The SKY Is Falling!!

Public Education Matters 8.26.10

The Sky Is Falling!

“Long time, no see!”

Yes, I took a bit of a Summer hiatus from the PEM blog. That was for two reasons. One, was that I have been terribly busy this summer, the highlight being a trip to Japan to see my daughter! The second was just because, frankly, most of what I was reading in the news regarding education was prompting not meaningful and articulate thoughts and commentary, but rather an inarticulate “ARRRGGGHHH!” Really, that’s about all I could muster for how frustrated I was. (Or for that matter, still am!)

Would you like me to be more specific? I will do my very best to try to articulate my thoughts without sounding like “Chicken Little.” Trust me, I am not really an alarmist, it’s just that I honestly believe that “we” as a nation and especially “we” in my state have great reason to be alarmed about the path some are wanting to take regarding public education. I really think the sky may actually be falling.

What do I mean? Well bear with me while I trace it all out. It might take a bit of patience and a bit of a sense of humor for you as the reader. I’ll respectfully thank you ahead of time for your concentration and attention. I’ll also beg your pardon for not getting to the story I promised in my last post. That will need to wait for another time.

What has me so riled and alarmed and almost to the state of chicken-like panic are the steps that my Governor, who happens to be running for President and his (I refuse to say mine) State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Bennett are taking towards what I believe will be complete and total destruction of public education, IF we sit by and do nothing and let it all happen.

Let me spell it out a bit more clearly for you:
1. Mitch Daniels is the Governor of Indiana. He is being touted as and considering himself as (don’t let his words fool you) one of the next likely front runners for the GOP candidate for the Presidency of the United States. One of the ways you get to be a front runner for the GOP is by showing that you can cut spending and limit programs. That’s what the GOP likes to hear. They think that will improve our country.

2. This past year, even while he did not have to, (For instance, he could have figured out instead how to replace the property tax income that used to help fund schools or he could have used the money that was there already.) Mr. Daniels cut THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS from the Indiana Budget for education. The severity of these cuts when school systems were depending on these dollars to maintain staff and programs at present levels caused both more unemployment in the state and a real shortage of staff in our schools. Only some late-coming stimulus relief from the federal government prevented the situation from being worse than it was. Most of the GOP voted against this stimulus.

3. Mr. Daniels has said publically that he wants to end the practice of collective bargaining for teachers, which means that teachers will be subject to arbitrary pay levels and compensation, and hiring a teacher will wind up being a bid for the cheapest taker. It will have nothing to do with quality for cash- strapped systems. It will have nothing to do with consistency for cash strapped systems. It will be all about who you can get for the least amount of money. I’m not sure that’s going to make for educational improvement. I think that will turn teaching into a less sought- after career field when you can’t even be sure of making a living wage, not being subject to arbitrary hiring and firing practices, and being subject to the whims of the state rather than policy driven by sound educational research and practice- become constant threats. I predict that within 5 years (as this current workforce retires) and less qualified people go into teaching, our state and maybe even our country will suffer a teacher shortage.

I know that I personally would not go into education today, because I would not sell my soul to be part of private education and I would not be inclined to spend 5 to 6 years in college in order to make less than the average factory worker or truck driver who didn't go to college. And you can say all you want that you’ll reward me with merit pay if I’m any good or supposedly worth my salt, but frankly I wouldn’t trust for one second that I’d be judged fairly. Truly, I would choose another field. I would choose a field that would allow me to support my family and myself.

4. Tony Bennett, the State Superintendent of Public Schools meanwhile has just given his “State of the State Education” speech in which he repeated the spiel that he’s given all year about how education dollars and teaching jobs needs to be tied to increased test scores. He says he is all about accountability and reform of education. I beg to differ. I believe it all has to do with his wanting to be in lockstep with Mr. Daniels.

5. Along the way, a local Superintendent and Principal have joined up to be on Tony’s team with the (I think) sincere belief that they will be able to give Bennett practical and down to earth advice about how his policies are affecting or will affect the districts. Forgive me, I’m going to say perhaps the rudest thing you’ll EVER hear me say on this blog- but here goes, I really feel it must be said- “I believe that these people are TOOLS” Or rather they will become tools for Tony Bennett and Mr. Daniels. They’ll be used when November comes around to say “Look who supports me!” with the hope that people will vote for the candidates for the Indiana House that support Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett because of their “endorsement.” The House will then be in danger of being lost to those of us who support true Public education. When that happens, it will spiral on down from there.

Here is what I envision:

6. Mitch Daniels will use his GOP support that he will gain in the House to affect continued and more policies of slashing and burning the education budget (after his brief hiatus in cuts that he’s announced just in time so that any voters that might be beginning to be disgruntled with the $300million cuts will think that the worst is over and the bleeding has stopped and will vote his way thinking “yeah, we survived and maybe it’s not so bad after-all) that will “buy” him more GOP support. He will become the GOP candidate for the Presidency.

7. Tony Bennett will tag along with Mitch with the promise that he’ll take Arne Duncan’s (Head of US Education Department) job someday. From there they will continue to cut not just state education dollars, but now Federal education dollars. More and more of “Public” Education will be fielded to the private business sector with their claims of being able to deliver more bang for the buck. Along with that money will go every civil rights and fair labor practice protection that state workers (I mean teachers and education staffs) now have. The pay will go down. When the pay goes down, less qualified people will be attracted to the field with the exception of those who go into teaching as a filler while they look for a career in another field or those who can afford to teach as a second income.

Along with this, I believe that IF (and that’s a big hopeful if) “they” continue to insist (by law) that we must educate ALL children, even the disabled, the poor, the disadvantaged, etc that we will start seeing just what we are seeing now with charter schools - that the education provided will be NO BETTER in terms of test scores, literacy rates, or graduation rates or preparedness for college or for work. In fact, I believe that all of that will go downhill. And then….. well then, you’ll get what you get. I hope not to be alive to see it, to tell the truth. Because even just thinking about it all, makes me want to weep sometimes until I remember I have a plan for if the sky falls.

Yes, maybe I do sound to you like Chicken Little here. “The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling!” But you know what? I really think time will bear me out if we all don’t wake up and do something to stop Mitch Daniels and Tony Bennett. I sincerely believe that all of us in Indiana need to do everything we can to make sure we vote education-friendly (mostly Democrat) people into the house this November. And really, if you think I am an alarmist, go ahead and call me a nut or Chicken Little, but I encourage you to read and think a little bit deeper on this issue than what the mainstream media is saying. I encourage you to read commentary from the “other” side and not fall into the trap of just believing all the propaganda that your political party or your neighbor is sending out to you. I encourage you to consider the source of your information. Does it come from someone who is in the business of making money or someone who has spent their life educating or doing research in education? Does it come from solid and unbiased educational research or is it someone parroting something they read in an email from Aunt Susie? I’m asking you, I’m begging you to become REALLY informed and to think CRITICALLY and beneath the surface. I’m begging you to think out what might come next if all the “sound-bites” from Tony Bennett and Mitch Daniels offices all come true.

But don’t worry about me. Really don’t. I am close to retirement thankfully. Also, even if I can’t retire because I can't afford health care, if the sky does fall, one of my colleagues and I have a plan. Our plan is to borrow some money (because we certainly haven’t been able to save any in our field) buy some property and start our own school. Our plan is to take all the children that the private sector doesn’t want and that we reasonably can, and accept barters for payment for teaching them. We’ll teach your children to read for chickens or boxes of rice, or fresh produce. We’ll teach them algebra for you paying our utility bills. For shoes, we will throw in Social Studies. For a bushel of wheat, we'll teach some science. Hey, we’ll even teach a foreign language if you’ll help pay our monthly mortgage and our gas money.

That’s our plan. And really, when we start up our school, we really won’t be worse off than anyone else……. when the sky falls.