Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Fund Education, Not Occupations
Some Educational Action Items for Obama
So, with the economy in the proverbial toilet and the D word (depression) hovering on the periphery, what is the Obama administration supposed to do about education? What can it do? Will additional and new funding be necessary to address his main concerns?
To his credit, President Obama has consistently placed education high on his priority list; the economy, health, and education are his three top domestic concerns. And I believe this trio is not only critical but entirely interrelated and interdependent-and cannot be helped by quick fixes. Problems decades in the making are not reversed overnight. As President John F. Kennedy said, "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."
But begin we must. So what to do and how to fund? In this area, I offer several suggestions on how we might provide excellence in public education to all children beyond the needed added emphasis placed on overall literacy. First, we should do as President Obama said in various campaign speeches and create 20 Harlem Children's Zones in major cities. But to do this, I would add, we should fund (perhaps with matching challenge grants) another 20-60 smaller zones based on this model of changing school cultures by changing the culture of surrounding neighborhoods. This can only be achieved by focusing on health care, pre- and post-natal programs, neighborhood security, after-school programs, employment, parent training and other reform measures.
Next, I suggest we restore to curricula across the country what I call "The Five Other Solids": the arts; community service/action programs; human development programs (drug education, sex education, etc.); physical education (not just team sports, but yoga, fitness, nutrition, etc.); and environmental outdoor education - for how are we to save the planet by graduating generations of youth who have no relationship to the Earth?
All of these are important, but I would start with restoring the arts to the school day curriculum, not just in the form of token after-school gestures. There is just too much evidence supporting the many benefits of the arts to continue our obsession with testing to the exclusion of all else. Students will express themselves, as the arts allow for positive expression. Deny this fundamental need and it will explode elsewhere.
The other four of these "other solids" are each critical-building a sense of community, caring for others, caring for our planet, caring for our own health and others, and learning how to communicate with others. Most students and human beings do not flunk out of life intellectually; they flunk out emotionally. Schools can help prevent such.
These "Five Other Solids" have several things in common: They are hands-on, experiential, and embrace project-based activities. They enrich the curriculum and bring humanity into the classroom and, most importantly, they engage students, thus preventing drop-outs. Every drop-out averted is a huge national gain-in funds saved, in citizen productivity and in equal opportunity. So for the moment, let's stop at improving neighborhoods and expanding curricula.
How to fund these ideas? Obviously not by cutting revenue, as in tax cuts-so yes, by increasing revenue. While this is a hugely complicated issue, I believe it is ultimately a matter of priorities. President Obama certainly believes this as well, and finally we have a president who seems aware that there is widespread suffering in the country as well as a disgraceful inner-city educational system.
Funding education is achievable, but only when the gargantuan defense budget is restored to sanity and the tax structure is dramatically overhauled. Since Ronald Reagan, we have had 30 years of (upward) wealth redistribution. Perhaps we might now consider re-leveling the playing field through making a long-term investment in education.- Posted in
19 Comments so far
Show AllIf education existed in the US, folks would have the habit of thinking--and of questioning EVERYTHING.
Which is why it does not exist in the US.
I've got an idea, how about we stop putting everyone in jail for anything we can think of and put that money into schools? In my state, Colorado, for example, we spend $770 MILLION on the DOC every year. We could take the majority of that money, be just as "safe" as we are now, and actually give the next generation a fighting chance at a decent life (but ONLY if we stop allowing big business to run all our jobs off to foreign countries in the name of profits).
If I hear one more person talk about how "we know that throwing money at education isn't the answer", I will beat them. How would we know that? We have NEVER done it! Education is the ONLY thing that I've ever heard people say that "you get what you pay for" doesn't apply. Why would it NOT? I've read the writings of those who were educated in the Reagan era. They can't think, they don't know the difference between their, there and they're, they can't spell and they sure as hell don't know what proofreading is or even how to use a spell checker. I am embarrassed that my generation has let them down so horribly.
We need to realize that you do indeed get what you pay for, and that short changing your kid's educations just makes the next generation incapable of fixing ANY of the problems we leave them. Under those circumstances, "our children are our hope for the future" is just a nasty, cruel joke.
"We need to realize that you do indeed get what you pay for"
WJM I don't believe we are getting anything close to what we are paying for. I believe a lot of money is wasted and mispent.
My belief is that first you'd have to clean up education and return it to teaching and educating. More money won't do diddly.
Frankly, there is plenty of money now.
And you'll have to stop the victim excuse providers. The ones that think Blacks, Latinos and Asians are inferior.
I agree partially. But when you don't pay people enough to make them WANT to be teachers, when you make kids hold bake sales to pay for basic materials, when teachers have to shell out for things like pencils and paper fir the kids out of their own pockets, then you AREN'T doing the job of the adults in this situation. And if you aren't willing to pay for a decent education, then you have NO business even having kids in the first place.
In Colorado, for instance, we are third in prison spending and 49th in education spending. Perhaps where YOU live there is enough money, but NOT here, apparently, because we sure as hell aren't spending enough to keep teachers out of poverty. But we can seemingly afford to spend over 3/4 of a billion dollars every year to lock people up. Talk about misplaced priorities.
As to the excuse providers, I do agree there. I think that it's pretty clear that ANY kid can learn, and can succeed, if they are challenged and given a decent learning environment. We have schools in this country falling apart, literally unsafe to inhabit, and we expect kids to learn there? It's hard to concentrate when you are worried about the building falling down on your head.
Not to mention, kids are far smarter than we give them credit for. It's not that they can't do the work, it's that we are and have been dumbing everything down for decades, now. We expect kids to learn things on a freaking test, that have nothing to do with their futures, and base everything on that stupid test. The kids are smart enough to know that they are being used, just like most people on the right have come to learn about the republicans. You can't expect the kids to NOT react, even if it's just to drop out. They KNOW what is going on, and they are disgusted. I for one can't blame them.
"But when you don't pay people enough to make them WANT to be teachers, when you make kids hold bake sales to pay for basic materials"
I don't believe the pay is that much of a problem for Teachers, but I'd be more than willing to take money from "administration" and give it to the Teachers. (or to pay more IF we got something for it) As far as not being able to furnish materials for students whose parents cannot afford it....there is no excuse. None at all. Every school in the country can afford that and if not, there is where some Federal money should be spent. Frankly there are a lot of people that shouldn't have kids, but we can't hurt the kids because their parents are not honest or bright.
"But we can seemingly afford to spend over 3/4 of a billion dollars every year to lock people up. Talk about misplaced priorities."
I think Texas would be right in your neighborhood in rankings,though our Teachers make decent money.
Your point about prison spending to educational spending is spot on. And the silly drug laws and mandatory sentencing are quite responsible for it in my view. Sen. Jim Webb just wrote a great article about just this thing in Parade magazine.
"As to the excuse providers, I do agree there. I think that it's pretty clear that ANY kid can learn, and can succeed, if they are challenged and given a decent learning environment. We have schools in this country falling apart, literally unsafe to inhabit, and we expect kids to learn there? It's hard to concentrate when you are worried about the building falling down on your head."
Boy do we agree here. The physical plants in my town and surrounding towns are very good, but in other parts of Texas they certainly are not. THERE is a great "infrastructure" program for these idiots. Lets fix or build schools for education.
It really upsets me to see people here on CD and "Progressives" say in effect ....black kids, Latino kids are not smart enough, substandard material, can't compete with those white kids.......hoooey! Any of these kids can excel if they are given an enviornment to learn in and are given the expectations they must meet. Our current educational philosophy is much like awarding 1st place to a kid that came in third. It means nothing because he and everyone else knows he didn't win it.
"it's that we are and have been dumbing everything down for decades,"
Absolutely my friend. Dumbing down, lowering expectations to the lowest common denominator which produces what we are getting now. They are not teaching them HOW to think. In Texas we have a real problem with English and getting Spanish speakers to learn it. They are given many excuses and even helped by the Texas Education Agency not to learn it.
How do they miss the fact that China will have more English speakers in a few years than we do and the reason is that English is the common language of the world and certainly business?
Indeed as you say, why not drop out when all these people don't seem to care about you and on top of that make all sorts of excuses why you can't do the work and tell you there is no shame in dropping out.
Tests? They have their place, but as they are used now? Pfgauuhhhh! Jokes that stop learning. Simple as that.
Good luck getting these backwater holy rollers to allow yoga to be taught in P.E.
If you look at the overall spending of the USA as a portion of GDP for education it is HIGHER then many countries that achieve far better in the PISA tests.
The USA spends more then Canada as example but Canada finishes in the top 5 of all the major categories while the US is way down in the high teens.
I use Canada just to demonstrate it not related to ethnic diversity as we have a much higher percentage of foreign born Citizens.
What I would like to see is a breakdown as to how those funds allocated. As example what percentage of said funds go to sports programs in US schools?
What percentage goes to security and anti-drug campaigns. I never see security guards in Canadian schools (albeit I have not been in them of late) nor metal detectors. How many are in US schools and does this come from educational funding?
Good points one and all.
So where does all that money spent on education go towards? Building more sports stadiums, hiring more junk food contractors who'll give the kiddies tastier foods, and polishing the school with expensive material? Throwing money at education is not the answer. It's just more wasteful spending just like bailing out Wall Street and more war spending. We need more tax cuts so that we can keep more money and spend it privately for improvements. Government that spends the least governs the best.
"Government that spends the least governs the best."
Yeah, Somalia is working our REALLY well for it's citizens, isn't it?
Take that neocon crap and go away. We have had more than enough of that selfishness, thank you. Go drown yourself in a bathtub, to quote your no taxes idiot Norquist.
Your ideas are straight out of the right wing playbook, and are so clearly crap that it's just amazing that ANYONE would still be falling for them. How does it feel to be a 23%er?
I certainly don't know of ANY schools in my state that are anywhere near what you seem to think is the norm. I defy you to come to Colorado and find ONE school that fits your stereotype. My old high school hasn't had any updates for well over 25 years, in lots of cases not even for routine maintenance. New sports stadiums? They don't even have a football field. "Polishing the school with expensive material"? What are you even talking about? And BTW, there aren't any junk food contractors in the area's schools. The parent's won't allow it.
You seem to be of the mind (if it can even be called that) that the schools are places of opulence and gilding. Been in one lately? I doubt it.
And for the record, NO, it's not just like the Wall street bailouts or more war spending. Those things, I agree, are a waste. But the minds of the next generations are only wastes to those who think that you can starve a generation and still have a country left. People like you, obviously, who get their "thoughts" from the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity, who make things up and get paid FAR too much for their lies.
You need to get your head out of the dark place it is and realize that you have an obligation to the next generation to give them at least a fighting chance. Putting them in places YOU wouldn't spend any time in and starving their minds is NOT doing YOUR job. In fact, it's societally suicidal. Typical right wing thinking that says "I got mine, to hell with you and your kid's futures". We have had too much of that stupidity for one lifetime, and it's time that you selfish fools get off the microphone to give someone else a chance at running things. We've seen what happens when YOUR side gets to do it. We've gone down hill for nearly three decades, now, and we can't afford to do it any longer. You had your chance, and we have all suffered and lost ground thanks to you.
Your stupidity is showing. Put it away and move on.
Charter schools and homeschooling has been proven to bring out smarter and healthier kids than most public schools. I'm neocon? Libertarians are not neocons but you Democrats are the neocons. Go have a happy meal for a change. OOOOOOO !!! LOL !!
Nice try at an insult, but I'm NOT a democrat. Never have been. I've been a registered independent since I first registered to vote, decades ago.
Libertarians are nothing but republicans who want to smoke dope and get laid. Not to mention, you are all fools who think that if you don't regulate everything, you will get decent results. Too bad that history has shown literally dozens of times in this country alone that this is a fallacy. Try learning some history and THEN come and try and insult me again. Without regulation you end up with nothing but Enrons. And we all know how well THAT little bit of foolishness ended, don't we?
I don't trust democrats, but I detest republicans and I pity libertarians. Republicans declared war on their own country decades ago, and deserve to have it declared right back in their faces. Libertarians are clueless, and ignore the reality in favor of their own ideology. And the more you keep talking about removing every regulation and removing gov't from actually being able to do anything, the more you show that you don't believe in having a society at all. You can't have any kind of a society if everyone is an island unto him or herself. Dog eat dog is NOT a way to have a civilization, it's nothing bt anarchy. And in an anarchy, you have NO protections from anyone who comes along to kill you and steal what you have.
Go ahead and believe what you want, but that doesn't make it work out for anyone but those who already have too much and don't know when to quit. We're already dealing with those people in the very Wall Streeters that are bankrupting the whole world. But they have what they want, more money than anyone deserves for killing off a whole sector of the country's economy. Those who chase money as the be all and end all of everything MUST be held to standards, otherwise you end up being the food for those sharks.
Lastly, you are clearly possessed of nothing but a typical republican sense of humor. Nothing funny in your last statement, but still you think there is. Pretty sad, all in all. A joke should have a punchline, and you clearly don't understand the first thing about humor. Typical right winger. Clueless all the way around.
Stable and predictable funding of public schools is the key. We are in financial ruin, but there is still lots of optional money around. We must divert money from the war industry for that purpose. Nobody - not real estate, not food contractors, not textbook manufacturers should be allowed to reap windfall profits off the schools.
Educated and well off parents can send their kids to charter schools or educate them at home or send them to private school or move into a community with excellent public schools. Poor kids are stuck with the local public school while Mom and Dad are out working. They are the ones who need good schools.
A recent lottery for places in charter schools in Harlem resulted in a heartbreaking spectacle. Kids and their parents waited in an auditorium to see who got into a charter school based on a lottery. A large % majority did not. The joy on the faces of those who got in was matched by the sadness of those rejected. Is that any way to do things? Psychologically, those who did not get in will think of themselves as failures, although of course it has nothing to do with their personal qualities.
There is much that needs to be changed, including some deadheadeness of the teachers' union. (Some teachers' union in New York is required, however to counteract the stupid actions of the Board of Ed and grandstanding politicians.)
I was extremely disappointed that the recent conference on education featured ultra-venal hypocrite and closet-skeleton king Newt Gingrich and operator Al Sharpton instead of people who care about education and have real life knowledge and experience in the area.
Gingrich is well known. In case you don't know, Al Sharpton started out as an aide to Alfonse D'Amato, informed for the FBI against black Brooklyn politicians during cointelpro and became the darling of the mainstream press to the exclusion of almost all other African American voices. He has never used his fame to build coalitions, but has always demanded a piece of any pie for his National Action Network. He recently came out in favor of charter schools after getting $500,000 from a high salary charter school organizer in New York. He needed that money to pay an enormous tax lien. He is an extortionist who uses the race card.
Where are the Jonathan Kozols and other more contemporary advocates of education?
Joe
There was already so much to mistrust in Al Sharpton. Out here in VA Beach, I'd come across plenty of pickup truck workers hating that man and listening to talk radio trashing Sharpton time and again. Sadly though, it turns out that Sharpton is indeed a monied opportunist and cares nothing for the disenfranchised blacks let alone the rest of the blue collared workers.
Al Sharpton is a marvelous creation, a diamond edged tool to divide the populace. He provides a convenient target for right wing talk show hosts while blocking progressive African Americans from any voice in the popular media. If there is an atrocity against the black community, and there are still many, on TV it's all Sharpton all the time.
Therefore, your white truck drivers never get to hear a message from a grass roots African American leader that relates racial equality to their lives. I suppose that the radio shows they hear do not feature many enlightened commentaries from other black leaders.
Most liberals are uncomfortable being the judges of who speaks for the black community and that caution is a good thing. However, when you see such a tool as Sharpton, after a while it is time to say something.
Joe
I can't speak for all the white blue-collared workers but I'll bet that 65% of the male ones and 80% of the female ones would prefer Martin Luther King over Al Sharpton any day. MLK would never misuse taxpayer money the way Sharpton does. Sometimes, I wonder what MLK would have been like were he alive today. I can't say he'd be proud of Obama's performance so far but I doubt he'd be proud of Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton either. I dunno. There's just got to be a line to draw somewhere in all of this. Just ask my wife who despite being born a white female Christian has an Indian background since her parents came from Northern India and she was raised with an Eastern mindset. She and I have full respect for racial equality and opportunities but the black community talk from people like Sharpton and Jackson can go too far. I seriously don't believe that MLK would have endorsed forced integration or separate ethnic communities but instead leaving the doors of opportunity wide open. Besides, I haven't seen any Chinese, Japanese, Indian, etc ... versions of Al Sharpton all my life which may explain why Asian Americans are not as mistreated unfairly as African Americans.
Unless Obama plans on repealing the "No Child Left Behind" Act which is nothing more than the road to privatizing education permanently, no amount of funding will help any. And then of course, there's the funding on wars and Wall $treet bailouts, both of which must be stopped immediately. Education was already getting worse back in the 1980s and 1990s. I don't even want to know what it's like today but I'll bet it's far worse. If my wife and I are to have any children, we'll have to move to Fairfax County, VA for the best public schools unless Hampton Roads can catch up.
So let's repeal the "No Child's Behind" pact.
Gee, how much $$ for foreign wars?
.....How much to bail out the gamblers?
.....Hoe much to bail the predators at GM and the like?
If money should enter the economy to stimulate it, why not at least pay for things that hold some benefit? Teachers and students spend money and hire services too.