Public Education: Totally Screwed
This is an issue that needs more attention. My old boss Harold Meyerson, who writes a weekly column for the Washington Post, had one of his blog posts featured in the that paper’s op-ed page yesterday. Basically it looks as though a federal attempt to save 100,000-300,000 teaching positions is doomed. Its principal Senate sponsor, Tom Harkin (D-IA) has given up on the $23 billion appropriations bill because he can’t find the votes; everyone is far too worried about adding to the deficit or looking soft on teachers unions to sign on. Here’s the gist of Harold’s post.
For the dedicated foes of this measure, prominent among whom are The Post’s editorialists, this is clearly a moment of victory. For the nation’s school children, the results don’t look so rosy. School districts and the states and localities that fund them are still reeling from the recession. Cutbacks are everywhere. Hawaii reduced its school week from five days to four, and summer school is on the chopping block or already history in districts across the land.
To be sure, the Harkin bill and its House counterpart (authored by California Democrat George Miller) had their imperfections, and critics complained that they didn’t go far enough in the direction of education reform. The editorial in today’s Post, for instance, states that the bills failed to encourage states to lay off teachers according to ability, rather than seniority. That’s true. But by not passing these bills, Congress ensures that that tens of thousands of the least senior teachers, chiefly enthusiastic young teachers who are surely more tech-savvy than their elders, will be the ones laid off. While opposing the bills for their defense of seniority, the bill’s critics ensure that thousands of lay-offs, the vast majority of which will proceed according to seniority, will take place. Had they supported the bill, the number of such lay-offs would have been greatly diminished. The thousands of young teachers who may themselves criticize aspects of the seniority system will be the first to go.
What strikes me about all this is the blind vindictiveness of the bill’s opponents. A sort of ‘destroy the educational system in order to save it’ type mentality. They are so intent on taking apart the seniority system and beating up on the teachers unions that they ignore the obvious, and disastrous, side effects of inaction. Of course America’s education system is in need of reform, but hundreds of thousands of classrooms shouldn’t be held hostage to this fact. And as Harold describes above, the bill’s opponents will inadvertently endanger the most reform-minded segment of the teaching workforce, making this a pyrrhic victory at best, and one with profound implications for America’s youth. One of Harold’s old AASA says, will rise from 15 to 1 to 17 to 1.
In short: Public Education < Union Bashing. Got it?
Jake Blumgart is a freelance reporter-researcher living in Philadelphia and a former Campus Progress staff writer. His work has been published by the American Prospect, Alternet, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Stranger, and the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter @jblumgart.
White House Launches Summer Jobs+ Initiative for Youth
Students Win Right to Wear ‘Jesus is Not a Homophobe’ shirts; Survey Says College Is Too Easy
Sneak Peek: #CPNC12 Speakers Revealed