Brenda Payne, who teaches in Baltimore County, wrote the following open letter to Douglas Gansler, a candidate for governor of Maryland. It was published in the Baltimore Sun. We need more teachers like Brenda Payne, fearless, articulate, activist, to set this country on the right track.
Below are a few paragraphs from Brenda Payne’s letter to the Baltimore Sun. To read the entire letter, open the link.
By Brenda Payne
“An open letter to Douglas Gansler, attorney general of Maryland and candidate for governor
“Dear Mr. Gansler:
“As another school year winds down and I complete my 21st year in the Maryland Public School System, I am pondering where I should cast my vote in the upcoming gubernatorial election. It is a difficult choice. I do not need my union to tell me for whom I should vote. I can choose on my own. After your recent ad campaign, I can tell you who will not have my vote: you.
“I watched the ad on television and laughed at it, even as I shook my head and rolled my eyes. You want to “lift up our kids.” What on earth does that really mean? You want “Skill over seniority in every classroom!” Good luck with that one, too.
“All of us who have been in the classroom, either for a year or 30, should take offense at your ad. To suggest those of us in the classroom are not skilled is a slap in the face of those of us who head into those classrooms every day to try to convince bored, disinterested students that we really do want them to learn…..
“Believe me, Mr. Gansler, not one of us is in this profession for the money. Those of us who are “career teachers” are not in the classroom because it pays the bills. We are there because we want to be. We love children. You already have “skilled” teachers. What we need is more support and understanding. I accept my responsibility as a teacher, I understand my job. I love my kids. But to hold me completely accountable for the success or failure of my students is preposterous. I have my students for about 6.5 hours a day. I do not go home with them. I can not control what they do before and after school….”
Brenda Payne
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Quality schools + skilled teachers + supportive parents = successful students.”
Missing a few variables in that equation. Quality schools + skilled teachers + supportive parents + available living wage jobs + safe communities + access to medical (including mental health) care + ________________ + ________________ = successful students (the blanks indicating that I’m sure there are variables I’m leaving out too).
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Brenda has every right to indict a dishonest candidate blaming veteran teachers for policy failures. But, I agree with Dienne that shifting blame to irresponsible parents and toxic home lives is not enough or appropriate. Affluent kids also have irresponsible parents–alcoholics, drug addicts, career devotees, etc.–and suburban use of drugs is as widespread as inner-city drug use, though police harass and arrest inner-city kids and adults far more than they arrest white folks or suburban folks. So, “irresponsible” or “disorderly” home lives are structured by white supremacy law enforcement into communities of color. The enforced poverty of inner-city families is another way the status quo imposes instability on the lives of children of color. 38% of Black kids grow up poor; 35% of Hispanic kids grow up poor; about 11% of white kids do. I wish the veteran teacher Brenda would indict the public policies that allow such racial inequities to undermine schools. Intense inner-city child poverty is the first and greatest problem faced by teachers in those public schools. Then, there is the vast inequality in school resources available to poor districts compared to affluent ones. Our colleague Brenda the veteran teacher and other teachers in schools like hers need smaller classes to allow more intense mentoring of kids, teachers’ aides in every classroom to help in managing distraction from the handful of kids(not all the kids are acting-out), wrap-around school services for kids and families like social workers, psychologists, nurses, after-school tutoring and recreation, lots and lots of free books, class trips to interesting places, everyday time for arts, dance, music–robust outfitting of sports activities, etc. Affluent kids get these things and more, even if their parents are alcoholics or workaholics. Until this society rejects white privilege and class privilege, we teachers will be the frontline managers of the toxic outcomes of inequality. When former Mayor Bloomberg was handing over hundreds of millions of dollars of our tax moneys to the Yankees, Mets, and Nets, instead of reducing class size in our public schools, instead of building decent family housing for the 50,000 homeless in NYC, instead of providing libraries and playgrounds in every school and neighborhood…it’s policy-princes like him and oligarchs like that who should have all our fingers pointing at them for all they do to loot the wealth of this society for themselves and their cronies, instead of for the vast majority of school kids and families who are always left out to make do with what’s left over.
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Very well said.
I’d like to know more about this: “38% of Black kids grow up poor; 35% of Hispanic kids grow up poor; about 11% of white kids do”
What level of poverty are we talking about in each case? There’s a difference between simply “being poor” vs. the kind of desperate poverty that’s so often found in inner cities, especially in minority areas. There’s a very touching Dolly Parton song about a little girl growing up “poor” who doesn’t have a coat, so her mother lovingly sews strips of cloth from the rag bag together to make her one. I think that’s what most people think of when they think of “poverty” or “being poor”, and I’d guess (without the benefit of any research, admittedly) that that’s the kind of “poor” most of those 11% of white kids fall into. But that’s a far cry from the kind of poverty where you don’t know where you’re going to sleep at night (or who else might be there), whether you and your family will be safe, where your next meal is coming from or when – the kind of poverty that Kozol, among others, has been writing about.
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The poor ratios I posted represent children raised in families below the poverty line, which is now $22K for a family of four. Those growing up in what’s called “near-poverty” are the kids in families whose annual income is below 200% of the poverty level, or $44K, which means that 38% black kids, 35% hispanic kids, 11% white kids are living in families below $22K. Another huge chunk of these kids live in “near poverty,” so we are talking about millions of kids for whom poverty is the first problem of learning in school and living in society. At the same time, major finance and tech corporations in the US are now sitting on almost $4TRILLION in cash, that’s cash on hand, liquid capital in their bank accounts, which they are refusing to spend on raising wages, hiring more employees, expanding benefits, or paying the taxes due. We are a fabulously wealthy society with the most desperately poor children of any advanced nation. Disgusting is too good a word for this.
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Points well made.
Incidentally, I would encourage all Maryland democratic voters to compare the candidate websites on education. Heather Mazeur is the only one I see complaining about the teaching to the test culture and what it’s doing to children and their teachers. She was also very impressive in a televised debate with Brown and Gansler. On his website, Brown does make some mention of trying to address the entire environment of children, and not just the classroom. However, there is a disturbing implication in his rhetoric that teachers bear an over-sized responsibility, and a lack of mention, like Gansler, of the testing culture connected to Common Core that to me screams political cowardice. Even Larry Hogan, the presumptive Republican nominee, has been willing to go on record with serious doubts about Common Core even though he takes the shoddy implementation point of view. It is disappointing to me that there is no visible evidence (i.e. that I have been able to find) of teacher union questioning of Brown on the over-testing issue, just an endorsement where the local unions (at least that I’m aware of) are expecting teachers to march in lock step. It might be too much to hope that droves of Maryland teachers would get out to the primary polls and support Mizeur for her courage on the testing matter, so that even if she doesn’t win, the strength of her support brings this issue more to the fore in Maryland politics. But a 28 year teacher veteran can dream, can’t he?
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@David Taylor.. Brown would never go against common core because regrettably the MSEA supports the common core and only voices concerns as to its roll out. Brown wanted the support of the MSEA and he got it. The teachers never vote on who the MSEA should come out and openly support but the MSEA is sure eager to let candidates know who “they” supposedly back as “representatives of the teachers”!
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Sad but true.
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Politicians need to assert that they are tough on crime. The war on drugs, i.e. poorly disguised racism, is the result of this posturing. It certainly is fashionable for pols. to lament the miserable condition of public schools. The easiest target is teachers. Teachers in turn have to insist upon not allowing themselves to become victims of the revered divide and conquer scheme. Teachers especially have to recognize who are the allies-and fellow victims- and who is the enemy. Whom do pols support and whom do pols want to continue to browbeat, belittle, and befuddle? Teachers need to keep their laser focus on collective needs of students, parents, taxpayers, and themselves to discern the ways, means, intentions, and identities of the enemy.
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Many great points in the responses, and while I agree with them, I very much appreciate the perspective and willingness of the teacher/writer to come forward with some things that, while you would expect are common sense, generally get ignored by both the press and our public leaders.
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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I find it strange that not only among disingenuous politicians, ignorant voters, pandering journalists– but even among ourselves at this site, student time/ effort/ achievement is left out of the equation.
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A very important point that, yes, often gets overlooked or ignored. There is the argument that teachers can impact motivation and effort, but there are definite limits and much of this is beyond control of even the best teachers.
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“student time/ effort/ achievement is left out of the equation.”
It makes no more sense to beat up on students than it does to beat up on teachers. While teachers have no role in the outside influences on their students, the students are highly vulnerable to these influences. It is incredibly frustrating to know that we are not going to be able to reach some kids and to be blamed for it, but it is counterproductive for us to blame those students for their inability to take what we have to offer. The answer does not lie alone in what more we can do or in what students or their parents can do but in what society as a whole must do.
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Saying that skill is valued over seniority is not the same as saying that people with seniority don’t have skill. This misinterpretation is causing a lot of people to get up in arms unnecessarily.
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Ask yourself this question. If you are going to have open heart surgery do you want an intern or a man who had done 500 of them? The truth is, seldom does skill just erupt in the young teachers. Anyone who has taught knows how awful the first years struggle was to maintain control and have decent lessons. It gets easier as more skill is acquired and more lessons compiled. So no, skill isn’t always seniority but frankly it usually is.
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Another private school politician speaking out about what public school should be.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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It’s the lucky letter that gets through to the Baltimore Sun editorial page. They print a column by a known climate change denier, and routinely back pro-charter opinions. If you were to respond to this letter to the editor, it’s unlikely your opinion would be printed if it had a whiff of criticism of the “reform movement” that is raiding our budgets and making our education system worse for most kids and families.
As far as the governors race, not an impressive selection of candidates, more like picking the least bad, again.
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Yes, I saw Mr. Gansler’s campaign ad and was outraged.
His message clearly demonstrates how little he knows about public school education.
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I am a Maryland teacher and I thought the exact same thing when I saw his ad. He will not be getting my vote. It’s not just the “skill v. seniority” line. It’s the general air that he’s jumping on the bandwagon of teacher bashing because that’s what’s popular right now.
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Skill vs Seniority? Good one. You do know that the best race horses are retired and put out to pasture but the difference is they are well-cared for. All of us perform better in our younger, physically stronger days, but as we age, well, we do slow down. I have no problem being replaced by the younger, more skilled teachers, as long as my pasture has enough green in it for me to live out the rest of my days. What a bunch of… CRAAP. 😉
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I congratulate her on her honesty. And this is why education is not a business. If you manufacture cars or computers you have your eye on them and their quality day and night. To have them for 5 or 6 hours and then have the car or computer go elsewhere for 19 or 18 hours and then come back to the plant is unheard of. Do you think they would still have the same quality control. Common sense is evidently not so common, cause this is basically common sense.
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