Good education requires more than books and seasonal fruit, it requires Big Ideas.
Of course, not having kids and not really knowing much about local school board policies, I’m going to need a little help with this week’s Big Idea. You see, even though I’ve read up on some of the issues (specifically things like transparency), I’m not anywhere near as informed as even a moderately involved parent or teacher is. As a result, I really can’t offer much to the discussion other than ideological platitudes.
But you can.
So, let’s identify the biggest issues facing local schools and then come up with some ways the local district boards can address them in a meaningful, concrete way.
From following the election, here are some of the bigger issues, which should at least serve as a starting point for the discussion.
- Transparency: A lot of people got rightly worked up about how District 7′s badly conceived, seemingly secretive County Club of Spartanburg deal turned into a total fiasco, but the problem of transparency goes far beyond that. How can this issue be meaningfully addressed?
- Financial Responsibility: These are tough times for everyone, and for local schools things aren’t getting any easier thanks to the Libertarian-leaning agenda of Gov. Sanford and various agents of anti-public school movement backer Howard Rich. (An aside: Using shell companies, Rich gave an estimated $40,000 just to Joey Millwood’s campaign in 2008, and similar donations to Lee Bright.) So, how can local school districts do more with less money?
- Inequality With Districts: Not all local schools are equally supported, even within the same districts, and that often brings up the uncomfortable subject of economic class and racial disparities. How can these concerns be addressed?
Obviously, this is just scratching the surface of the topic, but at least it’s a place to get the conversation moving.
Since this is a heated topic, I’ll once again remind you of the basic rules of the Big Idea column: This is a brainstorm, and there are no stupid ideas. Even the most impractical ideas can be useful as springboards to more realistic ones. Also, let’s all try to keep an open mind here, and not let political ideologies get in the way of discussion. We’re talking about real, concrete changes in actual policy, not what “should” be in an ideal world.
OK, let’s hear those ideas!
Steve Shanafelt
Transparency and financial responsibility go hand in hand. I think some districts have grown administrative spending at too high a rate, and now that we are in an economic downturn, are “struggling.” Let’s make spending data more publicly available, and push for really prioritizing instructional spending. On average I think schools in this state are funded at $11,000 or more per student. That’s a lot of money! We just need to make sure it is being spent wisely.
Let’s take the money that is going to new practice fields in District 7, and put it toward keeping good teachers in our classrooms. If the money is scarce, then it needs to go toward the most important reason we pay for public schools: academic instruction. I’m a parent, and would rather have my son running sprints on poor turf than doing without textbooks and teachers.
As far as economic and racial disparities go, I urge you to consider the idea of school choice totally apart from Howard Rich and Mark Sanford. There are plenty of people around who support the idea, and have never heard of Rich, and have no clue that Sanford pushed for it. I’m sure you’re not assuming that school choice is soley tied to these two. If you look at other states like Pennsylvania and Florida, you can see where thousands and thousands of poor black students have been able to get scholarships from philanthropic groups to attend private schools. The public schools still haven’t gone under.
If educating kids in Spartanburg County is what really matters, then no one should be up in arms if that happens somewhere besides a public school, right?
Your thoughts?
To my mind, so-called school choice is really just a Trojan horse for public school privatization, and I want no part of that.
Look at it this way, schools receive funding based on the number of students they have. Paying to send a kid to a private school means taking money away from an already-failing public school, which of course only makes things worse for the kids who remain there.
The whole thing sounds like a “starve the beast” way to end public education gradually to me.
Tax credits, which are what most of the “choice” people favor, would only work for those who pay enough taxes to get the credit. In Spartanburg, as in most places, the people who are well-off enough to get the credit already live in areas where the public schools are good, so giving them the credit would just mean subsidizing the private school education of some upper-middle class or wealthy person’s kid. No thanks!
As for your suggested “philanthropic” approach to educating the poor, it smacks of a certain paternalism that I find pretty nauseating to be honest. Leaving that aside though, it’s not a solution for the systemic problem of poverty-stricken schools any more than a good soup kitchen is the solution to the problem of homelessness. Charity is good, but it’s not the way to run an education system.
Wow. Just, um…..wow.
We can improve our schools in one simple way..something that I did when my kids were in school, especially elementary and middle school.
VOLUNTEER.
Be at the school, help in the classrooms, sit on a committee, attend parent teacher conferences and PTO meetings, attend school board meetings, run for the board, help with fund raising events, give a few dollars so there are less annoying fund raising events.
A lot of times, what makes a local school great is the involvement of the parents and the surrounding community that offer time and resources, recognizing the importance of helping kids get an education.
For every child whose parents are savy enough to be involved, ask questions, find a way to get a scholarship to a private school or transportation to and from that charter school, there are dozens who do NOT have that support. How, then, should we empower parents to make informed choices? Bring the information to their workplace, for one thing. Not everybody’s got Internet access at home or is inclined to go to the public library for it.
I am not a proponent of consolidation into one district, but that may level the playing field somewhat regarding economic disparities. Would racial disparities decline after this too? Certainly some local districts are in better financial shape than others, as proven by one of the seven districts furloughing teachers for five days last year.
Christopher,
Certainly you don’t find private charitable giving more “nauseatingly paternalistic” than bureaucratic mandates from government? To each their own.
Charitable schools have educated a lot of people in this country, just like charitable hospitals have provided medical care to many with very limited options. Even now there are plenty of low budget, primarily charitable schools in this state who help numerous poor minority students. I’m not saying charity is the only way, but it’s very unwise to say it doesn’t have a place in helping students in failing public schools.
If a company like BMW wants to contribute to a group that distributes scholarships to needy students, our state would be insane not to make this option available.
This idea is already working elsewhere, and on a level much bigger than a soup kitchen. Look at the thousands of financially disadvantaged students who get scholarships in Florida.
Again, charity is great for those kids who get it. It’s not a systemic solution for the problem of failing public schools though.
Your crack about “bureaucratic mandates” notwithstanding, the problems in public education should have public solutions. Public education works just fine in other countries.
There’s been no need for privatization in those countries, and there’s no need for it here, especially considering the massive class discrepancies which a widespread school privitization plan would bring about.
As an aside, I find it pretty interesting that conservatives all of the sudden seem to care about poor students. Seems to me you guys are the ones who want to cut funding to every possible social service–often including education. Considering the unimpressive track record conservatives have when it comes to doing ANYTHING for the poor at all, you’ll have to forgive me if I question the motivation of these “school choice” conservatives.
It seems to me it’s a lot more about getting the wealthy a tax credit to subsidize their tuition payments to Spartanburg Day than it is about helping poor kids.
Here’s my take about private donors people. Every time you buy a box of oranges from a band member, a ticket and concessions to a school sporting event and and overpriced photo package of your child you are a private donor. Local businesses have long been school sponsors, just pick up any high school annual. Those ads help offset the cost of producing those annuals and help give students lessons in marketing, publishing and page layout. Local businesses have been sponsors for sporting events, especially for football where some schools allow banner ads along fence lines at near the goals (at least I saw them at the last game I went to in NC)
That private funding helps offset costs of my extra curricular activity giving kids more opportunities not necessarily found in the classroom. Some of that money can filter down to other basic school needs.
Every time there is a budget crunch there very first entity that feels the pinch is education, yet the state keeps telling our schools and the teachers do better, get your standards up, keep kids from dropping out. There has always been school choice, but not everyone can opt to utilize those choices, some because of finances, some because of other logistical reasons.
But it doesn’t change the fact that we are paying taxes for our public schools and they are suffering because the state decides to not send that money right back to the schools, AND please don’t get me started on the lottery. yeah it helps offset the cost of college tuition, tuitions that are the highest in the Southeast when attending a state sponsored school, in some cases nearly double, Primary and secondary schools, what do they get?
Schools in poorer districts have it harder because they already have less private support from local businesses and from parents. There are ways to help, they need help, and it looks like it may just have to come from the private sector, especially as the government seems to not really care to. But not from people with nefarious agendas. Like that Rich fella. We also need to insist that the state legislature takes a good hard look at how to fund our schools, return incentives to teachers to excell and get masters degrees (something they took away), work recruit and keep good educators, and to help all schools regardless of demographics to be places where parents want to send their school….yeah I know, I know, but a girl can dream right? But I can vote, and can’t wait to get some new people in, as these guys are so “caring” about education.
I am not out to knock private schools because they do fill a need Without them our public schools would be even more overflowing then some of them are. Plus some kids learn better in alternative educational settings. the thing is parents still pay taxes for public schools.
ALSO if you want to send your child to a different school in another district here in Sparkle City, you get to pay $1800 a year for the privilege, AND still pay taxes for your district. I am hardly wealthy but that is what I did for our youngest. A smaller more rural high school worked better for her then a super sized urban one.