February 27, 2011
By Cedra Crenshaw
Bolingbrook High School Principal, James Mitchem, warned teachers, administrators, and community members that public schools no longer have the luxury of not being held accountable for outcomes. He was fearful that change is coming. As a result, he said the system must change.
Mitchem cited educational reform happening all across the nation. 1 in 10 Chicago Public School students attends a magnet or charter school. Over 12,000 Illinois families are on charter school waiting lists.
Ironically, Mitchem's solution to change the system makes the case, though indirectly, for educational choice.
Mitchem said compliance has "muddied" the grading system. Compliance is related to activities such as completing homework and class participation. Mitchem's goal is to reduce compliance to just 10 percent of the grade with 90 percent devoted to assessments of skill mastery. Mitchem cited students who are failed for noncompliance but who have mastered the necessary skills as a reason to reduce compliance for all students. This begs the question, how many students demonstrate skill mastery without compliance?
If the majority of students can master skills without compliance, how can Valley View School District justify the $11,369 yearly cost per student? Virtual schools, home schools, private schools, and charter schools can more efficiently and cost effectively promote skill mastery. Illinois private schools cost on average $6,000 or less per student. Why not provide vouchers to all parents allowing them to choose the best educational option for their children while saving the taxpayer's money?
However, if a minority of students can master skills without compliance this too is an endorsement of school choice. These students should be given the opportunity to pursue educational options outside the public school system. Why hold these students back in a system that exists only to assess them?
A school is a delivery system for education. There are many different delivery systems for education which include virtual schools, home schools, private schools, charter schools, and public schools. Why shouldn't public schools have to compete with alternate education delivery systems? Why should public schools have a monopoly on education delivery given their dismal performance record and resistance to reform?
Parents and taxpayers are finally exerting substantial momentum in the direction of real education reform. For far too long, the public school bureaucracy has existed to provide job security to teachers and education bureaucrats. How do we know this? Because according to Principal Mitchem, being held accountable for actually educating students has the public school bureaucracy fearing for its very survival.
But what is really driving the fear of a system change? Mitchem said he fears that politicians could change the system within the next 3-5 years in a way that would negatively impact teachers and students. Surely public school bureaucrats don't fear politicians. Public school bureaucrats led by teachers unions have maintained cozy relationships with politicians for decades. Their political demands for increased salaries and benefits have not resulted in better outcomes for students or value for taxpayers. Parents and taxpayers are onto this game.
Consequently, parents have increasingly demanded that the interests of students be put before the public school bureaucracy. Taxpayers have awakened to the fact that more money does not equal quality education. The public school bureaucracy's real fear is that legislative action, containing real reform, will empower parents and taxpayers. So the public school bureaucracy led by the teachers' union has consistently fought real reform.
Education reform is not a Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative issue. Education reformers stand together against the status quo, a status quo led by the teachers union. Parents and taxpayers, regardless of their political affiliation or socioeconomic status, are increasingly demanding education reform.
Films like 2 Million Minutes, The Cartel, The Lottery, and Waiting for Superman spotlight the dysfunction and outright failure of our public school system. Legislation has been introduced across the country to offer students an escape from the failed public school system.
We saw State Senator Meeks' Opportunity Scholarship Bill, the Performance Counts Act, California's Parent Trigger, and the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program among others. Charter schools are expanding like Chicago Urban Prep Academies, the Harlem Promise Academy Charter Schools, and DC's Thurgood Marshall Academy.
Illinois HB190 would add an additional 5 charter schools in Chicago to serve students from low performing and overcrowded schools. Illinois SB1932 would provide vouchers to K-8 Chicago Public School students in the lowest performing or overcrowded schools towards any non-public school.
Films, legislation, charter school demand, and Principal Mitchem's fears all confirm that educational choice is the future of education. It's only a matter of time before all public schools will have to compete with alternate education delivery systems.
