We need a war on poverty, not teachers

The right loves to demonize unions, but economic factors are much more important to success in the classroom

Google the phrase “education crisis” and you’ll be hit with a glut of articles, blog posts and think tank reports claiming the entire American school system is facing an emergency. Much of this agitprop additionally asserts that teachers unions are the primary cause of the alleged problem. Not surprisingly, the fabulists pushing these narratives are often backed by anti-public school conservatives and anti-union plutocrats. But a little-noticed study released last week provides yet more confirmation that neither the “education crisis” meme nor the “evil teachers union” narrative is accurate.

Before looking at that study, consider some of the ways we already know that the dominant story line about education is, indeed, baseless propaganda.

As I’ve reported before, we know that American public school students from wealthy districts generate some of the best test scores in the world. This proves that the education system’s problems are not universal — the crisis is isolated primarily in the parts of the system that operate in high poverty areas. It also proves that while the structure of the traditional public school system is hardly perfect, it is not the big problem in America’s K-12 education system. If it was the problem, then traditional public schools in rich neighborhoods would not perform as well as they do.

Similarly, we know that many of the high-performing public schools in America’s wealthy locales are unionized. We also know that one of the best school systems in the world — Finland’s — is fully unionized. These facts prove that teachers unions are not the root cause of the education problem, either. After all, if unions were the problem, then unionized public schools in wealthy areas and Finland would be failing.

So what is the problem? That brings us to the new study from the Southern Education Foundation. Cross-referencing education data, researchers found that a majority of all public school students in one-third of America’s states now come from low-income families.

How much does this have to do with educational outcomes? A lot. Social science research over the last few decades has shown that two-thirds of student achievement is a product of out-of-school factors — and among the most powerful of those is economic status. That’s hardly shocking: Kids who experience destitution and all the problems that come with it have enough trouble just surviving, much less succeeding in school.

All of this leads to an obvious conclusion: If America were serious about fixing the troubled parts of its education system, then we would be having a fundamentally different conversation.

We wouldn’t be talking about budget austerity — we would be talking about raising public revenues to fund special tutoring, childcare, basic health programs and other so-called wraparound services at low-income schools.

We wouldn’t only be looking to make sure that schools in high-poverty districts finally receive the same amount of public money as schools in wealthy neighborhoods — we would make sure high-poverty districts actually receive more funds than rich districts because combating poverty is such a resource-intensive endeavor.

More broadly, we wouldn’t be discussing cuts to social safety net programs — we would instead be working to expand those programs and, further, to challenge both parties’ anti-tax, anti-regulation, pro-austerity agenda that has increased poverty and economic inequality.

In short, if we were serious about education, then our education discussion wouldn’t be focused on demonizing teachers and coming up with radical schemes to undermine traditional public schools. It would instead be focused on mounting a new war on poverty and thus directly addressing the biggest education problem of all.

You can pour all the money in the world into the school system, you can ban every teachers union in the country, and it won’t solve a thing. If there is no support for education at home then for much of the class you’re wasting your money. And that is what is missing. For all too many homes - at all ends of the economic spectrum - parents have abrogated their responsibility for their children’s education and dumped it solely on the teachers. They don’t take any interest in their work, they don’t get to know the teachers, they just show no interest and expect miracles. My dad would work a double shift at the Ford plant and still sit down and read to me when I was little or help me with my homework when I was older. He and my mom never, ever missed a parent-teacher conference. At the dinner table the first topic of conversation was always how my day at school went. They constantly reinforced how important education was. Now in some communities education is viewed with suspect. That’s the problem, far more than unions or funding or curriculum.

You make many good points.

But the caliber of teachers needs to improve. Schools of Education are not producing quality teachers. Schools refuse to hire qualified people (compared to most who are in the classrooms they are OVER qualified) without the “education” degree, comprised of truly useless psycho-babble — global warming — no bullying — government is good courses (mastery of a subject - REAL mastery - is truly rare).

Then of course there is the total lack of enforcement of student conduct (and the refusal of schools to back up teachers), where students run the show because they know having their butt in the chair is more important to the schools than how they behave, or concerns about whether anyone in the room learns (the head count that gives them $$$ rules supreme).

A school today would rather be academically failing than be called a dangerous school. So they are both.

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Exactly.

Although I know that there are good, dedicated teachers, some of whom I know personally, there are too many teachers out there who are not mature enough to be entrusted with classroom authority.

I’ve witnessed many teachers participating in cruel gossip about students and also using their captive classroom “audiences” to nourish their own needy egos.

I don’t disagree with you. But all of those things are beyond the control of teachers, which is my point. The issues are real, but the solutions are way beyond what a teacher can do.

Full disclosure, my wife resigned from a teaching position a month ago after nearly ten years. She taught in high income areas, low income, and rural areas. The problems were the same in all areas. A couple of anecdotes - she had to defend herself from a parent who hired an attorney because their child wasn’t chosen for “Safety Patrol.” She had parents threaten lawsuits if their child failed a class. She had kids who had developmental problems that parents would not acknowledge, preventing the kids from benefiting from additional help that was available. Meanwhile, the parents did little at home to encourage the kid to perform. She had kids return to class after spending weeks in juvenile detention for violent behaviors, with administrators and law enforcement knowing that the kid wouldn’t last a week before another violent act would put them back in juvee (these are middle schoolers). She had one parent with a learning disabled child accuse her of helping her child too much - denying the child’s development because (apparently) it put some government support payments at risk for the mom.

Common core tests and methods came into this environment with DC dictating the exams, hence the curriculum, hence the teaching methods she must use. And in-class evaluations continued, but now each one required the teacher to do 8 hours of paperwork to give to the evaluator (basically an auditor) to prove she knew what she was doing.

Add to this the ... inequity (for purposes of evaluation) the “sacrificial teacher” who gets essentially all of the behavioral problems together in one class... often an experienced teacher who is willing to try, but sometimes a new one who doesn’t know better than to object. (Team players in the teaching profession get screwed when students are assigned.)

So inside of this environment of external control of process (yielding ineffective processes), problem students who are not motivated to learn, problem parents who have differing motives, other parents who refuse to enforce behavior or learning, and lawyers hovering at every turn that teachers are told, “Oh by the way... we are going to test to what we think the kids should learn and if the results aren’t satisfactory, you are fired.”

I watched her work 70+ hours a week to do the job well, meeting the local expectations, the legal requirements of the contracts established with parents of problem children, the expectations of administrators, the “outside” unpaid tasks such as bus duty, off hours meetings, volunteering for ball game ticket sales, etc... being pointed out as an outstanding teacher, then having 15% of the kids decide on test day that they didn’t want to bother reading the questions before answering...

I guess my question is, would you want your job hanging on that test?

In closing, the stress got to the point that she resigned, even without another job (t my urging). The fact that many in the community blame teachers for the problem, frankly, was part of her frustration. I know few people who work the hours she worked, and most of them are either major players in billion dollar companies or run their own businesses. But to have everything working against you, requiring a herculean effort, only to be blamed as the root of the problem... Tennessee teachers, good ones, conscientious ones, experienced ones, are leaving in droves.

Thanks for letting me vent.

One more thing... improving the caliber of teachers will not fix the current system. The system is the problem. Good teachers are being forced to scripts, standardization, “one-size-fits-all” teaching methods (a byproduct of Common Core and the associated $ from DC). Great teachers currently exist, but in practice are being throttled by the system. DC controls the standards and the processes. The new requirements (and the required learning methods and associated standardized tests) are not ones you would ever come up with if you wanted well-educated kids. I really wonder if the goal is to have a less educated population that is more dependent and easier to control. It worked in the USSR...

Ultimately, local control of schools is the only workable solution, but DC can take your money and return it if you play their game, so local control of schools is probably a thing of the past.

If America were serious about fixing the troubled parts of its education system, then we would be having a fundamentally different conversation. We wouldn’t be talking about budget austerity — we would be talking about raising public revenues to fund special tutoring, childcare, basic health programs and other so-called wraparound services at low-income schools.
We wouldn’t only be looking to make sure that schools in high-poverty districts finally receive the same amount of public money as schools in wealthy neighborhoods — we would make sure high-poverty districts actually receive more funds than rich districts because combating poverty is such a resource-intensive endeavor.
Gross misdiagnosis, fool’s errand recommendation.
The rich school isn’t rich because it has money, the rich school is rich because it has the backing of the parents of the students. The poor school is poor first because the parents of its students didn’t do well in school, and the don’t expect and demand that their children do well in school, either. Low expectations will stultify the progress of almost anyone.

The more you try to rob Peter to pay for Paul’s education, the more Paul learns that robbing Peter is the path to success - and the more Paul learns not to be like Peter.

I am fascinated with the khanacademy.org model of education: a smorgasbord of knowledge expounded by an intelligent but modest teacher, who actually functions more like a tutor because of the ability of the student to rewind and repeat whatever isn’t clear on first - or second or third - viewing.

This makes perfect sense. This is how our children learned most of their math. The classroom is outmoded.

And when you see the difference first-hand, you realize that the classroom is wildly and hopelessly outmoded.

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Do you want to know a simple way to accelerate the formal learning process?

When children master a subject, let them move on, rather than measure "time in seat."

When you think about it, you'll realize that the "time in seat" model, that all formal schooling is based on, is idiotic.

Most subjects can be modularized. Once a child passes a module, he can move on to the next module, or use his free time as he pleases.

This could accelerate learning by 10-50%.

But the teacher unions would fight it tooth and nail, for obvious reasons. Most for-profit "non-profit" private schools would not adopt this model for similar reasons.

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