Tag Archives: leadership

May14

Update on the crickets

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In my last post, I wrote about the silence from the gubernatorial candidates when I wrote about my education concerns. That changed today.

A savvy representative from the Brian Kemp campaign responded to me and pointed me to Kemp’s position statement on education. We then engaged in a series of emails discussing the professional nature of teaching and the need to honor that expertise. While I don’t agree with everything Kemp says about his plans for education, two of his priorities set him apart from others I have read about or heard in advertising.

  1. Reduce the state’s role in education and empower parents, teachers, local school boards, and administrators;
  2. Craft a student-based QBE Formula that expands local control;
  3. Respect teachers’ time by reducing paperwork, unpaid duties, micromanagement so teachers can actually teach;
  4. Reduce standardized testing so that our children will have more time to learn.
  5. Set high standards, especially in civics and encourage school boards to customize curriculums to meet the workforce needs of tomorrow (cyber, agriculture, technology, etc.)
  6. Support school choice while strengthening the public school system;
  7. Double SSO Tax Credits;
  8. Promote Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) starting with a pilot for military families

I can quibble with Kemp’s school choice position, but if he can accomplish 3 and 4, more parents may not need or want to leave their neighborhood schools.  I like those two because they are measurable and specific tasks, not goals or promises that sound nice. I’ve done enough research to understand that the flight of exceptional teachers from public schools is dominated by a lack of autonomy and an increasingly rigid script by which teachers must adhere. In a job interview several years ago a principal actually told me that my creative and innovative ideas were fine, but “we have to pass the test.” I didn’t get the job–but I didn’t want it after hearing that.  There are still lots of exceptional teachers in Georgia public schools. Many of them have advanced degrees and years of experience that would put them at the top of any corporation. But their calling and commitment are to teach the next generation. Respecting their time, reducing the non-teaching duties, and returning the profession to them is a place to begin.

I also like what Kemp has to say about expanding high-speed internet to rural areas. If all Georgia teachers are to have the same access to the wealth of materials and ideas that exist in open educational resources (OER), they all need the same bandwidth, speed, and hardware. It’s time to recognize that quality education should be available beyond the suburbs. More than that, it’s time to take action and make technology accessible to teachers and students from the urban to the rural parts of our state.

In my day-long conversation with Ryan Mahoney, Kemp’s communications director, I felt like my voice was heard. He asked for more information from my research, which I happily supplied. He took me seriously when I suggested Kemp focus less on the emotionally charged second amendment issue and more on the unifying aspects of teacher support and excellent education for all. Will our dialog ultimately make a difference in the campaign? I don’t know. What I do know is that the other top contenders are still letting the crickets chirp. Kemp’s campaign took time to fill the silence with a meaningful conversation.

That speaks volumes.

Jan19

An open letter to the Committee

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I am a conservative. I believe in limited government, lower taxes, and fiduciary accountability at every level of government. I am pleased and proud to see fellow Georgians Dr. Tom Price and Dr. Sonny Purdue as cabinet nominees for President Trump’s cabinet.

Having said that, as a teacher of more than 20 years with three children who have been in the public schools of both California and Georgia, I am APPALLED at the choice of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. She may be smart, but she has no intimate experience with public schools at any point in her life or the life of her family. She has no education experience, no qualifications in her own education, and no connection to teachers or their students. How can this possibly be acceptable?

I have said for years that anyone with any influence in educational policy should be required to teach in a public school one day every year. Not observe. Teach. From preparing lesson plans that meet local, state, and national mandates to teaching the classes while ensuring all the administrative tasks are done correctly, balancing the individual needs of 35 students without assistance, and finding 90 seconds to eat lunch or even find the restroom. To have a Secretary of Education who has never spent any time in a public school as student, teacher, aide, cafeteria worker, or administrator tells the American people that the US government is no longer committed to the form of education promoted by our founding fathers.

Noah Webster wrote, “It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which my not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country” (On the Education of Youth in America). The current dissatisfaction with the state of the public school system has already broken that trust in “just and liberal ideas of government” especially when those with power over school policies do not trust their own system enough to be part of that school community. It is madness to think someone without any connection to the actual people in the actual public schools is in a position to drive policy.

Yes, there are serious problems in many public schools. I am currently working on a PhD in Teaching and Learning in order to find ways to improve schools both for students and their families and for teachers. Educators have ideas and answers that research demonstrates is effective both in teaching subject matter and developing character. The Secretary of Education must be someone who understands more than budgets or fundraising or donations. The Secretary of Education must understand the hearts of teachers who teach, not for money or power (for there is none), but out of a passion to teach children how to learn and how to love learning. He or she must be intimately involved with children who spend their days in closed classrooms preparing for high stakes tests, which ultimately measure nothing significant. A Secretary of Education must understand the needs of all students, from the youngest to the oldest, from the most-severely disabled to the most advanced. Our public school system must consider English Language Learners, multiple cultures, new literacies, technology, and diverse families. Wealthy, poor, working class, middle-class, and homeless students all have a place in public schools. The person best able to understand and meet those needs is someone who has lived the experiences of the public schools personally. Mrs. DeVos is not that person.

 

Please vote against her confirmation.