A Public Challenge to Privatizing Schools

This week’s guest perspective comes from Bill Conway—Wisconsin’s 2009-2010 PTA Teacher of the Year. Conway is a veteran social studies teacher at Parker High School in Janesville, WI.

I read recently, with great concern, a Janesville Gazette article about a private organization from Florida offering to keep two rural Wisconsin elementary schools open at a fraction of the current operating costs.

It sent chills down my spine to read how this private organization came to a school board meeting with a plan that only required a vote to move public education to the private sector. With one simple argument—cutting the costs per student from $11,000 per student to $7,000—all other debates seemed lost.

Never mind the fact that the new schools would no longer be compelled to accept  and fully service students with disabilities, second language issues, or special needs. Never mind that charter schools can hire non-certified teachers and pay them what they want. Never mind that these publicly-funded, privately-run schools would be exempt from standardized testing and other levels of accountability. Never mind that they would not be subject to the wishes, needs, and votes of the community. Cheaper is cheaper.

As teachers, board members, concerned parents, and community members—we should be concerned with this move toward the privatization of education in our state. With a move to the privatization direction, we all stand to lose our voice in the "education conversation" in our communities.

This push toward privatization of education is an orchestrated plan. The first step of this scheme has been to systematically attack the integrity and successes of the current system. Apparently, to get ahead, the free-market school reformers must first tear down the reputation of  public education with covert marketing plans, like "Operation Angry Badger," that seek to "document the shortcomings of public schools in education." I want to challenge all to challenge what has become accepted spin.

When you hear someone say public education is broken, CHALLENGE that. Education is not perfect and not without room for change, but it is definitely not broken.  

When you read about our broken system and over-paid employees, CHALLENGE that. Our salaries are public knowledge and our successes are celebrated. We have graduates from our systems attending the finest universities in the world. We have graduates from our public schools serving our country in some of the highest positions in the land. We have graduates that have gone on to professional sports, stage and screen, and some that have devoted themselves to a lifetime of service to their communities.

When you hear comparisons to past budgets that were smaller, CHALLENGE that. Today's schools are not the institutions they were in the seventies. We now serve a larger community with greater needs. We serve students with disabilities, students at risk, students with different languages, and students with poverty issues to a much greater degree than ever in the past.

When you hear complaints about our out-of -control kids and system, CHALLENGE that. Those of us who spend our working day in schools know that the vast majority of students, at any given time and in any given classroom, are actively engaged and learning. Television and movie classrooms are not reality.

The move toward privatization of our schools is driven by money. Almost all charter school programs could be run within the existing public school system. The channeling of public money away from public education to support the private education industry is wrong for Wisconsin’s students.

CHALLENGE  those who promote otherwise.

'Tis a Shame, the Mastication of Education

In his 2006 memoir Teacher Man, the late, great Frank McCourt tersely wrote, “Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions.”

Just six years later, McCourt’s proposition is already in need of a rewrite. In Walker’s Wisconsin, teaching has been relegated from professional status to political fodder. I fear what will be excreted when the free-market reformers are done masticating education.

     

Professional distrust reigns in the wake of Gov. Walker’s union-busting legislation created without consideration of professional educators’ input. Too many state and local business-focused politicians and their supporters have promoted unjust resentment for teachers, their unions, their compensation packages, their work conditions, and their professional standing.

Just this past week, the leaked documents related to “Operation Angry Badger” show how this mastication of public education is deliberate, coordinated with groups outside Wisconsin, and aggressively funded. Understandably, many teachers fear what further awaits public educators in Gov. Walker’s Wisconsin.

Talented educators are prematurely retiring. Would-be educators are choosing new careers. Teacher morale is low. As a middle-aged educator recently joked, “Every year since college I wished I was younger--until this past year. Now I suddenly wish I was older.” Certainly, there is truth in this jest. Many of us are too young to retire and too old to start a new (more respected) profession.

Many midstream educators, like me, feel stuck in Walker’s muck. I have been trying to fight my way through this political sewage, but without much success. Last July (2011), one of Gov. Walker’s staffers, Alan Colvin, agreed to meet with me to hear my professional concerns related to Gov. Walker’s reckless education agenda. Despite my differences in opinion with Mr. Colvin on the direction of Gov. Walker's policies, he was a true professional and admittedly a positive representative of the Governor's office. As recommended by Mr. Colvin, I then e-mailed my professional concerns to Governor Walker’s chief education policy advisor, Kimber Liedl.  

What was intended to be a professional exchange about education policies was then reduced to political dribble by assistant education policy advisor, Michael Brickman—who was ostensibly tasked out by Ms. Liedl to address my educational insights. Young Mike—a twenty-something with zero education experience—dived right into a debate on my concerns. I played along with Mikey for a bit and pointed out how Gov. Walker’s vision to “Recruit, Retain, and Reward Great Teachers” was failing miserably. Young Mike began patronizing me and positioned that Walker’s plan appeals to lots of educators who get into "education for the right reasons."

According to Mikey B, the tens of thousands of Wisconsin educators fighting to retain our professional voice are simply in education for the wrong reasons. I called Mikey out on this false implication and pointed out how divisive this approach is to public education and our state. Michael then insultingly looped me in with apparent protestors who have threatened Governor Walker (something I would never condone). As noted, the conversation was reduced to dribble.

Recognizing the poli sci graduate's diversionary tactics, I decided I would take this matter up with Brickman's supervisor. I had to ask Mike for his name three times before he provided his full name. I then made multiple calls and e-mails to Ms. Liedl (who I later discovered is purportedly also a career political staffer with no teaching experience) to address Mike’s inability to recognize my professional standing as a veteran educator. My repeated calls and e-mails were never answered.

This incident, along with all the rest of the angst from this past year, has left me wondering—is teaching a profession? Would, for instance, politicians like Gov. Walker employ advisors without professional business experience to advise on business legislation? Why is it acceptable to place non-educators, like Liedl and Brickman, in high-ranking education positions? We do not need a teacher to explain the answers to these questions. In Walker’s Wisconsin, education is not a profession. Education is impersonal politics. 

In my 16 years of teaching, I have, like many teachers, unknowingly evangelized and overtly advised dozens of promising students to join my noble profession. When I previously sized up prospective students for education careers, I evaluated their empathy, ethics, fortitude, leadership, maturity, interpersonal skills, and eagerness to learn before nudging them toward teaching.

With the current attack on public education, however, our next generation of professional educators will have to be seasoned young, impervious, and politically active. Otherwise, future educators will be doing more political initiatives in education, for less than professional pay, and with less professional liberties.

“‘Tis a shame,” McCourt might add.

Follow up links:
Modified publishing of this blog post in the Washington Post, Answer Sheet.
Interview with WTDY in response to this blog posting.
Fine critique of this posting by P.L. Thomas of Furman University.