It’s that time of year again–reliably bumming out students and parents alike… it ’s back to school! But back to school is also a time to reflect on the state of education in this country… and it’s not all that great.
America is one of the richest countries in the world. But you wouldn’t know it if you looked at our education statistics. We’re 16th in science globally. In Math, we scored below the average and well below the scores of the top five countries, all of which were in Asia. And in 2018, we ranked an astonishing 125th in literacy among all countries according to the World Atlas.
As we tumble down the international tables, public schools around the country are getting rid of gifted and talented programs. They’re getting rid of standardized testing. All while trying to regain ground from COVID-related learning loss…
So how did we get here? Why have public schools deprioritized literacy and numeracy? What role have teachers’ unions played in advocating for public education in this country and also in holding kids back by protecting bad teachers? How is socioeconomic segregation hurting academic performance? And what kinds of books should really be taught in public schools?
Today, we're diving deep into these questions and more with three experts who bring diverse perspectives to this debate:
Richard Kahlenberg is Director of the American Identity Project and Director of Housing at the Progressive Policy Institute. His many books and essays have focused on addressing economic disparities in education. Maud Maron is co-founder of PLACE NYC, which advocates for improving the academic rigor and standards of K-12 public school curricula. She’s also the mother of four kids in New York City public schools. Erika Sanzi is a former educator and school dean in Rhode Island. She is Director of Outreach at Parents Defending Education, which aims to fight ideological indoctrination in the classroom.
We discuss the misallocation of resources in education, the promise and perils of school choice, and how we can fix our broken education system.
And if you like this conversation, good news! All week this week at The Free Press—as summer ends and kids return to class—we’re pausing our usual news coverage to talk about education. We’ve invited six writers to answer the question: What didn’t school teach you?
With elite colleges peddling courses on “Queering Video Games,” “Decolonial Black Feminist Magic,” and “What Is a Settler Text?,” there’s never been a better time to go back to the proverbial school of life.
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Richard Kahlenberg is a progressive, Harvard idealist. He's the guy in the suit in the city telling the farmer how to sow his seed. Go spend a decade teaching first grade in a Title I school in rural America and see if what you believe about public education still holds. The family makeup of a student's household is a primary factor in their educational success. Yet, teachers are forbidden from acknowleding root causes. This has been going on for decades, and the little girls who were in first grade fiteen to twenty years ago are single mothers with first graders now. Seems pretty bad, right? What can a teacher do about that? That is way beyond their control. Instead, they have to figure out how to teach a first grader who has zero parental support and the vocabulary of a three-year old. Why should my kid go to school with this child? They are not on the same level, don't believe the same things, have different skill ceilings and ambition, but we live in the same area? That's it? C'mon.
Public schools are like churches to democrats. They teach secularism as its religious practice, and they have a monopoly on billions in school funds. Universal vouchers allow families to choose a school that best match their kids' talents, ambition, and beliefs. If you want to send your kid to Richard Kahlenberg's Queer School for Kids that Can't Read but Will Acknowledge All Stolen Lands, then so be it. Have fun. Give all parents that right.
Why should education dollars not be spent on religious schools that hold that to attend this school, you must adhere to its religion? Again, public schools are doing this now. The big fight over education in many locales is over gay/trans indoctrination/support. Schools hiding this type of information from parents, influencing kids and providing sexually explicit materials on homosexuality, etc. If public schools are fighting for this to be included in the school, why should a Christian or Muslim school not be funded equally? Should we not have the freedom to assemble with whom we want? If you want to teach my kid things against our religion, I think you are wrong. I don't want you anywhere near my kid.
The idea that the huge teachers unions fight against authoritarianism is absurd. The last four years have shown that as a lie on its face. Teacher unions are jobs programs, not education programs. Defending them as a benefit and key to educational sucess totally undermines any pro-public education position. Richard should figure out an argument that isn't based on needing them or their support.
Public schools exist to promote national unity? So all the elites that Richard went to Harvard with... just about all of them went to private schools. What about them? Are they not American, or do they not care? Is their education incomplete because they did not mix and mingle with the riff raff? If so, why should we listen to them about anything or let them have control over anything in rural America, to which they cannot relate?
Finally, we have a 1 million kid school system in New York. Why? How can a central authority manage the needs of that many kids? You can only rule by generalization, and kids with unique needs or talents have to leave to find avenues that support them elsewhere. Why shouldn't public funds be used to support them since the public schooling available doesn't work for them? Schooling is more successful when power and authority is localized and in partnership with parents. The only reason to continue to force education into the public monopoly is to maintain control. This is the typical authoritarian response where we must mandate X because people with freedom will choose Y. "We must fight against Y and denigrate Y and eliminate choice because stupid Americans won't choose what I want them to choose which is always right because I am super smart and they are not." It's a bad argument. Voucher all students and watch the market work. Good schools will attract successful students and families. Public schools will survive as social work communities (for those first graders I mentioned above) who can provide the needed wraparound services to help them succeed. The bureaucracy will shrivel, education will become cheaper, etc. Best of all, each kid will be taught based on his level of talent and ambition, and resources can be tailored to the needs of each kid.
Honest question... what is the worst that can happen? What negative outcomes will result in giving people a choice on how their school dollars are spent on their own children?
The administrative industrial complex eats up funding for education. Rather than trickle down education funding that will theoretically make it to the student it is instead taken by administrative positions created to make traditional administrative jobs easier.
Many programs sound wonderful and seem worthy of funding but the teachers are often not involved and see no difference in their classrooms. The national, state and district offices grow but there’s little left for the students.
In my 20 years of teaching the story hasn’t changed:
Teachers need to stop trying to befriend students and impressing those with the same political beliefs. It’s our job to have standards, challenge students to think and be a kind, respectful, authority figure who can be a mentor should the student choose. It’s not my job to impress upon kids my ethics and my morality. Teachers are educators. Not activists.
Administrators need to stop undercutting the educational environment by lowering standards and bowing to pressure from particular parents.
Politicians need to stop attempting to capture young voters by introducing orthodoxy that must be followed or the parents will be deemed problematic.