Tone-Deaf on Education and Unions

The democratic national convention platform reaffirmed its support for collective bargaining rights, including for teachers. Yet, like the Republicans, they seem more intent on continuing to push for charter schools and their deunionization of the profession (Salon). Why? It appears to be based on the political penchant for ignoring data and going with popular discourses that are rarely "fact" or data-based. As Diane Ravitch so persuasively argued in her 2010 book The Death and Life of the Great American School System, little data exists supporting the continued expansion of charter schools -- which rarely outperform public schools in test scores or other measures. In fact, the push toward the privatization of public schools, standards and high stakes testing appear to be having the exact opposite effect, lowering standards, pushing outdated pedagogical approaches that don't work (particularly for the increasingly diverse student body in American schools) and ironically, not lowering test scores themselves.

So why do we have so many conservative and progressive politicians and pundits pushing for these reforms? Among other things are a series of recent documentaries and popular films on education, including the new Hollywood film Don't Back Down, that provides a compelling case for the parent trigger -- meaning parents could sign a document that would replace their public school with a charter, a plan that Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been pushing for years, along with other mayors. Others include The Lottery
and Waiting for Superman. This comes on the back of a series of films over the past two decades like Lean on Me, Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers that argue that the problem with schools is children not finances or administrators (the last is better on this point) but kids themselves who simply need an inspirational teacher (often white) to turn their academic lives around. While I have always been an advocate for teachers having high expectations for all students, the issues are obviously substantially more complex. 

But in America we want simple answers to complex problems in a Manichean world of absolute right and wrong. We all agree there are problems with education, but who is to blame? It can't be parents, because they're the voters. It can't be politicans, because they want to get reelected. It can't be corporations, because they contribute too much money to said politicians. So it must be kids or teachers. Since parents tend to love their kids, teachers end up as THE problem simply through the process of elimination. Sure there are many bad teachers around, but many more that do a good job. Media and technology also play a huge role, but addressing this concern would cut into corporate profits. And so we are left with a discourse that is based on two fallacies: 1. Teachers are the problem and 2. Charter schools can overcome the biggest problem with teachers -- unions. There is little evidence to support either of these claims, and yet they dominate the debate today. It is time to challenge these arguments and bring some common sense and intelligence back to the debate.

One could, of course, ask the same question of economic policy with England, the U.S. and many Western economies continuing to support neoliberal reforms that just aren't working. It is a similar problem in education, with few with actual advanced knowledge of education making decisions. So has the dumbing down of America simply infiltrated the upper echelons of power or, more likely, has hegemony simply outmarched rationality and common sense in the struggle for our collective future? The election in two months should do offer a strong clue in answering to this question.