What Kansas needs from Commissioner Corkins

Commissioner Corkins, I want to thank you for sharing with us your vision for the future of public education in Kansas. I doubt that it comes as a surprise that my Vision for the future of public education in Kansas is slightly different from the one you have described. My hope is that by sharing our contrasting visions we will find common ground on which to stand and work together to make the public schools in Kansas second to none!

But first, I want to share a perception that explains in part why it is hard for some of us who have devoted our lives to the education of Kansas children to trust anyone who claims to be supportive of the public schools while promoting policies that undermine the credibility and quality of public education.

It was an article of faith among our nation’s founding fathers that a republic could only survive if its citizens were educated. In the oft quoted words of Jefferson, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.”  “The free common school system,” Adlai Stevenson once said, is “the most American thing about America.”

 Yet some Americans today seem to think that we have lost our way in education. They regale one another with horror stories about how terrible conditions are in our schools today and long for the “good old days,” when they imagine things were better.   

I learned a long time ago that ‘things aren’t like they used to be’ and probably never were!

Two groups of critics have been the most vocal in recent times. On the one hand, we have those who simply do not agree with the democratic ideal of universal free public education. These critics believe the only way to have quality education is to separate those they consider most deserving of a high quality education and provide them with a rigorous education worthy of their high potential.

So long as those who desire a private education for their children are willing to support high quality public education, their choice to send their children, at their own expense, to private schools should be respected by everyone. But statements such as the one made by the president of the Sutherland Institute, present a serious and unacceptable threat to the Common School. He urged creation of “a state education system that would effectively turn public schools into a place of last resort for poor children.”

A far cry from the eloquent and moving statement of John Dewey, "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other idea for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy."

 “In a society as socially diverse as the United States, controversies about purposes and practices in public schooling are hardly surprising.”[1] Nor is it surprising that religious conservatives who have been frustrated in their efforts to impose their extreme religious views and values on the public schools have added their voices to the attacks on the public school.

An alarming statement of this point of view came from the reverend Jerry Falwell, who said, “I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them.” Joseph Bast, stated it in even more threatening terms, “Soon, most ‘government schools’ will be converted into private schools,” he said, “or simply close their doors.”[2]

Assertions by advocates of school choice that the resulting competition will lead to improvements in the quality of public education have a very hollow ring; especially when the competing schools will not be playing by the same rules; will not have the oversight of a locally elected board or be subject to the same standards as public schools.

If the absence of standards and public accountability is a formula for improving educational performance, the obvious policy solution is to make compliance with legislative and State Board of Education standards voluntary for all public schools.

A survey of private schools in large inner cities conducted by the U.S. Department of Education is worthy of special note. This survey found that between 70 and 85 percent of private schools would “definitely or probably” not be willing to participate in a voucher program if they were required  to accept “students with special needs such as learning disabilities,  limited English proficiency  or low achievement.” Any doubt as to which children would remain for the public schools to educate?

The truth is, as confirmed by a just-published analysis of the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), “… after accounting for the fact that private schools serve more advantaged populations, public schools perform remarkably well, often outscoring private and charter schools.” The report goes on, “Overall, the study demonstrates that demographic differences between students in public and private schools more than account for the relatively high raw scores of private schools.”[3]

Charlotte Coffelt stated it very clearly, “It is important to remember what is at stake. Private religious schools play by different rules than public schools. Public schools must by law educate all comers. Private schools may expel or refuse to admit students who do not believe certain religious facts. Some elevate dogma over education, such as fundamentalist academics that teach “creation science” instead of evolution. Parents have the right to send their children to these schools, but they do not have the right to demand that taxpayers foot the bill.”[4]

Is it not reasonable to assume that private means private and public means public? That private means private funding and private control; and public means public funding and public control?

Over the past forty years I have traveled to all 50 states and to over fifty countries around the world. In every place I have been I have observed the innocence, the beauty, and the optimism of children – red and yellow, black, and white –  rich and poor, urban and rural,  Christian and Muslim,  Hindu and Buddhist – and it is the vision of their future that motivates us to do what we do every day to make sure that to the limit of our ability and energy, the educational birthright of every Kansas child is protected!

I like the way one person described a school. A building with four walls and a roof on top And the future inside!

Every parent who has ever scheduled a conference with a principal to request re-assignment of a child to the classroom of a different teacher knows what it takes to produce quality education: QUALITY TEACHERS!

The children of Kansas (nearly a half million of them in our public schools today)[5] cannot wait for gimmicks and shell-games to fail before we deliver on our promise of a high quality education. They know, and we know, that “a dream deferred is a dream denied!”[6] The research is irrefutable! If we want to close the achievement gap between rich and poor children, between urban and rural children, between children of color and white children, ANYWHERE, including Kansas – we know what to do; we know what we must do; and we know this without more costly studies of inputs and outputs whether they be conducted by Augenblich and Meyers or by our own post audit staff.

Over 10 years ago, the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future stated it in unequivocal terms. They said there is no way to create good schools without good teachers! They set forth a bold and audacious goal: that by 2006 every student in America should have access to competent, qualified teaching  in schools organized for success. That is their educational birthright and we have denied them access to it! You can give every child in Kansas a voucher to attend the school of their choice but that will do nothing to help us deliver on our constitutional obligation to our children! And it will do nothing to increase the pool of highly qualified teachers!

And for that matter, neither will the supply of highly qualified teachers be increased by waiving certification standards. As a former School of Education Dean I can tell you that content knowledge is critical for all teachers, but so is pedagogy. And this is especially true in most of the hard to fill positions such as, Special education and TESL.

I have a degree in Mathematics, in fact I earned high honors in mathematics, and I have a Ph.D. in Education, but I am not qualified to teach Middle School or High School Mathematics! And it would take far more than a course in summer school to prepare me to be a good teacher.

Good teachers must know WHAT to teach, BUT they must also know HOW to teach! I’m all for giving superintendents and principals more responsibility for selecting teachers but not at the expense of quality education. Success in any aspect of reform–– depends on highly skilled teachers working in supportive schools that engender collaboration with families and communities.”

“Concerns about ‘at-risk’’ children–– those who drop out, tune out, and fall behind–– cannot be addressed without teachers who know how to teach students who come to school with different learning needs, home situations, and beliefs about what education can mean for them. There is no silver bullet in education. When all is said and done, if students are to be well taught, it will be done by knowledgeable and well-supported teachers.”[7]

My Vision for the children of Kansas is one where our public schools have the resources to provide every child with a high quality education; where parents can be confident that regardless of which public school in Kansas their children attend they will receive a world class education; where the choices that high school students make are choices as to which courses they will take in their school’s comprehensive curriculum to prepare them for work or college based on their individual needs, abilities,  and aspirations; where the graduates of all of our high schools will have no doubt that they can choose which college to attend without worrying that their education has not prepared them  to meet the entrance requirements of the schools of their choice; where employers will have reason to praise our schools for the excellent work ethic and skills of Kansas high school graduates; and where school boards are able to offer salaries that allow us to retain highly qualified teachers and attract a pool of highly qualified candidates when we have positions to fill.

Some of the problems we face are more concentrated in our rural schools while others are more evident in our urban schools. This has at times made it difficult for us to agree on the solutions to our problems, yet we all know that unless the solutions we develop benefit all children in our state, they are not worthy of any of our support.

The problems we face today did not arise in the recent past. The roots run deep and wide.

The problems we face in our rural schools are inextricably connected to policies that encourage corporate farming at the expense of the family farm; they are tied to the decline of our rural population that began in the 30’s and continues even today.

The problems we face in our urban schools are embedded in the history of our nation that began half slave and half free. They had their beginning in a now abandoned dictum of “separate but equal” schools.

In a time when the majority of the 1400 plus schools in Kansas are facing declining enrollment, the idea of creating more schools, whether they are called charter public schools or private/parochial schools, simply makes no sense at all.

At a time when all public schools are being challenged to raise the level of student performance, promoting vouchers, and unregulated private or charter schools, is clearly detrimental to the best interests of the children of Kansas.

What we need from you, Commissioner Corkins is leadership in finding creative solutions to the challenges that our rural schools face in their efforts to provide a critical mass of highly qualified teachers in the face of declining enrollments, capable of offering the diverse curriculum  demanded by the world in which our children will live and work.

What we need is leadership In collaboration with Kan-ed to support a statewide virtual classroom for real-time online instruction in areas where the number of highly qualified teachers is inadequate to go around.

What we need is leadership in persuading the legislature to adequately fund our schools to enable local school districts to keep class sizes at a level that enables teachers to provide the individualized instruction so essential if they are to respond to students who come from diverse backgrounds.

What we need is leadership that will empower the 2,100 plus members of local boards of education to manage the educational programs in their districts to achieve clearly defined educational outcomes.

What we need is not school choice and competition but collaboration and cooperation in making good on our children’s educational birthright instead of a phony Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, 65% solutions, or school vouchers.

We did not create the problems we face today. But it is our destiny and our challenge to confront the issue of improving the quality of the schools of our state as a top priority.

Reform does not come from destroying the genius of America’s common schools. True reform will come from those who care enough about our public schools to pay whatever price it takes to ensure that the children of Kansas continue to have access to the best education available anywhere in the world even it that requires an increase in taxes!

Visit any school in Kansas and look into the faces of the children. Can you tell which one will be the next Nobel prize winner? The next Rhodes Scholar? Which ones will be the teachers for the next generation? Which one will find the cure for cancer or AIDS? Which one will become governor of Kansas or president of the United States? It is good that we cannot pick the winners and losers by looking into the faces of children lest we be tempted to spend our time working with the future leaders and neglect the others. Our challenge is not to pick the leaders and cultivate them. Our moral imperative is to see that every child is granted their birthright to competent and caring teachers in schools organized for success!

The inspiring words of Thomas Wolf are all the motivation we need to continue,

So then, to every child their chance!

To every child, regardless of their birth,

Their shining, golden opportunity

To every child the right to love, to live, to work, to be themselves,

And to become whatever their vision, their hopes and their dreams combine to make them!

This is the Promise of America![8]

[1] School, p. 2

[2] Joseph Bast, “2002: The Year of School Vouchers,” The Monthly Heartlander, February 2002, accessed at http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=10708

[3] Charter, Private, Public Schools and Academic Achievement: New Evidence from NAEP Mathematics Data, January 2006.

[4] Charlotte Coffelt, Robbing Peter, published by the United Methodist Church, 2004,  p. 15

[5] 65,000 with an IEP; over 22,000 ELL; 10,880 receiving migrant services; and over 175,000 on free or reduced lunch programs.

[6] Langston Hughes

[7] What Matters Most: Teaching for America’s Future, Report of the National Commission on Teaching & America’s Future, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York: September 1996, pp 9 – 10

[8] Adapted from Thomas Wolfe