Geroge Carlin Was Right

Week 2 Regular Blog

“George Carlin Was Right”

            Once you peel back the comedy and foul language I think what George Carlin was saying is that the power elite really don’t care about education except for how it impacts their taxes and political power brokering. I see very little that convinces me otherwise. The inequality that exists in education today is based in socioeconomics. Without major reform in how schools are funded, inequality will continue. So now comes the big word “if”, if an inequality exists in the way schools are funded, and if that inequality places a greater burden on poor and minority students than it does their affluent peers, isn’t this a civil rights issue? Should or could the courts address the issues of inequitable school funding in the United States? Any gains we have made in providing equal education for all have started in the courts.

            We all know that throwing money at a problem never solves it; however, judicious investment can certainly solve many problems. One of the things we saw in our examination of Finland, Korea, and Singapore is the emphasis on developing high quality teachers. In the United States it seems as though our leaders don’t know what a high quality teacher is or what it takes to build a high quality teacher. Case in point, the Great Principals and Teachers Act or “Great Act”, yet another alternative teacher and now principal certification program. The supposed aim of alternative teacher certification programs has been partially to fill high needs or hard to fill teaching jobs like special education, jobs in urban centers, or jobs in rural districts. The problem with this is that most teachers who enter the profession by alternant means leave the profession in two to three years, creating a revolving door of inexperienced underprepared teachers in our areas of highest need.

            I have heard many people ask, “Why don’t we just copy what successful countries are doing”? From what I have seen there is no one model we could copy, but there are elements from a number of different places that we could adopt. The size, geography, and diversity of the United States make the Finland model impractical and I would never sacrifice creativity in favor of the high test scores seen in Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. The biggest issue to me does appear to be the equitable funding of schools. I’m afraid that the only way that is going to change is through an act of Congress and a complete overhaul of the U.S. Tax Code.

            In 1984 we may have been a nation at risk but 23 years later it sure looks like we are a nation in peril. I would submit that the so called reforms of recent decades weren’t reforms at all, just merely band aids at best, at worst, political dog and pony shows. Real reform would address inequitable financing of schools, elevating the professional status of teachers, de-emphasis of standardized testing, abandonment of the test and punish model, and put educators back in charge of education.