Up For a Fight

We all need a vacation. So it has been with me for nearly six weeks. In many respects, however, my web silence has been more a reflection of the near-paralyzing body blows recently inflicted by critics of public education. That they throw their punches from Jones Street is almost too much to bear. I said “almost.” I’m now on my feet, up for a fight.

Gratefully, I have professional sparring partners with whom to test my moves. Good moves get used. Bad ones get discarded. I have found that my Gardner-Webb University Master of Executive Leadership in Schools students are among the best sparring partners a learning leader like me could wish for. The blog this week is their story.

So 10 days ago, we reconvened for our course in school financing and education law. As a reflective activity at the end of the first class, they were to respond in writing to this “ripped from the headlines” prompt that they turned in as a kind of exit ticket:

“There are many proposals before the current NC State Legislature, including cutting budgets for local positions, increased accountability for teachers, and elimination of teacher tenure. Write personally about how you feel about the proposals for public education in North Carolina.”

Concerned citizens know these ideas, and a cornucopia of others whose collective intent is to improve public education, are contained in Senate Bill 795. The Senate passed the bill. The House is now debating it. Given its relevance to our course content, my students and I will be following the bill’s progress over the course of the semester. With their permission, here is some of what my students wrote, with my captions supplied after the fact. Their comments may surprise you.

Tenure

“I believe the tenure process has been abused . . . Good teachers will continue to work and be successful without the safety net of tenure.”

“To me, tenure seems unnecessary because, I feel if you are doing your job then there should be no issues.”

“Eliminating tenure would require all teachers to perform the very best in order to keep their job. The school could also go to merit pay and give more money to the most productive educators.”

“As far as tenure, there are teachers who are teaching and should not be. There are also wonderful teachers who should be protected by tenure so they will not lose their jobs.”

“Personally, I feel that the elimination of teacher tenure and placing more standards on teachers is ineffective in helping students in our public schools.”

“Lost job security or the ability to think out of the box for fear of not being in line will drive many teachers out of the profession and possibly into private sector or other jobs.”

“I can see both sides here, but I’m not sure how the elimination of tenure will have on teacher retention. People look for stability and don’t want to go through each year fearful about having a job the next year, but it could be an effective way to get rid of teachers that are consistently under-performing.”

Funding

“I feel it is costing me more each year to stay in the profession that I’ve already spent so much money on. I’m almost to the point where I can’t afford to continue in education unless something changes with the state budget regarding teacher salaries.”

“The current budget for education isn’t a fair trade-off when you compare it with the economic constraints of living conditions, mental and physical constraints on individuals that try to make an honest living.”

“Someone with a masters degree and six years teaching experience should not be struggling to pay bills and work two part-time jobs.”

“Current funding in education . . . needs to include the people who are at the bottom of the totem pole, monies should be allocated for raises for steps and longevity.”

“I feel that the current funding proposals in North Carolina are not focusing on the main stakeholders—students and teachers . . . At present, the moral is low among teachers.”

“I think overall, ‘funding’ for schools is broken.” 

Accountability

“I agree that teachers need to be held accountable to high standards, but this bill only shows teachers how undervalued some feel our job is.”

“I do believe there should be a system in place that supports increased accountability for teachers in North Carolina.”

“When are we going to say ‘enough is enough’ and trust the universities for quality education and rely on administrative observations to determine if a teacher is doing her job?”

“I understand wanting increased accountability, but it is adding more tests for students. I saw how hurt students were this year with field testing, benchmark testing, Case 21 testing, and now EOGs.”

Performance Pay

“Teachers have no incentive to teach both harder and smarter when they are not valued for their efforts. Great teachers are looking to get out of the classroom because of this (just look at our cohort) and less experienced teachers just happy to have a job out of college are teaching children that need the support of more experience.”

“Performance pay and tenure are low on my scale because I feel I am a good teacher. However, I’m not sure that the measures that would be used would reflect that.”

“A teacher could be the best or worst in his or her building and that distinction may not be reflected at all in the teacher’s paycheck or level of career achievement.”

Politics and Policy

“I feel the current plan is not addressing the most important problems in NC. Talking about taking away tenure for teachers and cutting positions is irrelevant to fixing the education system.”

“The current funding is not what I am as concerned about. It is the fever to the disease of disrespect towards schools and school employees.”

“Proposals before legislatures involving teacher tenure and budget cuts are complex. Making changes today is likely to be as ineffective as the current policies as lag-time for the well-equipped teachers to step into tenure-less roles is nonexistent.” 

“I feel that our legislators are very pro-private schools and they have very little regard for public education in our state . . . I feel that the quality of life in our state will decline if these people [current legislators] stay in power.”

Of course, each cited comment was part of an extended narrative. I did my best to avoid misrepresenting the writer despite the loss of context of his or her words. You should also know that any one student could be, and often was, cited under more than one caption.

As you can see, my students and I have lots to talk about. And we will do it using facts and feelings. As with our legislators, not everyone is in agreement about every issue. Beyond the hope that my students learn, however, what I most want is for the teachers’ voice to be heard and respected by our elected officials. Is that too much to ask?