The leaders of Pastors for Tennessee Children wrote an excellent appeal to the state’s leaders, based on common sense, experience, and research. William Terry Ladd and Amy Frogge, a former member of the Metro Nashville school board, point out that the state has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on privatization schemes that have failed. It’s time now to invest in community schools that address the genuine needs of children, they write.
None of these options has made a sustainable difference. In fact, vouchers and charter schools have made it worse, serving to exacerbate existing inequities in school systems by draining desperately needed funding from the neighborhood schools that serve around 90% of Tennessee’s students...
The reason these “solutions” haven’t made any real impact is simple: None address the root of the problem, namely the challenges faced by increasing numbers of Tennessee children who come to school without necessary resources and support at home.
The impact of poverty on learning coupled with the chronic lack of adequate funding for public education in Tennessee is a recipe for disaster. Many of Tennessee’s children, most often those in poverty, have experienced trauma and adverse childhood experiences- some due to the opioid crisis that has ravaged rural communities and others due to the challenges of growing up in low-income urban environments...
First, we must agree to invest in Tennessee’s schools and children. Statewide, Tennessee schools are underfunded by about a billion dollars per year, and our state ranks 45th in the nation in school funding.
So many of our educational inequities are caused by lack of proper school funding, and principals and teachers continuously struggle with unfunded state mandates, often providing classroom funds from their own poorly-paid pockets.
Second, widening the reach of Tennessee’s community school model is a proven solution that truly helps children, because it addresses the root cause of low student achievement: the issues that students face outside of school on a daily basis that impact their ability to focus in the classroom...
Community schools are open to all students within a community and have been shown to improve student learning, strengthen families, and create healthier communities. Because community schools provide a wide range of activities for students and their families, such as community gardens, arts programs, and sometimes even evening meals for families in need, they often become the hub of the community.
Will anyone in Tennessee’s state government listen or will they insist on pouring hundreds of millions of dollars more into failed strategies?
So-called choice is mostly a marketing scheme designed to make parents believe they are getting a better school for their children. Research has shown that choice generally does not improve education, and in many cases the quality of education is worse. Choice is a way for corporations to gain access to public dollars at the expense of public schools. It makes the wants of a few take priority over the needs of many. It is impossible to fund parallel systems and a public system for the same dollar. More underfunded schools are not a way to improve education.
The privatization of education has failed. It is time to consolidate resources and invest in quality education with supports and services designed to address the needs of poor students. A well resourced public school can offer wrap around services including medical, dental, mental health and social services that provide resources and guidance for struggling poor students and their families. With greater efficiency built in, community schools can do a much more effective addressing the needs of students that live in poverty. It is only when primary needs are met can we begin to address students’ academic needs.
Public schools bring people together. Our society is more fragmented than ever, and privatization further erodes the bonds of community. Well funded public schools that professionally serve all students help to build unity and connection within the school community and the community at large. We need to learn to appreciate each other and work together for the betterment of all our people. We do not need “islands of opportunity” for a few. We need investment in all our young people.
People need to be greedier. The current level of greed exhibited in the offices of corporate, state, and national executives and legislators is far too low. Right now, many folks are only greedy enough to want to make a fast buck by monetizing education. That’s not good enough. That’s not greed enough. If they were truly greedy enough, people would lust after life in a sustainable society. Desiring to live in a healthy, prosperous country is a more mature level of greed than that of the so-called leaders we have today. Today’s greed is childish. Testing and privatization companies don’t want to live in a great society; they just want your lunch money or they’ll beat you up after school at the flag pole. Nickels and dimes.
Today’s greed is selfish and short-sighted. The wealthy seek to buy yachts for themselves instead of trying to life all boats. That is the philosophy of individual greed. The ultra wealthy do not care about the common good because they don’t need it. Like Epstein they can afford their own island. The financialization of public schools monetizes mostly the poor at this point in time, and they do not care about the quality of the service. They and their rich friends will never use it. If we keep allowing the wealthy to destroy public schools, they will come after the working class next. They will demolish the common good to further enrich themselves.
cx: lift all boats
Like Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Propsal,” entrepreneurs could create a market to buy and sell school. No, wait, they’ve already done that. How about buying and selling children with their value pegged to their test scores? That’s Swiftian.
Privatization of public education has resulted in the monetization of mostly black and brown young people. In our checkered past history we should reflect on and take a hard look at when we have done this before.
Seneca Versified
The nature of greed
Is “more than we need”
And Nature as feed
Is little indeed
The Bezos Boyz
A pale blue dot
In blackest void
They want the lot
The greedy boys
“For Greed, all Nature is too little” — Seneca
Amazon Delivery
A hundred billion’s not enough
A trillion’s what I need!
To live without is really tough
So bring it here, with speed!
Interplanetary Wealth
Just the Earth is not enough
I’m really running out of stuff!
So give me Mars or give me death
The planets or my final breath
nice turn of phrase: a more mature level of greed
Lust After life in a sustainable society
I lust for afterlife
Cuz afterlife provides
A life without the strife
And trillion$ at my sides
Sustained for all of time
Sustained for me and mine
It really is a crime
To have to wait in line
Oh, Tennessee! My home. How often have I wanted to gather you into my arms and comfort you. But now the roads are filled with massive pickup trucks trailing their flags behind them. They are taught to be without thought, only to be loyal. Their votes go mindlessly against their own futures. They are like Cherokees who fought with Jackson against the Creeks. When will they see their demise at the hands of those they now adore? Or will they never come to know?
The Don stole my sweetheart from me
I checked this post specifically to see what you would write. Verging on the poetic! (I worked as a tour guide part time in college and when I could as a teacher and during one of my winter breaks I was with a U. of Tennessee group for the Sugar Bowl. I still break out in sweats and swear like a sailor every time I hear Rocky Top, truly the most evil ear worm in existence. 🤬)
My father got his agricultural degree at The university of Tennessee back when they went undefeated and did not give up a score in 1939. That was 30 years and a lot of dust before the Osbourne Brothers wrote Rocky Top.
Bill Gates’ plutocracy
“The Supreme Court May Soon Become Plutocracy’s Greatest Defender”- David Sirota in the Guardian. The article was accompanied by a photo of Barrett.
Karma- The Pres. of Notre Dame gets Covid at a Barrett super spreader event..