The People We Are Becoming

Charter schools have become a hot topic in the United States, especially since President Obama called for the expansion of more innovative charter schools. However, he wasn’t the first president to remark on the development of them. In 1997, former President Clinton called for the creation of 3,000 charter schools by the year 2002. And, President Bush proposed a $200 million budget to support charter schools.

So, what is it about charter schools that make them so desirable?

When the first charter school law was passed in 1992, in St. Paul, Minnesota, it allowed for the creation of charter schools to be established.  By 1995, 19 states had followed suit and this number drastically increased to 40 states by 2003.

Charter schools made a promise to be the vehicle that delivered high quality education to our children. These schools are said to restore, reinvent and provide better opportunities for child centered education. This is largely because some charter schools are designed and tailored by the community, rather than a central bureaucracy. Teachers, parents, or activists who feel restricted by public school policies form them. These individuals have the opportunity to create new and better services to students, as long as the charter school meets the accountability standards expressed in its charter.

Although charter schools are considered public schools, there are some key differences. Charter schools are held accountable to the achievement goals embedded in their charters. Jennifer Darien, middle school grandmother, prefers to have to her granddaughter in a Los Angeles charter school rather than a public school. “I think charter schools allow for parents to be more involved with how it operates”, stated Jennifer.

Charter schools are publicly funded and much of the faculty is made up of parents and community activists. Therefore, the charter is held responsible to the community to possess good academic results. In fact, charter schools are reviewed every five years to ensure that they adhere to the educational standards.

Until recently most of the nation’s 4,600 charter schools were able to operate without unions. This allowed them to lengthen the school days, discharge-underperforming teachers and experiment with “merit pay” based on their performance. This type of pay scale is often debarred by work rules governing traditional public schools, due to tenure. Today, however, the unionizing of some charter schools has created serious debate.

Are charter schools better than public schools? Share your thoughts

Nordiclabourjournal.org

One may not think that a country where children start school at the age of seven, receive 75 minutes of recess and then go through high school with less than half an hour of homework at night would be ranked the number one leader in education.

Yet, by ninth grade, Finland students soar in math, reading and science. These scholars have outperformed peers in 43 other nations including the United States, Germany and Japan. According to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Finland’s 15 year old, secondary students finished on top followed by Hong Kong, and Canada.

The Finnish have implemented their fundamental model to education for over 40 years now. Political authorities believe that education is a critical component needed in order for a country to be competitive.  The central government substantially boosted Finland’s school system by ensuring free education to all. Education is very highly valued in the Finnish society.

There is no division of poor or wealthy schools. They are all equal and each school educates their children at the same per pupil rate, giving every student the opportunity to gain a quality education, regardless if they are doing well or not. In fact, if a student is struggling in a particular subject, they are not placed in a classroom of slower learning students. They are, instead, kept in the same class and helped along. Finland has a provision to have additional teachers in the classroom to help those that struggle.

Teachers are a highly valued and respected profession in Finland. They are the most important to the student’s success. All teachers regardless if they teach primary or secondary students must have a Master’s degree in order to qualify for a permanent job. And, teaching in Finland is regarded as a prestigious career, making it one of the most sought after professions. However, the selection process is competitive. Only 10% of 5,000 applicants are expected each year.

It is a consorted effort and there’s no struggle to create the interest of parent involvement in Finland. There is a philosophy of reading with the kids at home and having regular contact with their children’s teachers. “I wish I could do that but here in the U.S., I spend most of my time working just to pay bills and put food on the table.” Stated Ralph Kalian, middle school parent. “However, I understand that parent’s involvement does increase the schools effort.”

Underperforming teachers have taken advantage of tenure and there is now a sense of entitlement among them. According to the Educational Documentary, “Waiting for Superman” David Guggenheim explains that in many major cities only 1 out of 1000 teachers are fired for performance-related reasons. This is largely due to America’s interminable teacher tenure that is inadvertently keeping incompetent teachers from being fired and, even worse, they are “coddled” by Big Labor.

Tenure was originally seen at the university level as a perk once reserved for the dignified professors who work for ten years or more and published many pieces of academic work and acquired numerous intellectual accomplishments.

In the 19^th century the most significant adoption of academic tenure began. Then, teachers were capriciously fired by major donors for non-work related issues such as taking a political stand that the community might disagree with. Under the de facto tenure, professors were let go and often replaced with a principal’s friend or family member. In addition, teachers insisted on protection from parents and administrators who tried to dictate their lesson plans.

A call for special protection took place in 1887, when nearly 10,000 teachers met in Chicago for the, first time ever, conference of the National Educators Association. It is, now, the most influential union in the United States. The NEA advocated that tenure was needed to check against the impulsive firing behavior of administrators, to protect teachers who took political stands and to give teachers the academic freedom to teach their lesson plans.  Although teacher tenure was first granted to college professors it was extended to elementary and high school teachers in the 1920s.

Today, roughly 2.3 million K-12 teachers are given tenure after working only a mere 2 years. Tenure has become a hot topic debate.  On one side, individuals state tenure is needed to protect teachers against arbitrary dismissal. Opponents argue that tenure has become a system that defends incompetent faculty. Tenure makes it so difficult, cumbersome and costly to remove poorly performing teachers that most schools end up retaining their bad teachers.

Many parents are not aware that teacher tenure exists. Nikki Dore, the mother of both elementary and middle school children, had never heard of K-12 teacher tenure. She was aware, however, that tenure existed in certain professions and has changed significantly over the years. “Tenure in many industries was once a good idea.” Nikki stated, “However, as the workforce progressed the reputation of tenure changed. Tenure today seems to have a tendency to attract lazy people.”

Teachers with tenure are guaranteed a salary regardless if they perform or not and they are less likely to retire even if their lesson plans have become stale and obsolete. Tenure may be one reason why the U.S. has fallen from the number one spot in education to number 25 in the world and, unfortunately, the ones who suffer the most are the students.

Should K-12 teachers be entitled to tenure? Share your thoughts