Not a Waterbed Without Water

Chiming in this week is Bill Conway--a world traveler, an acclaimed social studies teacher, and a colleague.

Recently, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been touting his balanced budget and the surplus money he put into a rainy day fund. I have a hard time celebrating this news as our school district continues to face dire economic issues.  

Have we gone too far with these hatchet-style budget cuts?  Have we passed a tipping point?  Wisconsin’s Superintendent asks more for schools that are in need, while our Governor is promising to deliver less. Can we work with less? Can we deliver what our communities and children deserve with what we are being given?

I had an economics class in college, way back when. My professor used a waterbed analogy that I am reminded of often. Granted, I went to UW-Madison in the 80’s and a waterbed analogy may be hard to explain to today’s youth, but I think our adult readers will know what I mean. His point at the time was simple: Things cost what they cost. If you push down in one area of the bed, it will just force another area of the bed to rise. If, instead, you let out the water, it will stop being a bed.

Time for School Administrators to See the Forest

I commiserate with Wisconsin State Superintendent Tony Evers and many other school administrators in the compromising position of having to work on educational initiatives and details with radical politicians, like Governor Walker—who overtly contrast with the values of Evers and the ideals of many other school officials.

Forest Surrounding Devil's Lake, WI

I appreciate the important role school and state administrators play in the lives of my children, my students, and public education. I also respect the work Evers has done in public education and consider him a friend to the noble cause of quality education for all children and young adults of Wisconsin.

Despite the divisiveness of the day, Evers has forged ahead in “finding common ground and working together to improve education for Wisconsin’s children wherever possible” and not letting “conflicts among adults rob our children of the educational opportunities they need to succeed.” Across the state and in my own school district, many school administrators have also continued to throw themselves into the important details of their work.

Contrary to the irate tone of my blog postings, most of my career I have endorsed a collaborative approach to education. In a previous life (before Governor Walker’s radical agenda), I had never canvassed for signatures, written a blog, challenged businesses about supporting political leaders I opposed,  donated any significant funds to political causes, took off school to defend public education,  or marched in a political rally. 

In earlier times, educators across Wisconsin have spent their entire careers collaborating with diverse parties for the common good of public education. However, these are rare times. Governor Walker’s extremism has pushed me (and a million others) to this extraordinary position. Gov. Walker’s radical education agenda is purely partisan, anti-union, founded on sensationalist research, and designed to give unjust favoritism to the private and charter school industry.  

The search for middle ground with Gov. Walker by the altruistic Evers and other school officials inadvertently gives credence to Gov. Walker’s larger radical agenda to slash public school funding and destroy educator unions. The well-meaning centrist positioning of too many school officials enables Gov. Walker’s bigger agenda and propaganda machine to move “forward.” Consequently, Gov. Walker’s recall election campaign is shrewdly designed to give the impression that education leaders are supporting Gov. Walker’s larger political agenda.

Standing up to extremism in public education does not make public educators radicals. Gov. Walker has already robbed our children of educational opportunities they need to succeed. This conflict is not our doing and noble-minded educators should not take any blame for what now lays before us. Our strong response to Gov. Walker’s drastic measures is appropriate, reasonable, and necessary for the future of quality education in Wisconsin.

Bill Conway, 2009-2010 state PTA Teacher of the Year, fittingly wrote local school officials, “The bigger picture is being ignored.  That is the long-term, if not terminal damage to the system. It is my hope that we can bring all sides to the table to discuss the benefits of working together to lobby hard for public education. This is where I am placing my time and energy.”

Hard-working public educators, like Conway, need Wisconsin school administrators to better focus their energies, walk beyond the trees to see the forest, and join teachers in reclaiming public education from extremism. I understand our school leaders are anxious to have Wisconsin lead the way in meaningful improvements to public education. This, however, is not the time to pretend Gov. Walker’s educational reforms are happening with educators for the children of Wisconsin. As we have seen in the past year and in the past week, Gov. Walker’s reforms will continue to happen to us, without us, and for larger political reasons.

My favorite people in history are those leaders who have uncompromisingly and courageously stood against extremism, discrimination, and injustice. It is time for all school leaders to walk unabashedly in this modern-day civil rights movement. Following Gov. Walker's recall, there will be time for school officials to once again work the details of meaningful initiatives and promote compromise among us. However, well-meaning school officials will then be working with teachers who share their passion and sincere interest in fostering quality public education. This is a walk in the forest worth waiting for.

Governor Walker's Gratuitous Reforms

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker unveiled another round of largely gratuitous education reforms this past week. Most bothersome, Gov. Walker proposes more government-mandated measurements to allegedly make schools, teachers, and administrators more accountable.     

The cost of such accountability initiatives should be at the forefront of this legislative discussion. However, Gov. Walker neglected to provide the important financial details about his latest education proposals. In the wake of radical education budgetary cuts, it is reckless to heap expectantly expensive accountability measures on Wisconsin’s DPI, local school districts, and charter schools.

The business-minded Gov. Walker usually promotes initiatives for smaller government and less regulation—yet paradoxically seems to have no qualms creating more unproven, bureaucratic regulations for local public education. I am sure Gov. Walker and his reform supporters will argue that these measures are additional “tools” for parents in seeking out the best public education for their children. However, this free-market thinking applied to public education is dubious, at best. I contend Governor Walker’s accountability measures, like previous attempts at accountability,  are a waste of precious educational energies and dollars.

A student’s education is largely a complex, intimate, qualitative experience. Students, parents, and educators working collaboratively is paramount to meaningful student learning. Expensive, quantitative rating systems proposed by Gov. Walker are a blow to the collaborative, intimate, caring communities educators are trying to create in classrooms and schools. State-mandated regulations are not the answer to the educator accountability question.

In fact, if Gov. Walker is sincerely in search of better schools, he and other accountability-obsessed reformers need to start asking the more important questions. They should not be asking how government can better regulate schools, but rather how society can better support educating all students. I yield in this final argument to Chris Nye of the Whole Child Initiative.

We need to shift the paradigm and refuse to conduct discussion with the implicit agreement that accountability-focused thinking will ever be able to get to what is most important in child development and education. Accountability for any large, bureaucratic system necessarily means quantitative measures. What we want for our own children...integrity, inquiry, intuition, initiative, creativity…doesn't fit that paradigm. (Chris Nye, blog posting)

Most educators I engage with have already made this important paradigm shift for better schooling. Wisconsin educators now need our elected officials to support us in supporting our students.