We encourage you to check out our Policy, Experiences and Solutions Page.  Below is a link to each article.  Feel free to comment, share and send in your own pieces.

Creating Social Media Policies For School Educators – A Wise Step for a Better Future By: Lucia Smith

A Child’s Hope for Charter School – May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor By: Courtney Guenard

You Are Not Alone – A Call for Community to Come Together for Positive Change  By: James Matthew Parker

The Homework Trap By: Dr. Kenneth Goldberg

A Model for True Reform By: Eli Rector M.Ed

Anyone Can Speak Soccer  By: Jake Torres

They Have a Dream By: Courtney Guenard

If you are interested in being a guest writer please contact The Awkward Educator at theawkwardeducator@gmail.com or by using the form below

Do you remember those tedious days at school when you took so much pain to see the blackboard and hastily copied the information written on it before your teacher could wipe it off? In fact, you missed half of your lectures for being so busy in jotting down your class notes. Even today, students attend school just for the sake of it and the parents remain under misconception that their child is receiving quality education.

Well, those days are probably never going to come back since a powerful word ‘Facebook’ has taken a major section of the world under its domination. Schools, colleges and universities are making continuous and positive efforts in wiping off conventions from classrooms by replacing blackboards and chalks with latest electronic equipment.

In fact, the concept of teaching students taking help of books are now losing importance with the popularity and huge impact of social networking in almost every nook and corner of the world. So, if you are planning to educate your students through Facebook applications, you are certainly going to benefit and be rewarded as well. However, it’s very important to formulate social media policies for the school educators.

So, here are the chronological steps that can help one create social media policies with perfection:

• Inspect your school culture – If you are assigned the responsibility to formulate social media policies for your school educators, you need to do a lot of work. First, you need to know and understand what your community thinks about the concept of social media. You must make a survey to measure the popularity of social media among students and career aspirants. This will also help you realize whether social media can be utilized for improving communication.
• Make a team – Teamwork is a must when it comes to developing social media polices. The team should not only comprise teachers using social media but also those who do not use such concepts in their classrooms. In fact, it will work wonders if you can manage to get an administrative professional and a teacher of each grade level from the same district. The team will be stronger if joined by a couple of students and school attorneys. This will be enough to form a perfect team which will give rise to diverse and intellectual conversations regarding creation of social media policies.
• Make your team research – Kick off by analyzing the policies already existing in your school. Once you are through with your researches, start examining the social media guidelines and policies from several other institutions. It’s better if you can ask your school attorney to be present in the draft process to ensure that the policies you are adopting are all applicable within your state.
• Create a document and give a feedback – Once you have gathered all information, draft a document. However, you must ensure to make your draft examined by your school board as well as the school attorney. The school board thereafter will prefer to review your document. Once reviewed and signed by the stakeholders, you can pass on the draft to your school community. All your team members should then be asked to interact with specific groups for further action. Lastly, keep reviewing your document from time to time.

Author’s BIO:

Lucia Smith here provides a set of chronological steps of creating social media policies for all school educators. Whether you are going to a business school for MBA in UK or a course in engineering, social media is will always be there with you.

All opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the ideas of this website or The Awkward Educator.  In other words, don’t get mad at me if you don’t like this.

If you are interested in being a guest writer please contact The Awkward Educator at theawkwardeducator@gmail.com

Photo Credit: DesertRose.net

For my entire educational career, my mom took the time to ensure I was on the right track.  She made sure I completed my homework, pushed me to always do my best, enrolled me in the best schools possible and on some mornings, did whatever it took to get me out of bed (ok this happened more than once, but I was in high school so please do not judge).   She was at every game, play, speech and conference cheering me on with whatever I was doing.  During high school, my mom was there for me during the lows – not making the basketball team – and the highs – becoming an executive member of my school’s student council.  Both a shoulder to cry on and megaphone to exclaim my success.

When it came time to consider college, my mom was a foundation of support during a difficult time of uncertainty and, ultimately, transition.  Aside from supporting me up until the point of applying, my mom helped me research institutions of higher education and identify scholarships to help fund the new journey.  She even suggested taking a look at the college I eventually ended up attending and I would not have met life long friends, been put into a network of young scholars, joined my fraternity or have become a teacher if she did not.

When I was in college, my mom even took on a job to help fund my education.  More importantly, she continued her support of me even though I had moved over 1,000 miles away from home and still does so now.

I know teaching can be a difficult job, but being a mother is the most challenging job in the world – and yes being a mother is a job.  On this Mother’s Day, I want to express my gratitude for having a mother that took on this challenge and surpassed all expectations.  I would not be the person I am today without her and would not have the drive, nor the compassion to teach in an inner city high school if she did instill both values in me.  Thank you mom.  Love you!

Realizing the importance of parents in education, I encourage all of my readers to support measures such as incentives for parents to spend more time pushing literacy with their children, mandated paid time off work for parents to attend teacher conferences (this is an issue for parents who have to work three jobs to support their kids), parent triggers for failing schools and many other ideas supported by reformers such as Colorado State Senator Michael Johnston. We need all parents to have the ABILITY to be involved in their kids’ education.  It is cost effective.  More importantly, it is the moral thing to do.

In conclusion, a huge thank you to all of the mothers, especially my own.  You are the caretakers of our nation’s future and you deserve all the admiration in the world . . . and then some.

Nevertheless, I have learned a lot during my experience as an inner city high school educator, seen a world I did not understand before, looked the achievement gap in the eye and have come to truly believe that every child, no matter his or her circumstance, deserves a quality education that will prepare them for a quality life.  Our nation’s students – all of them – can learn.  We just need to crumble the barriers of that stand in their way.

There are many barriers that prevent at-risk children from learning: teen pregnancy, malnutrition, special education needs not being met, a lack of professionalism, domestic abuse and homelessness to name a few.

After reflecting on these issues for the past couple months and pondering ways to bring everyone together to solve our nation’s education crisis, one unnecessary barrier has become an unfortunate, yet, glaring reality.  Us.  The people who can make a difference, who are positions to do change lives are the biggest barriers to impoverished students finding a pathway to the American Dream.  The adults in the room who prevent the progression of the children they are tasked with educating or those who stand by as a catastrophe is concurring.  There are even some who capitalize on the chaos to advance their own power.

I am not blaming anyone, especially those of you who are educators.  You have one of the most important and difficult jobs in the world.  As I have stated before, I am honored to be in the same field as anyone who teaches.

What I am saying is that for too long we have wrapped our own egos and agendas around education reform.  We see opportunities to advance what we believe in, become blinded by them and then shield ourselves from other opinions.  Some do this without knowing, others do it to promote themselves.

Personally, I have strong opinions and state them on my website.  But I allow all comments (some have been extremely rude lately) and invite guest writers from all ideologies to write – their posts being unedited.  Even those I support, fall prey to the battle of education.  I have done so myself at times and constantly force myself to reflect so I do not do so again.

When confronted with a dangerous situation humans, by instinct, do one of two things: fight or flight.   The American public education system has become a dangerous situation.  Schools have become war zones, the politics surrounding common sense ideas such as giving all children choice in education have become toxic and special interests act like scavengers, picking off the fallen from many education battles.  The war has become so bad that teachers are taking off from time in the classroom to protest and interest groups are encouraging students not to take standardized tests (something that could prevent them from receiving a full diploma or being admitted into a four year university upon graduation).  How did it get this way?  How have our role models become that which our students should not look up to? Our education system is a national security issue and we must treat it as such.  Moreover, we must do so soon, or it will be too late.

Since teaching, I have witnessed many great men and women give into the flight instinct, leaving students and schools that could have greatly benefited from their leadership, knowledge and experience.  They see the battles, the mudslinging locally and nationally and want out.  I don’t blame them.

For those who have stayed, myself included, many cannot stop the fight instinct.  There is no other option. Attend an academically unacceptable school board meeting.  Attend a PTSA meeting for a low-performing school.  Sit in the back of a town hall on education policies.  Put a comment on a blog.  Go to a faculty meeting at a failing school.  I went to one the other day and witnessed two amazing teachers thrown under a bus and no one did a thing.  We couldn’t.

Those involved with education policy are at constant odds with one another.  Research becomes a debate and these debates become personal (type Rhee or Christie into Google and you will see what I am talking about).  And grown men and women involved in special interest with regards to education have engaged in a 100 years war.  Where are the students?  How are we moving toward solutions?

No matter what side of education you are on – a reformer or a union member, a veteran or an alternatively  certified, a Democrat or Republican, a liberal or conservative – lay down your arms.  We are on the same team.  We all want and all need every student to be preparing for a 21^st century world.  We cannot afford to be ranked 25^th in developed countries when it comes to education.  We are America.  We do not accept anything other than first and we should not accept anything less than a first-rate education for ALL of our nation’s students.

The stakes are too high for us to crumble public education  from the inside.  I am a history teacher and have taught my students countless lesson that every great civilization crumbles from within.  Lets not follow suit.  Instead, lets create the strongest and longest lasting civilization in history and lets do so by first creating the strongest students in the world.

Photo Credit: COJS.org

As our writers continue to create articles for outlets across the country, we will need more guest writers to keep the conversation and proposed solutions coming at Solutions-for-Schools.com.  We would love to hear your voice and post your experiences. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please email us at TheAwkwardEducator@gmail.com or fill out the form below.  Thank you and we look forward to bringing your proposed solutions to the table.

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The story above can be applied to many national debates, chief among them education reform, as many well-intentioned individuals believe throwing money at a broken system will magically fix it.  When that which is broken is not repaired, these individuals act as the man with the flat tire and ask for more money – from other people’s wallet – to throw at the problem.  It should come as no surprise that the man’s tire was not fixed by such methods and neither will our nation’s public school systems.

Should we be dedicating a healthy amount of Federal and State spending to educating our nation’s students?  Absolutely!  It is an investment in our country’s future.  One of the only slices of the thousands of dollars stripped from my paychecks every year that does not fill me with resentment . . . until I realize how it is being spent.

A reoccurring talking point from those who use education as a political pivot is that not enough of Federal and State budgets are being devoted to public schooling.  This is most commonly conveyed as “How dare the Republican controlled [insert state] legislature cut the education budget.”  Notice the word “student” is often missing from the conversation.

Using the rare – dare I say revolutionary – method of studying facts, reveals a much different narrative.  The current DOE budget is $68.1 billion dollars and The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities contends that, on average, 26% of State budgets are spent on public education.

Including local government spending, the NCES approximates that $524.8 billion dollars will have been spent for the 2011-2012 fiscal year on public schools.  When broken down per student, taxpayers spend $10,591 dollars per public school pupil, $42 dollars more than the average $10,549 dollars it costs to send a child to private school.  To reiterate, our nation spends more money per public school pupil than it costs to send a child to private school.  And this comparison does not even include the hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropic donations given to public schools every year (Google “Zuckerberg New Jersey Schools” or “The United Way”).

These facts would lead a rational person with any hint of common sense to ponder, “If we spend more on public schools, why are private schools performing better?”  The simple answer: pumping more tax dollars into a system plagued with mediocre tenured teachers, incapable district leaders, curriculums aligned with low expectations, the iron grip of the Union and a slew of issues perpetuated by poverty that often accompany academically unacceptable schools will not fix anything.  Unfortunately, many of the individuals who decide how money is spent in public school systems are not rational and do not possess common sense – the type of thinkers who argue that teachers don’t have enough time to grade homework without considering that a child who does not have a home cannot complete his homework effectively.  These individuals are blissfully ignorant to the notion that our country and it states need to start addressing how a $524.8 education billion-dollar budget is allocated.

Since every district has differing budget allocations, there exists no common set of allocation dollars that can be studied.  Fear not.  If one wants to see how their taxes are being spent they needn’t do more than walk into a low-performing school or district office.  Start with the “resource room” and notice the thousands of dollars of unused post-it notes, paper clips and pencils. Then make way to a classroom and enjoy the fact that if there are books, none of them will teach beyond the Clinton years.  After this, sit in on a low-performing district’s professional training; events often run by the local union, littered with hundreds of dollars worth of free food and supplies for those in attendance.  Combined, these wasted tax dollars are only the tip of an iceberg more destructive than the one that sunk the Titanic.  Put simply, the education budget is not being spent where it should be: on students.

A Student’s Perspective

I have a student let’s call him Shaun.  Shaun attends an inner city high school and has inhabited the same academically unacceptable school district his entire life. Shaun is homeless and remains so because those in charge would rather allocate finances to bulletin board decorations than provide him with an opportunity for the American dream. 

For two weeks, Shaun has been wearing the same pair of clothes.  Each day his white polo grows greener, collecting dirt from the streets and sweat from the humidity.  The smell grows worse by the hour, as a black burn mark in the upper left hand corner of Shaun’s shirt begins to stick out, like a large horse on one of those trendy Polo shirts. Imagine having to wear a dirty, stench-ridden shirt for weeks on end.  It is no wonder some give into a conditioning to hate the successful and vote against their caricatures.

As a teacher, I have no idea what to do for Shaun.  If I buy the kid clothes, he might be embarrassed and if I just ignore the problem, no one else will deal with it. District leadership would rather spend money on things such as ineffective Union run professional trainings and the school community has become immune to situations such as a homeless student.  I do not believe in hand outs for the undeserving but this is a different circumstance; a child in need of a trampoline, as opposed to an adult who wishes to lay in a government sponsored hammock.

The most sickening aspect of the whole situation is that Shaun’s school and district have millions of dollars in grants and charitable donations. But those in charge of its allocation deem such charity unworthy of Shaun.  It is also considered unfit for others in my classroom who struggle: a kid who is about to have a kid, a girl who is being domestically abused, at least ten students who are malnourished and two more who need personalized special education assistance.

Instead of spending money to help or even educate these children, Shaun’s school and district use funding to “incentivize” students with iPads, iPods, Flat Screen T.V.s and non-educational field trips.  Additionally, allocations are used to purchase candy and water for sports teams and to fill resource rooms with an oversupply of paperclips, pencils, paper, notebooks, and note cards.  Most of which will not be used.

Eventually, I bought Shaun a few pairs of clean clothes. He immediately returned them, asserting he would find a way on his own.  Unlike the system, Shaun still has pride.

The moral of the story: stop spending stupidly. I’m all for a responsible increase in education funding but before we put more money into a broken system lets fix it.  Otherwise, our dollars will blow away like the man’s who attempted to fix a broken tire by merely throwing money at it.  Allocate correctly, use funding to help students in need and then begin to raise the budget.  Without this simple equation, a broken system will continue to fuel an increasing national debt with no future return on investment.

Photo Credit: PressTV

I’m not one of those teachers who complains about No Child Left Behind.  I am not afraid of being held accountable; think teaching beyond the test is a proven recipe for success and hold the affirmation that our nation needs to measure what areas of knowledge its student must improve in if we are to lead a 21^st century global economy.  That being said, testing week is the absolute worst thing in the world.  An entire week of sitting in a room for close to eight straight hours of silence, watching kids fill in bubbles on a scantron.  On a positive note, I now know my classroom has 672 floor tiles, 234 ceiling tiles, 346 bricks and, still, no windows.

For those of us who enjoy the satisfaction of a hard days work, sitting in a room and doing nothing is exhausting.  It is like running a mental marathon on stilts, a prison of complacency.

Needless to say, when testing ended today, I was more than ready to go home, take a nap and enjoy the weekend.  Actual human interaction has been at a minimum all week and I looked forward to conversing, talking, singing . . . anything that wasn’t silence.

Literally sprinting down the hallways and toward the double doors of freedom when the testing had ended – it went long, as usual – my keys were already in hand and my sunglasses already on.  I was almost there.  I could actually see the light.  Freedom. . .

And then I heard a soft, sullen voice say, “Sir.”  Three simple letters, put together to form one word, the only word that could end my stride toward liberation.  They came from Shirley; the quiet girl who never raises her hand and was wise beyond her years.

For a fractionated second, I considered running away, pretending like I didn’t hear anything.  But even in the brevity of the moment I knew that I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror all weekend if I did.  Getting ready for a well-earned night off would be impossible.  So I turned around, took off my sunglasses and said, “Hi Shirley.  How was your test?”

Shirley held her head down and fidgeted her left leg back and forth before saying, “That is what I want to talk to you about.”

My first thought was, “Oh heavens (admittedly, a different phrase was spoken in my mind), Shirley is one of my best students.  If she did not do well than none of the students did.  This whole idea of teaching beyond the test that I have employed and preached about is going t to come undone in three weeks when the scores are released.  Oh heaves (again, a different phrase rang through my head).”

“Do you think you didn’t do well,” I blurted out in a panic.

“No, I think I did great,” Shirley reassured me.  Thank God.

“Well, than what is bothering you?” I pondered aloud.

Shirley held her head up, looked me in the eye and said the following:

 

“Well, I feel bad because I kind of what all of the other students to do bad on their tests.  I know this sounds wrong but I heard if enough people do not do well on the tests again and the school continues to do poorly in other things like attendance and graduation rates, than I might be able to get funding to go to a better school.  I saw in the newspaper in the library that charter schools are opening up and I have also talked to my caretakers about going to a private school.  I like this school and my friends, but I want to go somewhere where I can do better and get ready to go to college.  I’d be the first in my family to do so.  I talked to someone in my apartment complex the other day that went to this school.  She had to drop out of college because this school did not prepare her for it.  I don’t want that to happen to me.”

There have been numerous times when I am at a loss for words speaking with a student; situations where my principles and beliefs conflict with one another.  This was not one of those times and I felt fully confident in saying, “Shirley, I think you should be more supportive of your peers, but I completely understand where you are coming from.  If I were you, I would want to do the same thing.  I think no matter what happens, you should apply for a charter school and apply for a voucher program.  You have great potential and I want to see you succeed.”

It was weird encouraging a student to leave the school I taught at, but I felt it was the right thing to do.  Surely, my school could improve.  All of them can.  The system can be fixed.

But Shirley’s future should not have to wait for school, district, city, state and national leadership to solve a problem.  Our nation’s leaders cannot even agree to raise or limit an imaginary ceiling in a timely manner, so I don’t expect them to come together and fix the education crisis anytime soon.  Especially during an election year – which seems to be every year now.

Children have been waiting over thirty years for improvements in their education and they will most likely continue to wait.  As inept, greedy groups and individuals fight over things such as the usefulness of testing, union contracts and the amount of paperwork a teacher has to do, kids like Shirley are overlooked.  She could be the first female President.  If she stays in the current system, she will most likely be the first in her family to go to college, only to drop out six months later.

Shirley thanked me for my support and just as I was about to leave she said, “Sir, I am confused.”

Taking my sunglasses back off, I looked at her and said, “Why?”

The next words out of Shirley’s mouth should be spoken to every educator, policy maker, influencer and blogger in the nation:

 

“I want to go to a charter school or a private school but I see a lot of people on television and read about them online and in the paper who say these schools are bad.  Can it be worse than here?  I had my caretaker bring me to neighborhood of a private school.  It was beautiful and I saw the students walking out of the school in nice uniforms.  They all looked happy.  Plus, I read that these schools do very well and most of the kids who go to them go to college.  This is a lot different than what happens here or to my friends at other schools in The District.“

When I thought that Shirley could not make a huge point of contention in education debates any clearer – the wisdom of a child once again outdoing the thinking of a well-read PhD. – her simple words became even more profound:

“I guess what I am most confused about is that a lot of people who the adults in my apartment and at my church vote for because they say they are going to help us, fight for things that mean I won’t be able to go to the school I want.   Why do these people who have never been to my school or my neighborhood think they can decide what school is best for me?  Why do the people who say they want to help me think that I should not be able to decide where I want to go to school?  Is it because I am poor?  Why do they think they know best?”

When Shirley finished, I had to put my sunglasses back on because I was tearing up.  Why do people who sit in fancy offices, removed from the struggles of Shirley’s world think they should be the one’s who can decide where she goes to school?  Why do the same people who shout “class war” support policies that will keep those in low-income communities enslaved within them forever?  Why do people who say they are “pro-choice” say an impoverished family cannot have a choice in their child’s education?  Who the hell are they to decide what Shirley wants to do?

As these thoughts poured through my head, creating a mixed emotion of anger and sadness, I looked at Shirley through my sunglasses.  She had asked complex questions in such an innocent way.  She provided a simple wisdom to a now convoluted issue. It is not about charter schools and school choice, it is about a freedom of choice that should exist for every student in America.

I knelt down and told Shirley, “Because they don’t care.”  Shirley’s expression of confusion turn to one of resentment.  A fire started to burn inside of her. I finished our conversation by saying, “But I do, so next week we are going to find a way to get you into a better school.”

Every student and family in this great nation should have a freedom in choice when it comes to education.  A child should not have to stay in a failing school and wander through a low-performing district simply because of where they were born.  Who are we to tell an impoverished child that they are not good enough for a private or charter school?  And don’t tell me school choice and charters take away funding and, consequently, success from public schools and contribute to failing institutions.  Ridiculous.  These schools haven’t worked for decades.  It is time to try something new.

I challenge anyone who disagrees with school choice and charters to look an impoverished student in the eye and tell them they are not good enough for a high performing school because of where they were born.  Every child in this country deserves choice and this freedom starts and ends with education.

For more on this topic, check out guest writer Courtney Guenard’s most recent article on charter schools.

Written By: Courtney Guenard:

Imagine you’re 16, sitting in a crowd in what seems like a type of draft to determine your future.  The injustice of it all comes second to the emotions of intense anxiety, anticipation, and fear.   Or worse, imagine you’re a parent of a 16 year old, hoping and praying that this is not the end.   Powerless, you are forced to wait patiently, knowing that this will be the difference between life and death.

As dramatic as it sounds, many of our kids face similar situations today.  Because many schools in our public school system are failing to adequately serve (see Founder Patrick Kobler’s post about educational crisis for more info) the students, these students apply for a chance to be admitted to a high-performing charter school.  Because these types of schools are few and far between, there must be a lottery system so that it is “fair.”  Fair.  Hmm.

“But wait!  What about the story I read where – you know – that one student…”  We hear stories all the time about that one student.  “Yes but there was this one kid who grew up in a low-income community and got a scholarship to an Ivy League school and now he or she is doing <insert some successful career>.”  What we do not talk about nearly enough however, are the countless students who don’t get selected, who aren’t one of the lucky few to be “chosen,” and as a result, never make it to any type of college, never graduate high school, or, worst-case-scenario, are incarcerated at a young age.

When I think about what this means in terms of the faces I see every day, I think about the twenty seniors I have, and that statistically, only two of these twenty will graduate from a four-year university.  If you talked to any of these young adults for even five minutes, you would see motivated, passionate, young people who desire to make a difference in the world.  However, because of their situations, they lack the skills, knowledge, and resources to do so.  I get out of bed each day because I refuse to accept these intolerable statistics as unchangeable.

If I had the option of sending any of my students to a high-performing charter school in my area, I probably would. (I specify high-performing because there are also very low-performing charter schools.  I am by no means saying all charter schools are amazing.)  That being said, many people question the charter school movement, or question reformers who are taking too bold of measure with all of this education reform.  Bobby Jindal, governor of my home state Louisiana, has been key in Louisiana’s ed reform movement.  (See here for more information of what he is doing in LA: http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/04/louisianas_education_reform_is.html )  Many people see his actions as “bold” or “dramatic.”  I wish I had more answers as to how to solve all of these problems.  I do not know that charter schools alone are the answer; I do not know if vouchers for private schools are a good solution either.  All I know is that radical change in our education system is essential if we are going to survive as a country.  We can’t keep feeling good about choosing one name to give an opportunity for success  – all children deserve to have this opportunity.

About Courtney – In Her Own Words

I am originally from Louisiana/Texas, and after graduating college, I joined a non-profit organization that placed me as a teacher out in California.  I currently teach high school at a continuation school for students who are credit-deficient, or at-risk for graduation.  This is my second year, and I teach math and science to 11th/12th graders.

Courtney can be reached for comment at courtneyguenard@gmail.com

All opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the ideas of this website or The Awkward Educator.  In other words, don’t get mad at me if you don’t like this.

If you are interested in being a guest writer please contact The Awkward Educator at theawkwardeducator@gmail.com

Photo Credit: http://www.thehungergamesunitplan.com/

jadekeller.com

Hey Everyone:  Sorry for the break in inner city student stories but I felt I had to do something on behalf of all those who seek to give every child a shot at the American Dream – no matter his or her current circumstance.

Early this morning, I was accused of promoting propaganda here at Solutions-for-Schools.com.  I was also told there was no such thing as an education crisis in our country and that all of this is just some big lie and conspiracy created by billionaires.  Also, the teachers’ union and its policies have no role in perpetuating an achievement gap.  Here is the comment below and my response will follow.

Jim Capatelli says:

“There is no “educational crisis” in the United States. This is propaganda, consciously designed to weaken confidence in our public schools.

I live in a solid middle class suburb. My son’s school is superb. Every teacher in his public school is a union member. They work their butts off. They’re smart. And they’re fully committed to every child’s success.

There’s no “crisis”. That’s the Big Lie being funded by billionaires, with the hope we’ll buy it.

It won’t wash. We parents have started to pay attention…and we’re catching on to the charlatans and frauds calling themselves “reformers”.”

My Response

I can promise you this is not propaganda.  This website conveys what I see on a daily basis within the public school system.  But since that probably will not convince you here is some data to consider:

• According to the NAEP there exist an average 26 percent achievement gap between white students and their less affluent and minority peers. This represents a 2-3 gap in knowledge

• According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, one out of three students scored “below basic” on the 2009 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) Reading Test, 49 percent of these students come from low-income families. Even more alarming is the fact that more than 67 percent of all US fourth graders scored “below proficient,” meaning they are not reading at grade level.

• In the last decade, students living in poverty stricken communities has risen 25 percent (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

• 26 percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored below the “basic” level, and only 32 percent of eighth graders and 38 percent of twelfth graders are at or above grade level. (StudentsFirst.org)

• According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 15-year-olds in the U.S. placed 25th out of 30 countries in math performance and 21st in science performance.

In case you are not yet convinced there is an education crisis . . .

• Child poverty is at an all time high of 22 percent (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

• The range of on time high school graduation is 56.3 to 90.7 percent by state (Annie E. Casey Foundation).  This means, in some states, less than 60 percent of children graduate high school on time.  Could this not lead to an impending crisis of unemployment?

• In 2010, one million high school age kids were not in school (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

• As of 2007 over 5,000,000 students have had to repeat at least one grade level (Annie E. Casey Foundation).

• WE ARE SPENDING $10,592 PER PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT, $42 DOLLARS MORE THAN THE AVERAGE COST OF SENDING A CHILD TO PRIVATE SCHOOL (NCES). 

If you do not think these statistics demonstrate an education crisis – and I could show you a whole lot more, for example, according to the CDC, 39.1 per 1,000 teenage females birthed a child in 2009 . . . costing taxpayers 9 BILLION DOLLARS a year - than you are blind to an impending catastrophe. Or perhaps you have an agenda of your own that such truths I speak of could damage.

What do you think will happen when the gaps in education evolve into gaps between the haves and have nots?  Have you ever studied The French Revolution?  What do you think will happen when only 30 percent of people are educated, proficient and hire-able? Best case, a draining of the national treasury, worst case a battle between rich and poor. Look at what happens in history when there are too many uneducated, underfed people.  If that is too time consuming, watch the last 2o minutes of Gangs of New York.  Spoiler Alert: it is not good and a bunch of people get hurt.

What do you think will happen when our next generation cannot compete in a global economy?  It will not matter that middle class students at well-performing schools are being educated above their peers.  Their will be nothing left as the rest of the world will have outdone us.  It will be over.  This is a crisis.

To assert this is some tactic of billionaires – because you know they all hang out together in dark room and plan secret conspiracies against the rest of us – is frankly insane.  Unless of course you have an agenda, than it may be brilliant.

Speaking of your accusation that I speak on behalf of billionaires – wonder who you are voting for in November – I am just out of college and live off a teacher’s salary.  I do not know any billionaires and fund this entire website entirely on my own. I have no billionaires to speak for.  I speak for the kids I watched enslaved into an under-performing institution plagued with horrific policies and adults who care more about their own advancement than helping those in need.  I speak for the high school student who cannot write because he has not been properly taught, the girl who is being abused that no one cares about, the high achieving teacher who is laid off over one with tenure who supplies far less quality in the classroom, for those who try and make things better but get beat up by bullies who sit in a basement on their computers and I speak for those who are not yet aware of the reality taking place in our schools.

Are there rich people involved in reforming education?  Of course and thank God they are.  Our nation should be thanking people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg for shedding light on a problem and doing something to solve it.  They shouldn’t be brought into some fake class war when they are in reality trying to help those in low-income communities have a shot a success.

If we want to talk about the rich’s role in education, lets look at the American Federation of Teachers and the NEA – also known as the Teachers’ Union.   You say you are starting to pay attention, so please pay attention to this.

The AFT’s president makes approximately $480,000 dollars a year -clearly she should be taxed more.  Her job: to create chaos, encourage teachers to take days off work to protest measures of accountability, publicly whine about No Child Left Behind, fund political candidates, denounce choice in public schools while promoting it with regards to abortion (not taking a stance, just pointing out the hypocrisy), tarnish charter schools, encourage easily obtained tenure and “last in, first out” policies over performance based evaluations and place barnacles on the wheel of progress for personal gain.  An unelected leader who holds more power than most of the U.S. Senate.

In 2008, the AFT and NEA made $63,271,940 dollars in Federal contributions and $5,683,220 dollars in State contributions.  This amounts to over 70 million in contributions.  And not a dime of it went to students. Here is what they spent it on:

• $19,844,952 on Democrats candidates
• Over $7 million dollars ON PARTIES
• $275,800 dollars on those evil Political Action Committees
• $41,684, 521 dollars on ballot initiatives

Moreover, in 2010 the AFT gave over $5 million dollars to federal candidates.  Of the 258 House of Representative candidates who received contributions 257 were Democrats.  Is this not propaganda.  (Credit: American Federation for Children).

If you think this a mirage made by billionaires here is a bar graph . . . I hope you are one the 34 percent of those currently proficient in math . . .

(sorry the graph is blury.  I am new at websites and don’t have a billionare to help me out.  You can see the online version here)

All in all, the union teachers (Did they have a choice to be one by the way, or were they coerced) at your community’s school are probably hard working individuals.  But they pay dues to a corrupt leadership (probably unknowingly) that harms student achievement across the country; most notable, achievement among minority students and those who live in low-income areas.  Does this not make you question who is really against the poor? It sure isn’t Mr. Gates whose foundation has devoted countless dollars, resources and time to improving education.  Don’t blame our country’s problems on those who have money – who have earned success – and use it to try and fix a problem.  Trust me, people like Zuckerberg and Gates have far better things to do than create a fake crisis to erode confidence in public schools.  Besides that wouldn’t make sense for individuals who own companies and will need workers in the future.

I think it is wonderful your middle class school community is so successful and filled with great teachers.  I want to bring this model to every community, so every child can have the opportunity to be great.  So that every child has bootstraps by which to pull themselves up from.  Will you help me?

What I speak of is not fraud and it is not a “big lie.”  It is a reality.  A reality we must embrace and change if our nation is to continue on a path of unrivaled greatness.  We cannot be a shining city on a hill if there are no more innovators to illuminate ideas, nor more workers to fill industry and if we are constantly at war over the asinine.

Am I a reformer – you bet I am and I am proud of it.  We must reform our public schools now or we will face dire circumstances in the near future.  Instead of writing ridiculous s things, become part of the solution to end the education crisis.  And if you don’t believe there’s a crisis, at least do something to help those students who are not benefiting from the current education system.