Bashing Public Schools Says More About Bashers than Schools

3/23/2002

Bashing Public Schools Says More About Bashers than Schools
By Keith Broady, Chair, Association of Metropolitan School Districts

It has become popular sport for a small cadre of persons to engage in bashing of public schools at any opportunity. The latest example is Ron Eibensteiner’s June 13, 2004 diatribe, full of vulgar and derogatory comments about Minneapolis and St. Paul Public schools. The tactics of the bashers are predictable. Ignore successes, misuse statistics, blame schools for societal problems, compare schools that serve vastly different populations, and above all, advocate for blowing up the system rather than investing in proven programs.

Investments made in public education during the 1960s through the 1990s have paid huge dividends for all of Minnesota. During this period when we were investing in public education, the per capita personal income in Minnesota increased by 800%, far greater than the national average. We continually outpaced our neighboring states in the number of jobs added and new companies started. Yet the bashers ignore the undeniable connection between strong public schools and an educated workforce that attracts employers with high paying jobs.

Bashers also ignore the fact that Minnesota has more public school choice than virtually any state in the nation. Open enrollment, charter schools, post-secondary enrollment options and tax credits and deductions have given Minnesotans’ unprecedented options.

Today we face a new set of challenges. Children that come from poverty, are highly mobile, or don’t speak English cost more to educate than students who were born into a middle or upper middle class family and have stable housing. Some public schools serve student bodies that have more than 75% of their students coming from poverty and have a turnover in student population of up to 40% during each school year. If society (not only the schools) reduces poverty and mobility of students, student achievement will increase. We cannot expect that poverty and high student mobility will be eliminated. However, we can reduce the achievement gap by investing in programs that work.

Early childhood education, full-day kindergarten, summer school programs, attracting and retaining quality teachers, value-added assessments and local control are essential to increasing the achievement of students affected by poverty and mobility. Economists have recognized that the earlier we invest in our children’s education, the greater the economic gain. The bashers do not support investing in these proven programs because it runs contrary to their agenda to blow up the system. Who will be the champions for our youngest and most vulnerable students, the children who do not have a parent or adult advocate capable of serving their needs or making the best choices for them? Not the bashers.

Minnesota has not achieved its past successes by bashing its public schools or following the illogic, anger and vulgarity of bashers. Many of our past leaders, Republican, Democrat, and Independent alike, understood that an investment in children and in public education is an investment in our future. Minnesotans must not allow the small cadre of bashers to lead us astray.