What an election season this has been. We are faced with major challenges over the next eight years. Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama have made their closing arguments for why they each should be elected. Neither, I believe, has made the case for educational policies that would be any different than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton.
The last two terms of the Bush administrations have been a boon to the textbook and testing companies by promoting an ill-conceived and ill-executed educational policy--No Child Left Behind--which underscores the inherent problems with most of the Bush era policies, foreign and domestic.
The Clinton years were not any more successful in helping school-aged children. Indeed, the school accountability movement got its legs under Bill Clinton's administration. School Choice found voice, teacher and student "competencies" became a mantra, and religious acceptance in schools became issues from 1993 to 2000. Teachers, students, and schools have all suffered under the yoke of failed policies, and no matter who wins on Tuesday, we may be in for more years of grandstanding.
Perhaps George W. Bush needs to be pilloried the most for this failure (let's all pile on) because he ran on a platform of being the "Education Candidate" in the 2000 election. Yet, with 9/11, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the only education the nation received was in war and failed policies, both foreign and domestic. We are in sad, sad shape as a country because of failed ideology, Realpolitik. We are desperate for leadership and vision rather than just rhetoric and cult of personality.
So, what should our top three educational initiatives be in the next eight years with regard to education?
1.) REPEAL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND: Great idea in theory but lousy execution. This law should be buried and schools should be given a pass on what it portends and pretends to be. No equity and justice, no peace.
2.) SCHOOLS AS CENTERS OF STRENGTH: Using K-12 schools as educational Centers of Strength (see the Harwood Institute for descriptions here). Schools should be at the center of our collective thoughts. Current and future leaders who understand the processes of their community should be given more weight during these next four years. It's important to have our working and successful schools become models to follow rather than being broad-brushed and dismissed as not working. Most schools work and work well.
3.) INCREASE SPENDING FOR EDUCATION: More schools need to be created, more teachers must be inducted into the profession, and higher rates of pay should be given for effective teachers and administrators (where testing is only part of what gets rewarded). We should also look at ways of creating consistent professional development opportunities for teachers and other school personnel so that we look at school work as closely as scientific exploration.
