by Chris McGowan
It’s been a big month for education–as far as news coverage goes at least.
March began with thousands of students gathering to protest tuition hikes and funding cuts at state universities in Wisconsin, Washington, New York, and North Carolina. The biggest protests came in California, where Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed over $2 billion in cuts to higher education.
Schwarzenegger has also proposed $5.8 billion in cuts to K-12 education, something we’ve seen in many other states as well. In New Jersey, for example, Governor Chris Christie has proposed a 100% cut of direct state aid for the wealthiest 59 school districts in the state. Poorer districts like Camden and Newark, who currently receive about 80% of their funding from the state, will feel the cuts the most in terms of actual dollars.
President Obama has also refocused attention on his proposed reforms to Bush’s “No child left behind” policy. The administration says it will increase federal education spending for the first time in 45 years, move away from punishing underperforming schools and incentivize progress instead, and begin evaluating students in other areas besides just math and reading.
The major elements of “No child left behind,” however, will likely remain intact, including the focus on testing, the pressure on states to privatize schooling, and the threat of mass firings of teachers at the “worst” schools.
The president even voiced his support for the use of the “turnaround” model of school restructuring at a school in Central Falls, Rhode Island, which dismissed its entire faculty in February.
Meanwhile, the state school board of Texas approved huge changes to the high school history curriculum. Teachers will be required to teach and promote “American exceptionalism,” the gold standard, the second amendment, the Christian influence on the founders, and the free market system by suggesting it survives best without governmental intervention. The board also denied attempts by more liberal members of the board to include the teaching of prominent Hispanics, global politics, and the effects of racism in America.
All of this only reflects how deep the education crisis is in American. And while there are no easy solutions, there may be a couple main principles on which we can build. First, education must be a priority. We must spend the money necessary to get results. Obama, to his credit, seems to recognize this.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, education must be kept in the hands of those who know best–parents, teachers, and students–and out of the hands of the politicians.
Pay close attention to the national conversation in the coming weeks. There’s a lot at stake.
Image courtesy of: www.guardian.co.uk/
Tags: Budget Cuts, Education, No Child Left Behind, Texas School Board
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on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Beltway Banter.
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