Opportunity and Hope in America's Public Schools
"What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy." - John Dewey, The School and Society, 1907
In America, our commitment to our public school should never be compromised because it is, truly, one of those things that make our nation great. In every state across the nation are public schools that serve as the centerpiece to individual communities.
And, for the nation, according to the Center on Education Policy, they serve the following important missions in a democratic society:
- To provide universal access to free education
- To guarantee equal opportunities for all children
- To unify a diverse population
- To prepare people for citizenship in a democratic society
- To prepare people to become economically self-sufficient
- To improve social conditions
Unfortunately, we are witnessing numerous attacks on our schools and our teachers, including significant budget cuts to education at the federal and state levels since 2008, that are having enormous consequences. Among other things, inequitable and inadequate funding of our schools are undermining the core missions of public education in a democratic society, particularly providing "universal access to free education" and "equal opportunities for all children."
This school year, as our nation's children have headed back to school, many of the headlines and stories are quite disturbing. First, years of budget cuts to education at the federal, state, and local levels have resulted in squeezes on teacher pay, layoffs, and hiring freezes. These funding cuts have been accompanied by a number of recent attacks on the teaching profession, including the overuse and reliance on standardized testing, the Associated Press reports that schools across the country are facing severe teacher shortages.
Consequently, many schools are increasing relying on uncertified and unlicensed teachers. According to the Department of Education, nearly 7 percent of the nation's black students attend schools where less than 80 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements. In fact, they report that "black students are more than four times as likely, and Latino students twice as likely, as white students to attend these schools." The fact is that teacher quality matters and putting more inexperienced and unqualified teachers in the classroom negatively impacts learning. Unfortunately, that is exactly what is disproportionately occurring in poorer communities and schools.
Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution speaks to the importance that money and resources play in terms of improving our nation's schools in a recent blog. She writes:
Until more people accept the need to raise teacher salaries significantly, schools are not likely to improve. . . [T]he main reason that money matters in education is because teachers matter, and attracting and retaining the best talent has to be a priority.
Budget cuts have also underfunded what is needed to run classrooms and so both parents and teachers are increasingly being asked to pay for school supplies. Rachel Abrams of the New York Times explains, "With many school district budgets as tight as ever, schools keep relying more on parents to pay for what may have been basic classroom items during their childhood. As the income inequality gap has widened, that has placed an extra burden on many families that are already struggling."
The National Retail Federation estimates that the average amount that parents spend on school supplies is up 42 percent over the last decade. And that financial burden continues to expand.
For example, columnist Jeff Yang recently told the story of how the Los Angeles public elementary school his son attends recently sent home a note with the list of school Opportunity and Hope in America's Public Schools | Bruce Lesley:
