• Talk about the money, but bring it back around to the ways in which we can reform education. End article on a happy note. *
•
It takes money to get the best teachers (although I haven’t met a teacher yet who felt that they were getting paid adequately). And it takes money to get more teachers. Now, yes, there are statistics saying that the U.S. ranks 5th in the world on how much it spends per student. But that money isn’t being spent on making smaller classrooms; instead it goes to new buses and buildings, better lunch programs, computers, textbooks, etc. When I worked in California, classroom sizes increased every year. Now the 4th grade class that I had in 2006 with 34 kids has 38-39 kids. And in Oregon where I also taught, Nearly 2,000 teachers have been let go each year for the past three years.
This is also another example of how schools are not a business. Businesses have products or services, ways in which to increase their profit and create expansion. Schools don’t have a product (unless you count the students, which seems to be the case, which in turn, makes me very sad). So, since schools don’t have a way in which to generate more money, they are not able to expand in the same ways that successful companies can; but the number of students attending public school continues to grow.
Furthermore, companies and corporations have ways to entice the best people to come and work for them. What is there for teachers or principals? Yes, we may get summers off – but remember, we don’t get paid for those 10 weeks either. We get our kids – which is enough for teachers. However, it doesn’t seem to be enough for the people who are so fixated on making a classroom a conference room.
Over and over again, the classroom is being compared to a business room. Hopefully now, you can clearly see that the two are not the same, and will not be the same. There are more funds available for companies to take risks, to invest in new projects — that isn’t the same for the classrooms, especially for underprivileged areas. Over 50% of the funds that public schools receive come directly from property taxes, as well as state and federal assistance. Again, this is not the same for businesses. Would Google have been able to become Google if held to the same restrictions and financial constraints of schools. Would Bill Gates have been fortunate enough to create the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, if not for the freedom and fiscal flexibility allowed to him at Microsoft?
Please realize that our children need us, and they need us to let them learn and grow – to become the next generation of learners and do-ers. Although a public school classroom may seem like a public domain for criticism and critiques – it’s not. It’s the place where are kids go to learn. Something we, the adults, need to see as well.
Resources
- Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019663_2020590,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019663_2020590_2020588,00.htm
– Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
- ‘HuffPost Education’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/education/
- The Daily Show
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-october-5-2010/back-in-black—education-crisis
- Parade Magazine
http://www.parade.com/news/2010/10/24-bill-gates-what-ive-learned-about-great-teachers.html
– Waiting for Superman
http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/action/?gclid=COCCor-liqUCFRtqgwod-kkzMQ
The New York Times Magazine
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03fob-wwln-t.html?ref=magazine
The Week Magazine
http://theweek.com/article/index/207881/targeting-teachers
