With the 2014 election cycle fast approaching, politicians hoping to win re-elected are going to be spending a considerable amount of time defending legislation they have supported over the past few years. For many Republican legislators this includes discussion about expanded government involvement in public education which runs counter to their "small government" and "local control" arguments they claim are part of their core ideology. Of course when it comes to education reform, the double standards don't stop there.
For example consider the case of two historically conservative Michigan public school districts - Grosse Pointe and Birmingham. Both public school districts have schools that rank in the top 1% of performance based on the Michigan "top-to-bottom list" that ranks schools according to "student performance in mathematics, reading, writing, science and social studies and graduation rate data".
At the top of many education reformers wish list is expanding charter schools to give students a choice. The total number of charter schools currently competing with Grosse Pointe and Birmingham public schools - zero.
Of course charter schools aren't the only way to provide students a choice. Michigan also offers "school of choice" which allows students from failing schools the opportunity to attend a top rated school. Grosse Pointe currently does not participate in school of choice while Birmingham only recently opted in to the program by offering six, 11th grade slots for a school system with over 8,000 students. This move netted Birmingham public schools an additional $430,000 in state funding.
Another education reform idea that has been sweeping the nation is the belief that more money for education doesn't improve results and that teachers are overpaid. Recent data shows that both Gosse Pointe and Birmingham public schools have some of the highest per pupil spending rates in the state while ranking number 4 and 1 respectively when it comes to teacher pay in Michigan.
Some reformers blame the lagging US test scores on teachers unions yet teachers in both Grosse Pointe and Birmingham have union representation. The same is also true of some of the world leaders in education like Korea, Finland and Singapore where the vast majority of teachers are unionized.
So the question for these conservative communities that have some of the highest per capita income in Michigan, some of the lowest poverty rates and at 93% white have just enough minorities to feel good about their community's ethnic diversity while still being white enough to "feel safe" is if the Republican education reform efforts are such an improvement why do these communities not take advantage of them?
The new Educational Achievement Authority (EAA) which took control of 15 Detroit public schools and handed them over to a privately owned Charter school operator is not far from either community. Have any Grosse Pointe or Birmingham parents chosen to move their students out of the "broken" public education system into an EAA charter school? Do these cities hold rallies asking the school district to consider accepting underprivileged students outside of their borders? Are parents from these communities arguing for sweeping cuts to teacher pay and education spending?
The answer to these is a resounding no. As with many politically motivated ideas these "solutions" really only apply to the poor because the rich already purchase and restrict access to the best education money can buy.
Data shows that while most countries spend more on the most needy students the US is the worst of a small handful of countries that actually commit less funds to poor schools than to rich schools. The US also values teachers less than most other OECD nations. Relative to the wages for full time employees with a college degree the US ranks 22 out of 27 countries for teacher pay. In many nations they attempt to attract their best and brightest to a career in education by making teachers one of the highest paid professions. The US however ranks near the bottom of the list in terms of pay as a percentage of a country's GDP per capita. This means a US teacher has a lower local purchasing power than teachers in most other countries.
When you consider the fact that US teachers also work more hours per year than every other OECD country it makes this already dismal pay seem worse.
While not solely to blame, low wages is one of the reason often given by the nearly 50% of US teachers who leave the profession in the first five years. This higher than average turn over rate costs the US over $2 billion a year. Rather than constantly cycling through new teachers - a pattern which has been shown to be detrimental to educational outcomes - countries like Korea, Finland, and Singapore, who have turn over rates of 1%, 2% and 3% respectively, all invest more on the front end which not only saves money in the long run but also improves educational outcomes.
Of course even if you throw out all of the data showing how other successful countries run their educational system the biggest problem with the so called solutions conservatives offer for education is the fact that none of these are good enough for their own kids. It's not like there are zero successful public schools that can act as a model for struggling schools.
If rich communities are paying teachers more than any other school district and getting good results perhaps low performing schools should do the same.
If rich communities succeed without the aid of charter schools perhaps poor districts don't need them either.
If rich communities get results with union teachers perhaps eliminating unions in impoverished areas won't be the panacea some believe it to be.
If rich communities use higher per pupil funding than most to provide a complete education perhaps underprivileged districts could use more not less funds.
If rich communities achieve high scores with few students living in poverty perhaps addressing the massive poverty rate for the most indigent areas should be the top concern.
Cynics say that conservatives push for these changes because they are well aware that they don't work and keeping poor people trapped in failing schools removes competition for their children down the road. This may or may not be true but one thing is for certain, if any of these reform ideas worked the rich communities would be the first places to implement these changes. The fact that they go out of their way to keep such modifications out of their school districts tells you all you need to know about the real value of Republican education reform efforts.
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