Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Mitt Romney and the Fierce Desire for Educational Change

(My latest Huffington Post blog)


As a teacher who has had English students write research papers each year on the American Civil Rights Movement, I was stunned to find out a few moments ago that I am on the wrong side of the great civil rights issue of our time.

It has to be true. Mitt Romney says so.

That great civil rights issue, he told the Latino Coalition Economic Summit Wednesday is education. I have been on the front lines of that issue for 14 years and apparently, according to the former Massachusetts governor, I am part of the problem.

Because I oppose what Gov. Romney calls educational “reform”, I obviously have “a fierce determination to keep things the way they are.”

If keeping Gov. Romney and his band of reformers from steering federal educational funding toward unproven charter schools operated by speculators wanting to make a killing from the education markets fits the description, then yes, I have a fierce determination to stop that.

If it means stopping a move toward rewarding digital and online entrepreneurs who are touting profit-making (and in many cases, highly dubious) schemes to enrich their bottom lines, then yes I am going to remain fierce.

And if the governor is moving to “reform” schools by rewarding the testing and test prep companies that are slowly, but surely damaging the fabric of public education, then I am absolutely determined not to keep things the way they are, but to move them in another direction.

“Teaching is a highly valued profession,” Romney, reportedly with a straight face, told his audience, unless, of course, you are one of those teachers who happen to belong to a union.

Then you are a member of  “a group that has lost its way.”

“The teacher unions don’t fight for our children,” he said. “Good teachers put the interests of their children first.”

Yes, they do, Gov. Romney. I work every day with teachers who put children first and many of them are members of one of the organizations you targeted for criticism, the National Education Association. Others are involved in the Missouri State Teachers Association. They also put the children’s interest first.

Perhaps when you have to install an elevator for your cars and provide for the maintenance on your wife’s Cadillacs, Gov. Romney, you are forgetting one basic truth- if our primary interest was financial, we would be in a different line of work.

Far too many times during the past few years, we have heard politicians, mainly those in the governor’s Republican Party, insisting that our public schools are failing children and the biggest reason is bad teachers. So they do their best to remove veteran teachers, many times in favor of recent college graduates with no education training. This is putting the interests of the children first?

They push merit pay proposals that would guarantee more standardized tests, more tests to prepare for standardized tests, and more tests to prepare for the tests to prepare for the standardized tests, therefore removing the joy of learning that is a key to educational success. This is putting the interests of the children first?

And, as always with these alleged reformers, there was not one single word dedicated to removing the diseases that have helped cause the problems in our inner-city schools. No mention of crime. No mention of drugs. No mention of physical abuse, mental abuse, or sexual abuse.

In other words, there were no mentions of the problems that sometimes make success in the classroom secondary to simple survival.

Of course, it would be hard for Gov. Romney and his supporters to take a stance against the real problems of education since they want to eliminate the government programs that offer at least some relief, some glimmer of hope to the children in our inner cities.

Tackling the real problems would cost money, money, which apparently can be better used to cut taxes for job providers who never seem to provide any jobs.

I do not have a fierce desire to keep things the way they are. I want to teach in a school where the students never have to suffer hunger, poverty, or unspeakable treatment in their homes.

I want real reform where the people who are making the decisions for us are thinking with their hearts and minds and not with their pocketbooks.

I have a fierce desire to make sure that life will be better for my students and that education will open the doors to success for them.

So Gov. Romney, please take your tired, your poor, your huddled mass of ideas out of the political discourse and if you truly want to give parents “choice in an unprecedented way,” as you told the Latino Coalition, bring the same energy to saving their communities that you did to saving the Salt Lake City Olympics.

If you do that, you will be the one on the right side of the civil rights issue of our time. You will be the one who is putting our children first.






3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Randy,
You can’t see the forest for the trees. You always attack any effort to do something about bad teaching. You want to complain about all of life’s ills, lack of family support, drugs, crime, broken families. Of course all these things contribute to problems. The point you miss is that schools can’t fix those things that are outside of schools. Schools can fix those things that are in schools. One of those things is bad teaching and bad teachers. You seem convinced that all teachers are good. They are not. Not all teachers in Joplin are good. All teachers in Missouri are not good. In places like St. Louis that have failed school districts, districts that have not been accredited for years, there are many bad teachers, perhaps a majority. It is in those worst districts that teacher unions are strongest because, contrary to your view, unions care more about teachers than students and many teachers care more about themselves than students. I won’t make the same mistake you do of painting with a broad brush. There are many good teachers in Missouri and many good districts. I believe a majority of Missouri’s teachers are good and a few a great. That fact does not mean that the state should not find ways to do more to get rid of bad teachers and bad teaching. As long as you hold the position you hold now, you will be a defender of bad teaching, while pretending to defend good teaching.

Trees43 said...

First and most important for Educational change is the parents, something never included in this Education for profit movement. Yes, there are sorry teachers but most are dedicated and helpful for anyone showing desire to learn. Disingenuous of Romney to leave parents out and blame teachers. As a devout Mormon, he knows very well the importance of parent involvement, a big priority in the LDS church. Another reason to wonder who or what is the real Romney!

Anonymous said...

First of all respect and discipline starts at home,if there is none there it sure wont be at school with teachers,and im sure it makes it very difficult for teachers. Since the goverment has taken away parents and teachers right to discipline children we are raising generations of children with no values or fear of punishment,therfore teachers are there basicly to babysit.I have family members that are teachers and very dedicated ones as are many and also we have them that should retire because they are no benifit to the children at all,to them its just a pay check.So bottom line who do we blame for all of this ?? Parents,Teachers or our Goverment ? And my grandchildren went to a charter school ,it was excelent!!!!