Civil disobedience against irresponsible rule is a founding principle of this country. The school board has already passed one resolution against the state takeover of our local schools. That spirit should continue and they should be willing to put it into practice rather than just on paper.
Should those already outlined and further rules hostile to public education and local control be put in place, the NA/FC school board should simply refuse to follow them.
Stand up for teachers.
If the legislature guts collective bargaining as the governor intends, the board should give teachers even more negotiating rights.
If the legislature implores teacher evaluation rubrics, the board should ignore them and develop their own in consultation with teachers, students, and other members of the community.
If the state increases curricular mandates, the board should give teachers more leeway to decide what to teach and how to teach it.
And when the state declares that our local schools aren't performing the way some brute from Terre Haute or Anderson says they should according to resource-wasting tests that do little to nothing to measure actual student aptitudes and abilities, simply shrug it off and go on educating.
Citizens, on the other hand, should have their backs.
It's ridiculous to think that the state will somehow make teachers better by weakening their ability to determine what's best for their students, classrooms, and schools, hypocritical to say that charter schools perform better because they don't face such rigid state oversight while simultaneously prescribing more rigid state oversight for other public schools, and ridiculous to run for state office on a platform of lessened government intrusion and then declare local citizens unable to render community-wide decisions for themselves.
Whether in the media, in the court room, or at the ballot box, we can force the governor and legislators to explain how and why they think they are more qualified than local teachers and citizens working together to make decisions for our community's children, how and why they think standardized curricula and rote testing leads to innovation, and how and why competition, the very nature of which stands to pit schools against each other rather than proactively sharing best practices, is both necessary and just.
We owe ourselves that. Don't give in.
All I can say is THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART. The test scores will locally continue to improve. The NAFCS public school teachers have taken on bold initiatives this year with collaboration/enrichment and remediation which are sure to continue to assure greater gains in an efficient manner. Communication with the public regarding our goals and strategies is increasing, and overall, we LOVE public education. Thank you for telling the truth and your support. Indiana's children will surely benefit.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bonnie, not only for teaching but for having the fortitude to speak out with your name attached. It's a model our children would do well to emulate.
ReplyDeleteIf I read one more anonymous "I'm a teacher" statement...
I've been reading this blog for over five years and Jeff's commentary is the best thing I've read in all that time. It sickens me to think that I "drank" Tony Bennett's kool-aid and voted for him. This governor and the state legislature will not enhance public education. Only we the people can do that AND it had better happen quickly! Otherwise, we will go from NCLB (no child left behind) to OSLFB (one state left FAR behind).
ReplyDeleteI wish people would "stand up for students" more than "stand up for teachers".
ReplyDeleteI wish people who generally believe that govt regulation is ineffective would reject standardized testing as an effective way to regulate a govt monopoly.
I wish people who want local control would support more options for local parents, such as charter schools and means-based vouchers.
I wish people who support welfare programs for the poor-- where they can obtain food, housing, and health care through the provider of their choice-- would allow them the same dignity and opportunity with respect to educational choice.
I wish that teachers did not have to deal with government red tape, to work with staggering government regulations, and to join labor market cartels in dealing with the govt monopoly.
I wish people would practice civil disobedience in the face of the government's brutally expensive and low-quality monopoly provision of K-12 education in the inner city.
I have a dream...