Politics: The Problem (Not the Solution)

The Gates/Broad campaign program, Ed in ’08 is a double-edged sword. It will no doubt encourage candidates to make education a major campaign platform. If successful, the voters will clamor for stronger curriculums, better teachers, and longer school days beyond the 2008 elections, and the issues of education will be as important as healthcare costs and national security.

As an educator, this scares me to death. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for a political push for education. I think that education should be a central part of every campaign. That being said, those elected officials aren’t being held accountable for what actually happens. Voters aren’t being told about the enormous money the test-makers give legislators, to encourage more testing. Voters aren’t being told about the enormous amount of work that goes into a “good” teacher's day. Voters aren’t being told about the difficulties of being a teacher in a highly politicized system. Voters aren’t being told about the turnover of leadership related to school board elections. My guess is that this campaign will probably increase the number of fired urban superintendents over the next few years. The "ED in ’08" campaign will lead to candidate spin that holds teachers, not the politicians, at fault.

Let’s look at the platform for longer school days. Will they increase test scores? There is some research supporting that assertion. Will they increase learning? That point is in contention. If the school day is extended, there is even more time to prepare students for the mindless basic knowledge tests used in most states. Teachers will give students more practice test exercises, more rubrics, more practice writing prompts. The test-makers will get to fill this time with more preparation materials and new diagnostic tests. Teachers (via their new stronger curriculums) will become more discouraged, exhausted, and bitter.

Let’s face it. We have two systems of education in this country and the urban teachers are going to be the hardest hit by the "ED in ’08" campaign. The voters don’t just need to hear about teachers can work harder and do a better job. They need to hear about how political interest supersedes educational outcomes. They need to hear about the high-paying patronage jobs that suck at school budgets. They need to hear about athletic coaches being paid two or three times as much as academic teachers. They need to hear about janitors that don’t show up. They need to hear about union rules that preclude a classroom from being painted. Instead of asking why Japanese students do better, maybe they could be shown a video of Japanese students working out math problems in a gymnasium, climbing ropes, and running around in managed chaos. They need to hear that that Japanese teachers aren’t afraid of being sued if an accident happens.

I wish that I could be overjoyed at the news of Bill Gates and Eli Broad’s efforts. But in all truth, I don’t think adding politicians to the mess of education is going to make it any better. $60 million could help a lot of teachers. There are a ton of teachers that wish they could take a year off and study at Harvard. A bunch of them would like to just have the money to think about continuing their education. Some of them would like to quit their second job, so they could spend more time lesson planning. Everyone would like someone else to pay for the markers, pencils, erasers, books, paper, copies, and curriculum materials they are forced to buy to help out their students. At my school, they really need paper for the copier (the mandatory test prep materials have left a paper shortage).

I agree that the American education is in a terrible spot right now. But making the school day longer, adding professional development, and stronger curriculums aren’t going to do the trick. The public needs to know who is really at fault in their education system. If we want to be honest about education, is a political campaign the place to start?