Dispatches from the Trenches
The Current Conflict
Since I became a public school English teacher in 2006, amid all of the ambiguity, one thing has become clear to me: a war is being waged. The sides are not yet clearly defined, however, and so at the present moment, I can only call it tribal warfare. As with other wars, it is driven by ideologies, money, and territorialism, and those with the most at stake bear the hardest burden and pay the highest price.
Before I moved to Maine, unwittingly becoming a foot-soldier in the fray, I taught in private schools in the south, and although those schools certainly have their own distinct problems, too, it was accepted that families had sent their youngsters there by choice, had chosen to pay tuition and book fees, and therefore they shared the same objectives as the institutions themselves - to enhance the status and effectiveness of the schools and to make the students college-worthy. I am not necessarily advocating for private schools; there are plenty of ineffective ones around as well, and in any case, I believe in the American right to a free education. As long as we continue to offer such, why can’t it be a quality education in every town and neighborhood? The answers to that question, at present, are not in hand, but perhaps we can make some critical progress in identifying the challenges.
To begin with, the extraordinary success of American schools throughout most of the Twentieth Century has created a sense of autonomy and insularity. I have attended many faculty meetings and workshops in which the guiding question was something like “What new program or committee should we create to address this or that problem?” but I have never once heard a question such as “What did Finland do to build such an amazing educational system in only thirty years?” or “How has it happened that now even in Vietnam, for example, students’ scores on international tests have surpassed our own?” Simply said, it is out of arrogance that we do not examine the achievements of other societies and learn from them.
While unfunded arrogance may be harmless, the misuse of money - as with most social ills - colors the waters of education like bacterial algae. Shawn Moody, a Republican candidate for governor of Maine in 2018 was harshly criticized by opponents for remarking during a forum that Maine schools are overfunded. His choice of words was certainly unfortunate and likely contributed to Moody’s ultimate loss to democratic candidate Janet Mills, but Moody did try to provide further context for his statement. According to the Portland Press Herald, “Moody said he thinks schools need to ‘operate efficiently, and that he wants to expand career and technical education and help teachers he described as overworked and burdened by too much bureaucracy. ‘They need help and I’m coming to the rescue,’ Moody said of the teachers. The unions, he said, are ‘scared to death’ an outsider can do ‘the real reform that K-12 desperately needs.’” My own reaction? Moody was right. In a state that can already boast of the nation’s seventh highest annual per-pupil expenditure ($15,912, according to USA Today) yet suffers the 25th lowest median salary for all workers ($36,210), one might ask what more Maine folks can do. Indeed, a better question might be: how is the money being spent?
I have seen up close the bureaucracy Moody referred to; it is insidious and ever-festering. In their efforts to retain academic credibility, the schools where I have taught have implemented one costly strategy after another, from something called the “Pyramid of Intervention” to the unwieldy Smarter Balanced project (which the state abandoned after only one year, having paid $2.7 million for the privilege of piloting perhaps the most poorly designed standardized test in the history of standardized tests). Absurdly, classroom teachers - those who are most likely to know which initiatives stand a chance of actually working - have little to no part in such decisions.
As for parents, I believe that overall they are willing to pay increased taxes for stronger educational programs, as I certainly was when my own children were in school. However, we must be perpetually aware of the numbers involved and not allow our sense of distress concerning school funding and performance to determine what we will pay for. In the town where I live (not the one in which I teach), this past November, voters were presented with a referendum question seeking a $40 million loan to expand and renovate Yarmouth Elementary School, improve security measures at Yarmouth High School, fund a roofing project at Harrison Middle School, and upgrade the restrooms at Rowe School. I’d be the first to agree that a decent roof and new bathrooms are important, but to have it all in one swoop in a county that already imposes some of the highest property taxes in America seems cumbersome - especially when, as best as I can tell, not a dollar was earmarked for academics. Nevertheless, the measure passed 3,168 to 2,091.
Not all school districts here and elsewhere are quite so gung ho, of course, and even if they were, in most of them, families do not have the resources to entertain such exorbitance. The advocates of one proposed solution, school vouchers (which actually dates back to George H.W. Bush’s administration), account for another tribe in this war of attrition between guerrilla factions. Many critics see both vouchers and charter schools, which provide government funding for privately run schools, as part of the gradual privatization of education in the US. Analysts disagree as to whether this will result in equality of education or simply turn low-income districts into holding pens - unwanted territory, in essence. In her insightful essay for the Washington Post, called “Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Story of Privatizing Public Education in the USA,” Joanne Barkan writes,
As for the higher-performing charter schools, research has shown they often boost test
scores by “counseling out” the most challenging students — those with cognitive and
physical disabilities, behavior problems, and English language learners. These students
remain in district schools, increasing the concentration of at-risk students in precisely the
districts that have lost funding to charter schools.
The good news is that on all sides in the great battle are those who seem to share the objective of restoring and improving the quality and value of an American education (although it may go without saying that if education does become privatized, there will be some new billionaires on Forbes’ list). As for me, I can only count myself as one of the “grunts,” at times unaware of the nature of the forces at work but willing to serve the common cause with creativity and resolve, as do most of the teachers I know. And if, to some degree, I can also act as an observer, a sketch artist, if you will, then perhaps eventually we may both gain a greater understanding of the causes and best possible solutions to the conflicts we face.