Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Education in Crisis...Oh The Possibilities....

Before we start this I need to put in a disclaimer… I have the utmost respect for the many superintendents, principals, and local boards of education that are being forced into making horrible choices. I believe that good superintendents, principals, and local boards of education will continue to make good (if difficult) decisions and those that weren’t so good – well there is no place to hide anymore, high test scores brought about by community demographics aren’t going to help you now and heaven help the children in districts that were already struggling.


The K-12 education crisis in rural Coastal Georgia is similar to the K-12 education crisis striking other districts everywhere. When the market started crashing in late 2007, many looked at education with the idea that a degree and certification in education represented consistency and a ‘safe zone’ of protection with a guaranteed salary, benefits, and a secure retirement; certainly a field that you would feel safe investing $60 - $70,000 in an advanced degree. Now, as the economy appears to be turning around, K-12 education is hit exponentially hard. And just when the numbers are starting to creep up, the unemployment rate is getting ready to take another hard hit as teachers across the nation begin losing their paychecks and join the rolls of unemployed. Oh, and you can count me as one of those unfortunate souls.

Money woes are forcing deep cuts in systems regardless of size, stature, or effectiveness. Good systems, bad systems, regular systems that just keep their nose down and do their job – all systems are feeling the impact of idealism – what we should be doing and aspire to do… and reality – what we can afford and can fund. What we ‘used’ to offer and published as why we were so good…the advanced classes, orchestra and fine arts, technology, IB, and Advanced Placement… and reality – what are the bare necessities that we must continue to offer just to call ourselves a local education agency or school when faced with a $3 - $30 million dollar fund evaporation. As we struggled to meet the needs of every child and educated our communities on why that was important and necessary (some of us better than others) – we now have to figure out how we are going to explain why we can’t do that anymore. Because if advanced math was necessary for my child in 2009-2010, why is it not necessary for my child in 2010-2011 and you’re cutting all the fine arts too? And what about that ‘highly qualified’ thingy – you mean that my child’s strings teacher will no longer be teaching strings because she is now going to teach social studies? But she’s a strings teacher, not a social studies teacher – oh, social studies isn’t counted towards AYP…. Hmmm…and you’re going to give her a remedial math class too? Hmmm…I thought they were in remedial math because they were having trouble…a strings teacher, oh a teacher can teach one or two classes out of field and it doesn’t count towards your highly qualified status, oh… okay.

Then there is the problem of who to cut… the strings teacher, the 28 year veteran who is just trying to make it to retirement and hasn’t changed her teaching strategies since the early 1980’s, or the new teacher with the most incredible hands on approaches and latest technology integration who doesn’t have tenure and isn’t ‘from here’? What about the 30+ veteran who has dedicated his or her whole life as a professional and continues to lead the school in both mentoring of new teachers and leading the charge in updating her teaching skills but is on a year to year because technically she has retired versus the 10 year veteran who calls in sick on average of once or twice a week and has been known to turn the lights off and put in a movie when her head hurts from being out late and you should be glad she just came to school at all? Politically, are we going to take the path of least resistance or the ideal path because both sets of questions are housed in the same small school and there is no way to do this easy…and you know, my job on the line too and it is an election year!

How do we meet the needs of the talented and gifted, needs of the 21st Century Learner, and needs of the struggling learner from low socio economic background who moves on average of every 6 months in an aging system that would cost more to fix than to tear down and start all over when the state has:

• eliminated the requirement for professional learning to meet continuous certification;
• raised class sizes so that systems can reduce staff;
• raised the per pupil limits and eliminated funding for school counselors;
• relaxed the instructional calendar to give systems flexibility in selecting the number of days versus hours of instruction students receive;
• allowed systems to furlough teachers up to an unlimited number of days from the calendar as long as they don’t raise administrator salaries?

Reality is that a superintendent can set a 170 day instructional calendar meeting the minimum instructional hour requirement with a teacher contract of 180 days (an automatic 10 day pay cut), and STILL have enough days to furlough teachers an additional 10 days if he/she needed to. However, by doing so, that same superintendent can save the jobs and health insurance and ongoing retirement benefits of the 20 or so teachers he/she would have had to eliminate without some creative budget control. So who wins, the school system that doesn’t have to eliminate any new or tenured teachers, or the families like mine that could be looking at a minimum $3,700 loss in monthly wages?

I am all for educating the ‘whole child.’ I believe strongly in preparing my children with 21st Century Skills (see previous blog). I am committed to increasing the fine arts and hands on science, math, and technology training… But it is EXPENSIVE! And unfortunately, all my eggs are in one basket – the school system can’t afford to teach my children these things and now, because I am an educator, neither can I. I have looked at what this crisis is going to cost me, approximately $43,500 this year in net annual income, fine arts, gifted and remedial programs for my children provided by ‘others’, and an amazing teacher leader for our local school.

But what about what I am going to potentially gain? Because of the crisis – I have started a new career path that will allow me to be more active in my children’s education and could potentially surpass my ‘guaranteed’ income (if we don’t get kicked out of our house first), and the ability and time to impact education on a more personal level for all the children in our local community. I have been forced to evaluate my belief system of what is really important in education (translate, my children’s education) and nothing changed – I still feel the same way – however, I acknowledge that how we are going to go about getting those things – fine arts, gifted and talented programs, extreme remedial programs for struggling learners, etc. Well that is going to have to change. We are no longer going to be able to depend on the school system to help us achieve those ends in the way that they have in the past – it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen on school time, and on school property, but we are going to have to open our minds to outside assistance in reaching these goals. I am currently working with an incredibly talented certified teacher who is willing to write grants through the local art association and volunteer her time to teach art in our schools at no cost to the school system – but will they let her? Will we be willing to let our talented community members into our schools to provide non traditional instruction to our children in areas we can’t afford to provide – or will we get caught up in legalities, will it be too much trouble – for the school AND for the community member? Oh the possibilities… oh the logistics… who will win and who will lose?