There was another important public service announcement from the media this week, lambasting the Bush administration’s failed No Child Left Behind law. Susan Goodkin and David G. Gold wrote a column entitled, “The Gifted Children Left Behind”. And while I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment and the substance of their argument, I take serious issue with one specific part of it:
“Perhaps if more policymakers sent their children to public schools they would address these unintended but disastrous consequences of No Child. Rather than trying to rectify this situation, however, many politicians advocate a voucher program that would only encourage more parents to desert public education.”
I’m going to say something controversial here. I do think the public education system should be deserted. And I feel incredibly strongly about that. I believe, with all my heart, that the only hope of saving the schools is to let them fend for themselves. For all it’s faults, there is one thing about a capitalist system that can never be disputed: if you don’t get the results, you get eliminated- no excuses, no second chances, no favoritism, and no sympathy.
The public school system is not getting results and it hasn’t for a long time. And we would be extremely remiss in confusing our frustration with No Child Left Behind and our frustration over the failures that preceded and prompted it. The public school system is, has been, and will continue to be a near-complete failure.
We cannot allow this to go on simply because we are too afraid to face the facts. We must accept the fact that our noblest of institutions has failed and that moreover, it cannot succeed. We are reluctant (as we should be) to admit that we have lost faith in the schools and the conventional wisdom that has guided them. Yet we must face these facts- the future for our children and our country depends upon it. We may be diplomatic, but the truth is not.
And so it is without hesitation that I say: the public school system must go.
Here are my three reasons why:.
First and foremost, the system must go because it has lost the faith of its constituents- the kids themselves. When children don’t respect the schools, it is exceedingly hard to get them to respect education. The schools have been so bad for so long, that children know that the system doesn’t take them seriously, doesn’t value them, doesn’t place their needs first, and in fact, isn’t really there for them. They may not think about it in those terms when they’re young, but instinctively they know it. And by the time they reach high school, they definitely know it. When kids aren’t valued and they aren’t engaged, they turn off- thereby making the system even harder to recover.
Second, as my Mom once observed, the unintended consequence of the Women’s movement was that the best and brightest women didn’t have to be teachers anymore. They left the schools in droves, almost overnight, in pursuit of a real career (my Mom was one of them). And the truly gifted teachers who do remain are being steadily driven out of the system by bureaucrats. This did not start with No Child Left Behind, nor will it end with another well-named, well-intended, piece of reform. We cannot forget that fact. We must create an environment- and not simply a paycheck- that will attract the best and brightest back to education.
Third, the bureaucracy cannot and will not be overcome. There are simply too many entrenched interests- interests that make sense when we put ourselves in the shoes of those who have them, but that too often run counter to needs of our children. Fear of lawsuits, for example, is endemic. Fear of criticism and culpability (deserved or not) freezes our teachers, administrators, and politicians in their tracks. They cannot do anything without upsetting a parent, a boss, a superintendent, or a voter. So instead they let down the children- the only people involved without a voice- and those who have the most to lose.
I have been in every kind of school- the very best and the very worst. I have grown and I have been stifled. And I have had great teachers every step of the way. And this is the important point. This is why the public school system has got to go.
No Child Left Behind died trying to instill some form of accountability must be introduced into the system. That, in my opinion, is a good thing- bad law, but a good thing. The problem, however, is that the No Child accountability system is of the very same, simple-minded, overbearing, misguided, and fatally flawed system that the schools themselves are. It is one impossible bureaucracy policing another (or hundreds of others as the case may be). And that is why it cannot work. There isn’t a model, measure, or rubric in the world that can encompass all children. There isn’t even a model that can encompass all school districts. Different needs, by definition, need different things. The federal, state, and local governments can never be focused or agile enough to deal with these competing needs effectively.
We must find a way to both hold schools accountable, and at the same time, provide them with the tools they need and more importantly the freedom to do what they do best. The system and the children may have overlapping goals in theory, but when push comes to shove- when those interests don’t overlap- the unique needs of the system trump those of the kids. The inevitable and endemic tug-of-war between government bureaucracy and children’s needs leave teachers caught in the middle- fighting desperately for some peace of mind.
And it is for all of these reason that I have been utterly horrified to find that so many of my friends, whose opinions and insights I seek, respect, and rely on, take offense at the even the mere suggestion of school vouchers. The very people who care most about education seem to be the most stridently opposed to doing the only thing that could possibly save it.
They are concerned that vouchers will devastate the public schools because they couldn’t compete. They are concerned that Wall-Mart and McDonald’s will take over the system and bleed it dry. They believe that, in the process, homogenous content, cost-cutting and poor quality will rule the day. They also believe that once education is privatized that somehow there won’t be a guaranteed education for all, or that teachers won’t be able to find work. And finally, there is a strange constitutional concern that usually takes the form of, ‘I don’t want my tax money sending somebody else’s kid to Catholic school.’
None of these criticisms has ever made sense to me- though I share, to the deepest fibers of my being, the fear of failure that causes them. But we must dig deeper. We must go beyond knee-jerk reactions. We cannot fail to be creative, to take chances, and to do what is necessary so that all children are not left behind.
Of course, vouchers will devastate the public school system. Of course they can’t compete. That is the point. It is the only reason to use them. It is unfortunate that public education has not worked. But we cannot continue to fail our children because we are unwilling to confront that which is regrettable.
As for the second concern, that big business will take over the schools and will turn it into a homogenous system of poor quality, rampant with cost-cutting, I would suggest that nothing more perfectly captures the system we already have.
If we are concerned about business exploiting the schools (as they have with the media, for instance), then we can put a cap on how many schools a company can own. We need not fall prey to lobbyists complaining about economies of scale. That is nonsense. Companies, not corporations, should run the schools. Corporations are inflicted with the same form of disease government has, it’s just less debilitating.
For people who don’t like the idea of not having a public education system- I would argue that nothing has changed but the management structure. Every child in America will still be guaranteed an education. That will not change. Teachers will find work right back where they started- in the classroom (only now with a new lease on life). What will change is that schools will have to provide, for the first time, the best education possible- otherwise they get eliminated. No excuses, no second chances, no favoritism, and no sympathy. We simply send our kids to a school that does provide the best education possible.
Fourth and finally, I am the most trouble by the opportunistic constitutional argument some people make. It’s useful from a legal beagle standpoint, but no further. They say, “why should my tax dollars go to send your kid to Catholic school? That’s a violation of church and state!” This seems like an awfully trifling reason to fail our children. Is it really any more problematic than churches and synagogues receiving special tax status?
In conclusion, I would remind us that in addition to the Constitution, we believe in the value of competition. We believe in the value of choice. We believe in freedom, creativity, and innovation. These things are all fundamental to what makes this country great. We also believe in our own good sense. And we believe that our children must have, and are entitled to, the very best education that our society can provide.
And if we are honest with ourselves, the public school system doesn’t provide any of that- not competition, not choice, not freedom, creativity, or innovation. It is simply a system spewing low-quality homogenous content, driven by a relentless need to cut costs and cut corners.
Are there risks associated with privatizing education? Yes, of course there are. Will we have to be extremely careful how we regulate the system? Of course we will. But the bottom line is that the risks of doing nothing, of simply trying different reforms and more quick-fix schemes, is a risk we cannot take. The administrators and superintendents have had their chance- they haven’t produced the results. It’s time their system got eliminated.
