worse. Madeline put her son on a waiting list to get into a charter school, later finding out that only 1 of every 3 applicants were accepted, and she believes some schools have a lottery. Her son got into Mathematics, Civics, & Sciences Charter School of Philadelphia (K-12), courtesy of two friends’ cousins who used to teach at the school.
Her son said that from the day he got to the school, he was actually learning. The kids were all serious, and not playing around. The teachers were “not soft, striking fear into unruly students,” and the students subsequently respected the teacher and wanted to be productive. The teachers, in turn, trusted the kids, but there is still far more security, with one guard in each hallway. The principal frequently interrupts classrooms and asks teachers what they are learning, sometimes having “guests” present to evaluate the teachers. The most positive experience that Steve shared is the teachers are “top notch,” and he feels he is finally learning something at school.
It’s not all perfect for Steve though – the school doesn’t have a gym, and not a lot of sports and physical education are available. There is a basketball program, but the school needs to use facilities at other schools. Still, that was the only negative relative to John Barry that MCS Charter had in everything that was discussed. A recent article in Philly.com which described a similar charter school in Northeast Philadelphia was described by Madeline as “very similar” to her experience with MCS.
Finally, Madeline was asked about Betsy DeVos – if she know who she was (she did), and of the criticisms that were sent her way. Her answer was brief – “the criticisms are true – she doesn’t know much about public school.” But then she added, “would anyone really want to know more about John Barry, besides how to get their student out of the school?”
Which brings me back to the criticisms lobbed at DeVos, again by HuffPo. They quoted some things the DeVos said in March 2015 at the SXSW conference in Texas. Some excerpts:
Government really sucks. And it doesn’t matter which party is in power. Having been around politics and government my entire adult life, I have five observations about government for you:
Government tends to believe in top down solutions and government fears of bottom up solutions.
We don’t pay teachers enough, and we don’t fire teachers enough.
In that one sentence, I have raised the ire of both the Republican and Democrat political establishments.
The Republicans don’t want to pay our best teachers enough, and the Democrats don’t want to reform tenure laws. It’s another partisan standoff.
But I am willing to bet that every one of you had one or more teachers who made a big difference in your life, who opened your eyes to possibilities and to opportunities. You probably recall them in your mind’s eye right now.
And likewise, I am pretty sure that every one of you had one or more teachers who should not have been teaching. That doesn’t mean they were bad people, or maybe they were, but regardless, they weren’t any good at teaching. You are probably thinking of those teachers right now.
And by the way, teaching is hard. It takes a lot of skill. Not everyone who tries can do it well. We need to admit that and act accordingly.
We should reward and respect great teachers by paying them more, and we should stop rewarding seniority over effectiveness.
As it applies to education, you would be hard pressed to find Madeline not in agreement with DeVos. Top-down solutions to education and government (read: teachers’ union) fears of bottom up solutions to education have led to a public school system that is behind the curve in nearly all examples.
This is not hyperbole – the US spends approximately $115,000 per student, which is fifth globally, behind only Austria, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland. But throwing money at the problem has not led to increased performance, as the Pew Research Center recently analyzed – our students score similar to the Slovak Republic, which spends less than half, at $53,000 per student:
What a surprise – a PISA report has noted the following:
…among OECD countries, “higher expenditure on education is not highly predictive of better mathematics scores in PISA.”
We can reasonably conclude that instead of trying to throw money at the problem, it appears Betsy DeVos intends to “fix” the public school system by giving parents a choice of where to send their students to school. She appears prepared to use the exorbitant cost of public education to finance this choice, and forcing all schools financed with public dollars to become far more accountable for their own performance. Who ends up the big loser? Obviously, failing public schools – if enough students leave the failing schools behind, they will be forced to shutter their doors.
It should be of no surprise then, that teachers’ unions are fighting charter schools at every turn. A recent Forbes article did an exemplary job of dissecting their opposition:
Teachers’ unions often fight charter schools by claiming that they are less accountable to students and families because many operate under less burdensome regulations than do traditional public schools. The real reason for their opposition, of course, is that charter school teachers are not unionized. The reality is that charter schools are much more accountable to young people and their parents than are traditional public schools. If parents do not like their children’s charter schools, they can send their kids elsewhere. This threat of exit gives charter schools an incentive to raise the quality of the education they offer in order to retain students.
Despite union scaremongering, the verdict is in on charter schools: The public favors them 2 to 1. Among African Americans, who are arguably the biggest beneficiaries of alternative schooling options, the favorability ratio is greater than 3 to 1. Even public school teachers desert the union position on charter schools by a slim margin—38% of teachers favor them, and 35% are opposed.
With a favorability rating of 3 to 1 among African Americans, the ethnic group with the largest percentage of students in failing public schools, it should be quite surprising to learn that the NAACP opposes charter schools. Recently, the NAACP ratified a controversial resolution calling for a moratorium on expansion of charter schools, and stronger oversight of charter schools currently in existence.
Publications ranging from U.S. News to The National Review have struggled to answer this question:
The NAACP board will vote this weekend on a resolution urging a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools, on grounds that they worsen segregation and erode local control. This is not a new position for the nation’s oldest civil-rights organization, but it’s gotten more support than ever before — for example, from groups such as those affiliated with Black Lives Matter — and has drawn thoughtful repudiations by the New York Times and the Washington Post as well as the Wall Street Journal. As the Post’s editorial board noted, “that the beneficiaries of [charters] are, in large part, children of color hopefully is not lost on an organization that is supposed to be looking out for the interests of minority people.”
But Education Week said what no one else would:
“The African-American community was shut out of power and authority for so many years, even if African-Americans see the warts on the local district, it’s their district.”
So something else needs to be said, because no one else has said it: if you want your failing public school, you can keep your failing public school – no one is forcing anyone to put their kids into a charter school. But do not take away the option for someone else to remove their child from a toxic environment, and make their own choice on whatever they feel is the best place to send their children to school.
Betsy DeVos wasn’t brought in to enact more “reforms” or toss more money at what appears to be an unsolvable problem – instead, it appears she intends to do something that no one else has done in the past – give more students a choice of what to do with their education. The criticisms about her are all correct – she isn’t well versed in public school education, something she readily admits, but knows that it is failing our country’s students, no matter how much time and money has been spent for who knows how long to repair it. Isn’t a new approach long overdue?
Take note – former President Obama sent his kids to Sidwell Friends, a private school in the D.C. area. And who can blame him? D.C. public schools recently ranked dead last in the nation. Why should the rest of our nation’s students be given a “one size fits all” approach to public education, when that “one size” is a well-funded yet underperforming public school system?
My wife and I are both from PA – different locales (not the Philly shit hole). We attended public schools in the 50’s and 60’s – we felt like they were a prison. We both have advanced degrees.
We home schooled our childern – we vowed they would never go to public schools. Not only is it easy – the kids enjoy it. We are not religious in any way.
I think there are several things going on with public education.
#1. It’s a behemoth – you have buildings / maintenance personnel / buses / drivers / administrators / school boards / teachers / teachers unions / plus all the taxation systems.
when here in MN they have been trying to get the liquor stores open on Sunday. A 150 year old law, that they can’t get repealed. How in the hell are you going to begin to change the public schools?
#2. Liberals are in complete control. Schools are now used for indoctrination of liberal policies, and are easily forced by the Federal Gov for things like transgender locker rooms.
#3. Liberals want to make everything ‘fair’ – so public schools can give every one a shitty education – that is ‘fair’.
#4. No body can be a teacher until they are 30. They must have had a job other than teaching.
The real root of the problem, briefly discussed in the article, is the crappy kids who have zero interest in learning and their awful, enabling parents who don’t hold their kids accountable. Would there even be a need for charter schools if those kids weren’t there? No, there wouldn’t. So what’s to be done about that? Sure, it’s easy to blame unions, leftist/liberal policies, tenure rules and even teachers themselves for “failing public schools”, but 90% of the problem is the kids and parents who don’t give a crap.
Charter/private schools are great if you have the means to go that route, but what if you don’t? The fundamental structure of our public school system isn’t changing anytime soon, so what’s to be done with the miscreant kids/parents who make schools a hostile/difficult learning environment? Figure that out first then worry about noise items like teacher unions and tenure policies.
I’d love to see a study comparing the incidence of being a problem student with being the child of a single parent.
And that is why you won’t.
When people talk of bad schools what they truly mean is “bad fellow students”, no amount of funding can change that. Bad fellow students come from bad parents, or absent parents, or doped up parents, and again, no amount of school funding can change the parents. Some kind of competitive scores-based criteria for (say) 3rd grade on up would help. We could save the half or 2/3rds who can learn. I have a relative who teaches, I’ve seen the work they grade, true illiteracy in 10th grade is wide spread, easily 1/4 of the kids in 10th grade should not have been let out of 3rd grade.
I see that there are two parents in this situation. That is a major plus for this child and his future. So WHY, like so many hundreds of thousands of parents all over this country, is one of them not staying home and HOMESCHOOLING this child? How does whining get your child out of a horrible school? How does whining get him a good education? How does complaining that your money is being STOLEN to pay for horrible schools get your child educated? Whose child is this anyway? Whose responsibility is it to raise and educate this child? Exactly! So stop promoting the socialist funding mechanism of government schools, charter schools, or vouchers, and take personal responsibility for the child you chose to bring into the world. Government is the reason the schools are so horrible. More government (in whatever form) is most certainly NOT going to correct the problems government created in the first place.
Sounds like Steve has a bright future,parents that care about him and a school where folks actually care about learning.
Tis a bummer no real sports ect. but hope Steve can perhaps get into a martial arts class to get that part of his education,best of luck Steve and kudos to your parents!
Public School Reform:
Take all unruly students and move them to schools that only have unruly students. Employ a lot more security for these ‘schools’. They won’t learn but who gives a shit.
The youngsters that want to learn will do well. Word will get out about the ‘loser’ schools and fewer unruly students will occur in following years (as a %).
Heck yes good article. I believe Betsy is for homeschooling too. What do we need with a teacher in a position to help teachers instead of our students. A child wanting an education won’t care if their teachers are unionized until they find out what it is costing. I had a bunch of sucky teachers.
I don’t remember the statistics but it is disgusting how many minutes per day a child receives from their teacher. I remember my sister jerked her gifted child out, because her duties were to keep the handicapped child from the pencils.
The Gestapo tactics are mild in IN but they have been getting a lot worse. Back in my day it took a good excuse to get in my pockets or locker. Signing up for sports, or to drive to school enables random drug testing. Driving and sports may be a privilege, but we teach our kids to give up their rights to get it. Principals and teachers have no problem lying to kids lies to get them to comply. I myself remember the early 70s, when probable cause needed evidence. You couldn’t get charged for what was in your posession if you were arrested for something else. Giving up bodily fluids to incriminate ourselves irks me now that I see how it has been abused. Now they are paying kids to give up DNA. They condition kids to go along with everything authority says. I failed miserably at teaching my kids they have rights to stand on.
Way to go Dutch on homeschooling.
In a charter school, they look for each child’s learning patterns, and tailor a specific learning plan. Who knows their children best teachers or parents. We had our child in school many years before one teacher noticed he had some dyslexia. In public school average education is the name of the game.
My brother has a huge vocabulary compared to the education I got between 72 and76. The flouridating started way before that. Look at all the new goodies we now consume for the dumbing down process. American IQs are going down fast. Our education system sucks. What I can’t figure is why any self respecting foreigner would ever send their kids to OUR country for a higher education. I wonder if that is why we don’t hear about Russian students being here for snowflakification. Trump wants to drain the swamp he says, and educating the next generation about the swamp is a start.
Once again excellent
Many public schools are “Stage IV Malignant” Stupid; it’s easy to diagnose but the majority of politicians and public school officials don’t want a cure (vouchers or home schooling). Draining the Swamp should include firing all the inept educators and politicians; brand them with a Scarlet F (For Fired Failed Fool) and never allowed to teach or run for any office again.
Baltimore city schools was a shining example of what a public school system should be when it was 80% white now the system spends more per student than any other system its size and they have $130 million dollar short fall in the budget and can’t even keep the water fountains working and the population is 80+% black ! “JUST SAYING”
Many teachers milk the system , work 10 months a year get all the holidays and benefits and still whine they don’t make enough ! You knew the pay scales and future when you took the job , you are an adult teaching children so stop all the touchy feely horse shit grow up do the job or find something else to do !
The example of the poor teacher is way overblown , I notice plenty of volvos BMW’s and Mega SUV’s on the teacher parking lot with private school bumper stickers on them , what’s wrong with that picture !
Now let’s discuss more administrative personal making a $6$figure salary !
Now in one system in MD a husband and wife retired public school principals recieve a joint income of $300K a year before taxes so the vacation all over the country flying their private plane !
Everybody working full time deserves fair just compensation but when government employees are on average receiving salaries 20 to 40 % higher than the tax paying citizens forced to fund these leviathans and retirement in their mid 50’s no wonder the shit is falling apart
Now for the teacher that whines about purchasing materials to work with in class ,I suggest you step on board a snap on tool truck and see what people do to support their mechanic jobs ! It is not cheap and the tax laws make it very difficult to write off the expense in most cases ! Step into the real world for a change and as for the sub standard students and parents , you have a Union get them out of your class and in jail ! That’s where they are heading if they haven’t already had that little pleasure which l am sure many have !
Because you don’t care enough to notice. To answer the question. Home schooled one and he finished two years early.
Dutch, I don’t comment as much lately because you comment for me ,much of the time. usually you are in touch with reality and approach situations with a load of common sense. My kids did ok but they would have been better served as home schooled.
Home-schooled mine, one from seventh and one from third grade; first has graduated from college and the second is a year away. It can be done.