Obama's visit shines a light on Wisconsin's K-12 schools, and some of what we see isn't pretty.
Keeping up with Tajikistan
By
John Smart
Yes, I've written before about improving our schools, and don't want to sound like a broken record. But I can't let go to waste all the attention being paid to a visit by the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education to Wisconsin to promote innovations in education.
Our higher education system in the United States is the best in the world, absolutely. Students from all over the globe come here for advanced studies at Harvard, Stanford, Princeton - and, of course, the University of Wisconsin. Friends of mine are responsible for encouraging international students to attend St. Norbert College in DePere, and they are hugely successful. We have much to be proud of.
But our elementary, middle and high school programs are very much in need of our attention and support. We're slipping. And we're slipping just as our global competition is growing and developing.
I've used the example of the exchange student who is living with me this year. He's from Tajikistan, and just turned 16. Considering his age, he should probably be a high school sophomore, but he already has enough credits to graduate from any high school in this country, so he's a senior. He has had three years each of algebra, geometry, chemistry, physics, biology, world history and much, much more. He has studied three languages: Tajik, Russian and English, and is now taking Spanish because, "I only speak three languages." Tajikistan! Do you even know where that is?
Here in the U.S.A. another kid drops out of high school every 29 seconds, more than a million a year - nearly one third of all public high school students nationally fail to graduate with their class. Not surprisingly, statistics show that these drop-outs are significantly more likely to be unemployed or underemployed, in poor health, living on public assistance and to become young parents with children who will eventually be drop-outs themselves.
Drop-outs earn less, of course, and thus pay less in taxes to support governmental programs that they depend on, and are far more likely to end up in our corrections system. This is clearly not a plan for a good future for our state or nation.
The president and his administration are concerned about our schools, as demonstrated during Obama's visit to Madison. They have allocated monies for schools that are willing to step out in front and innovate.
The president called for an end to the "firewall" we have in Wisconsin that prevents teachers from being paid according to how well their students are doing. I am personally very skeptical of basing this on test scores because I've seen those mandated tests and I've talked to students about taking such tests (they generally don't think much of them). But excellent teachers should be rewarded, just as they would be in private enterprise, and some system must be found to promote this.
There is much debate going on about a proposal to put the Milwaukee Public Schools under the city administration instead of an elected school board, with loud voices on both sides. This controversy points up the difficulties of having a publicly elected, part-time board of (often) non-experts managing a system as complex and fraught with problems as a large city school district. Municipal control of schools is being tried now in other large American cities, like New York, Chicago, New Orleans and more, and it's probably too early to definitively gauge their successes or failures. But maybe it's worth a shot.
Other innovative ideas are being tried around the nation and deserve our attention. I visited the KIPP Delta Schools in Helena, Arkansas, several years ago and was very impressed. Their success at sending kids from economically deprived backgrounds on to college and careers is truly remarkable. And the level of enthusiasm was infectious - I spoke with the kids about their eight-hour school days and they actually seemed to like it.
Charter schools are another success story that deserves more and better understanding. Public perceptions seem to confuse charter schools with voucher schools, and they are most definitely not the same thing. The voucher program in the Milwaukee area provides tax funds to private schools as an alternative to public schools.
We know that children learn in different ways, so charter schools are created by school districts or universities in an attempt to create new ways of teaching and learning - and they have different focuses. There are environmental charters, Montessori charters, charter schools specializing in the arts, project-based learning charter schools and many more. Think of charter schools as laboratories of learning. We have a project-based charter school in the new Chequamegon School District in Glidden that we are very excited about, and I spent time at a charter school in Rhinelander that I could talk about all day. It's well worth a shot.
The point is that we must do something to spark new educational ideas in Wisconsin and the nation. We're falling behind, and we neglect our schools at our peril. Yes, schools cost money, but the investment is well placed. Indeed, if we don't make the investment we're in serious trouble.
The Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools (WAES) is an organization made up of educators, school board members, parents and other concerned citizens They are calling for "Pennies for Kids," a 1 percent increase in the state sales tax. The $850 million or so per year raised would be reserved for our schools and to reducing property taxes (which will happen if we find another revenue source for our schools). Take a look at it. It's worth a shot, too.
November 10, 2009
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John Smart lives in Park Falls, is a member of the Wisconsin Governor's Commission on the United Nations, the board of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools and a frequent guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Ideas Network.
