FeedsSchool Reforms: the beginning, not the end
Our state and our schools need to be reinvented.
The Governor and Legislature are to commended for making progress on school reform by striking a deal on landmark legislative ideas that have been kicking around the state capitol for a decade. Clearly, the up to $400 million of “Race to the Top,” U.S. Department of Education dollars provided the right amount of inducement to help strike the deal. The legislation expands the number of high-quality charter schools—including two new e-learning “cyber schools”—raise the dropout age from 16 to 18, and give the state stronger authority to take over 5% of the state’s academically worst failing schools.
However, regardless of how monumental, these reforms should be viewed as the beginning—not the end. A recent column (The Do-it-yourself Economy, December 13, 2009) by New York Times columnist and best selling author Thomas Freidman should be required reading by every educator and legislator in Michigan and America.
This quote by Farooq Kathwari, the CEO of Ethan Allen furniture company, stood out: “Our associates recognize that reinvention is vital to our very survival.“Teachers and those who run our public schools need to make this statement part of their DNA.
Sadly, just the opposite attitude permeates to much of the debate around school reform today.
Holding onto the past and protecting the status quo will not prepare our children, state or nation for the hyper-competitive, global, knowledge and innovative economy where ideas and jobs can and do move around the world effortlessly. Until and unless more and more educators understand and act on this fact we will remain in deep trouble in this state and nation.
Our world has changed in substantial ways and doing what we have always done will not get us where we need to go. What we once had is now gone. Constant and unpredictable change is our new reality.
While we may get momentary reprieves form Federal stimulus funds and the federal department of education “Race to the Top” dollars, no one is coming to our permanent rescue. We can expect the state budget to be strained for the foreseeable future where continuation budgets would be a luxury and continued budget cuts more likely. Given this reality, our schools must follow the new 3 R’s: restructure, reform and reinvent themselves to survive and thrive.
What we make of this new reality is up to those that work in our public schools along with all that do not.Currently, Michigan invests one billion dollars per grades for K-12 education. The clamor across the state is that our schools need more money.
Politicians are judged by how much money they pour into or take away from our schools. The more pertinent question should not be how much is given or taken away—it should be what are the results we are getting for the investment we are making? When viewed through this prism—the picture is not pretty.
Education Matters
Education, creativity, talent, and innovative ability are the commodities that will drive success for individuals, states and nations in the 21st century.
Clinging to our past successes will not enable us to maintain future greatness. Yes, we were the “arsenal of democracy,” the state that “put the world on wheels,” and gave the world Motown sounds. The greater question is not what we were—but what we will become? Proclaiming you aced your last test, is, well, interesting history but has little value today.
Michigan and our schools are facing a crisis—and within this crisis an opportunity lurks to change and innovate. We can choose to drop anchor in the past or set sail for a new prosperous future. Doing the same thing that bought us to this point is not an option.
Enough Blame To Go Around
Don’t just blame our school problems on the governor, legislature, or unions. As the old Pogo comic strip character would say, “we have met the enemy and it is us.“
Regardless if you work in our schools, send your children to them or pay the taxes to support them—everyone must demand improved productivity and educational outcomes and find innovative ways to deliver quality education within tax resources available or the public support for the very fabric that helped build this great country of ours; our neighborhood public schools will continue to fade.
Yes, superintendents and school boards need to adhere to union contracts. Yet, both management and labor must be willing to reopen those contracts when new realities make them unsustainable and undercut the core mission of education — teaching and learning.It is change or die time for our state and our schools. Doing the same thing that bought us to this point is not an option.
Michigan and America are teetering on the precipice. Quality education, skills, talent and the willingness to change and innovate will be our salvation.
As the year comes to and end and a new one begins, new opportunities await—to change and innovate—failure to act will have devastating consequences.
Tom Watkins served the citizens of Michigan as state superintendent of schools, 2001-2005, state mental health director, 1986-1990. He now is an education and business consultant in the US and China.
