This article by the superintendents of New York City (Richard Carranza), Chicago (Janice Jackson), and Los Angeles (Austin Beutner) appeared in the Washington Post. For those too young to know, the Marshall Plan was a massive American investment in foreign aid package to rebuild Europe after World War II. It was proposed by General George Marshall.
President-elect Joe Biden has described the crisis in public schools caused by the pandemic as a “national emergency.” As the superintendents of the nation’s three largest public school districts — New York, Los Angeles and Chicago — every day we grapple with the challenges that worry not just the president-elect but also the students and families we serve. Our schools, like thousands more across the nation, need help from the federal government, and we need it now.
The challenges school communities face aren’t for lack of effort by principals, teachers, staff, parents and students. Among our three districts, more than 2 million students and hundreds of thousands of educators have worked to transform teaching and learning from the inside out. We’ve seen teachers tackle long division from their kitchens and students debate the Constitution in Spanish from their living rooms.
But the fact is that for many — if not most — children, online and even hybrid education pales in comparison to what’s possible in a classroom led by a great teacher. Too many children are falling behind, threatening not just their individual futures but also America’s global competitiveness.
In Los Angeles Unified, where almost 80 percent of students live in poverty and 82 percent are Latino and African American, Ds and Fs by high school students have increased about 15 percent compared with last year. Meanwhile, reading proficiency in elementary grades has fallen 10 percent. In Illinois, students have lost more than a year of math progress. In New York City, 82 percent of students are children of color, largely from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, suffering tremendous loss and trauma that accompanies kids into the classroom. Across the country, math performance on standardized tests lags the prior year by 5 to 10 percentile points.
It’s time to treat the dire situation facing public school students with the same federal mobilization we have come to expect for other national emergencies, such as floods, wildfires and hurricanes. A major, coordinated nationwide effort — imagine a Marshall Plan for schools — is needed to return children to public schools quickly in the safest way possible.
Schools have shown that they can stay open safely despite community spread of the virus, but that demands the right set of actions, and adequate financial support, to bring students back safely and address the impact of this crisis head on.
Part of the problem is that the Cares Act and subsequent relief packages did not designate public school districts as recipients. Direct federal support for schools must be specific and targeted.
A federal relief package for schools should cover the basic building blocks of a safe, healthy and welcoming school environment so that educators and students can focus exclusively on their mission: high-quality teaching and learning. Funds should be provided directly to public school districts for four essential programs: cleaning and sanitizing of facilities and providing protective equipment; school-based coronavirus testing and contact tracing to help reduce the risk for all in the school community; mental health support for students to address the significant trauma they are facing; and funding for in-person instruction next summer to help students recover from learning losses because of the pandemic. Many local districts have poured resources into these efforts, and places such as New York City have seen success. But it’s simply not sustainable without federal support, and as covid-19 infection rates surge across the country, the pandemic shows no sign of slowing.
The cost of this lifeline for schools — an estimated $125 billion — is less than 20 percent of the total earmarked for the Paycheck Protection Program and about twice the amount provided to airlines. That’s a relatively small price to safely reopen the public schools that give millions of children a shot at the American Dream and their families the chance to get back to work.
Getting children back in the classroom and helping them recover must be addressed by the federal government with the same urgency and commitment as other disasters. Failure to do so will allow a “national emergency” to become a national disgrace that will haunt millions of children for the rest of their lives.
Three cheers for advocating for a massive investment in education. Shame on these superintendents for not challenging the punitive practice of failing students during a pandemic that has disrupted their education. The students haven’t failed. The system has. The only assessment during this period–and the most important always–should be targeted teacher feedback to on what they can do to reach learning goals.
“The students haven’t failed. The system has. The only assessment during this period–and the most important always–should be targeted teacher feedback to on what they can do to reach learning goals.”
Bingo, bango, boingle!!! We have a winner here, give that man a Kewpie Doll!
Decades of “Government is the problem” brainwashing and propaganda, which has worked brilliantly. Now that we need government, it’s there for us, but it’s limping around in crutches, if not crippled with an oxygen tank in a wheelchair.
Sadly the superintendents chose NOT to partner with teacher unions and parent organizations in writing the statement, while $$ are crucial, the way the $$ are used is equally crucial. In NYC the chancellor is a testing fanatic, without buy-in from teachers and parents the voices on high are swept away by the winds of constant change ….
Classroom teachers and school leaders must have confidence in school district leadership and feel supported and actually in charge of their practice.
Classroom teachers and school leaders must have confidence in school district leadership and feel supported and actually in charge of their practice.
I love this. Maps are so cool. I know you folks think I am crazy, but I seriously get excited about maps.
Schools in New Orleans could have used a “Marshall Plan” after Hurricane Katrina. Urban school districts do not need any plan that will carve them up and sell off the education of their students to the highest bidder. They do not need their education turned over to a bunch of self-serving profiteers and amateur education entrepreneurs. We have already been down that road for almost two decades, and we know it leads to nowhere.
Urban school districts need investment, and they need that investment managed by professional education leaders and teachers. The emphasis must be on what is best for students, not investors. All monies allocated should be reserved for legitimate public community schools, Charter schools enroll a lot fewer students, and they were well compensated under the Cares Act. We must not keep repeating mistakes of the past and expecting a different outcome.
From Retired Teacher Best Text: “They (all of us) do not need their education turned over to a bunch of self-serving profiteers and amateur education entrepreneurs. We have already been down that road for almost two decades, and we know it leads to nowhere.” CBK
EXACTLY! “Urban school districts do not need any plan that will carve them up and sell off the education of their students to the highest bidder. They do not need their education turned over to a bunch of self-serving profiteers and amateur education entrepreneurs. We have already been down that road for almost two decades, and we know it leads to nowhere.”
Maybe Austin Beutner has his eye on the millions in public money he can hand over to managment companies to invest in charter schools- maybe he’ll throw a few crumbs to the public schools. Wasn’t his past as an investment banker & a major donor to Democratic causes the reason he was the pick for the LA school board? I find his union busting past and his charter cheerleading a reason to be skeptical of his support for public education and the teaching profession.
Equity & justice are not the outcomes in Beutner’s edu privatization milieu.
All three cities in the post have given charter school expansion preferential treatment over public schools as did The Cares Act. Public schools have suffered from disinvestment ever since charters arrived to scoop up public dollars. It is time to invest in the schools that accept all students, serve the most students and have the greatest needs.
“Schools have shown that they can stay open safely despite community spread of the virus, . . . .”
What planet do those Supe Adminimals live on? Certainly not this planet.
How much bullshit do they want us to believe? And there is a lot more, and I’m only through the first third of the post.
Tacitly reinforcing the ‘reopen schools’ meme seems a theme here. Thanks for calling bullshit.
De nada.
Unions for teachers, nurses, grocery and hotel workers call for L.A. County shutdown in January
In a move that reflects the desperation of teachers, nurses, healthcare, grocery and hotel employees, their influential unions are calling for a strict month-long Los Angeles County shutdown in January to control the raging COVID-19 pandemic, save lives and ultimately allow for a quicker reopening of schools and the economy.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-17/unions-call-emergency-la-county-covid-19-shutdown
I have found that those clamoring the most for opening schools are those that make their money by investing so that they don’t have to come close to a “danger zone”.
The second group is the “Woe the Children” people who project their own anxieties onto children who then pick up those anxieties and mimic them. Kids are resilient. Hell just let them do kid things for a year, they’ll be better off than either the “distance learning” or the in person social distancing, masking, restricted movement schooling. Let the kids be kids!
A just society would respond to this pandemic in a humane way. I think China did that in Wuhan.*
The WSWS proposes, I think, humane response.
For emergency action to save lives! Close schools and shut down nonessential production! Full compensation for workers!
Under the conditions of the pandemic, to send workers to factories and teachers to schools is no different from forcing people to enter a burning building. Industries where work is essential to stopping the virus and maintaining the basic functioning of society must have the most stringent safety measures, overseen by the workers and health care professionals.
————————————-
*Social Policy Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis in China in 2020
“The Chinese welfare state has woven a comprehensive social safety net to mitigate the social suffering of Chinese society in the mid- and post-crisis periods.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7460459/
But, but, but that’s a socialist organization. Cain’t be listenin to any commie pinkos now can we??
Here’s some more of Supe Adminimal BS:
“Ds and Fs by high school students have increased about 15 percent compared with last year. Meanwhile, reading proficiency in elementary grades has fallen 10 percent. In Illinois, students have lost more than a year of math progress. In New York City, 82 percent of students are children of color, largely from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the virus, suffering tremendous loss and trauma that accompanies kids into the classroom. Across the country, math performance on standardized tests lags the prior year by 5 to 10 percentile points.”
As noted by Arthur above it’s not the students who are failing in the grade regard, it is the districts whose lack of leadership choose to use outdated, false, invalid grading practices that are at fault. Extraordinary times such as an epidemic demand extraordinary thinking and by keeping the those grading malpractices in place only shows that the Supe Adminimals and their adminions don’t have the capabilities for extraordinary thinking.
Oh, and the infamous “year of math progress”. Someone please explain EXACTLY what that is supposed to mean and how that progress was assessed.
It’s not only children of color who have been disproportionately affected, it is all children in the lower SES brackets that are living in poverty that are more negatively affected than let’s say the children of the Supe Adminimals, i.e., the upper classes.
“lags the prior year by 5-10 percentile points.”
Hmmm, and I’m supposed to believe that using invalid test scores and comparing them year to year is a valid means of assessing student performance???
Quite typical Supe Adminimal shallow thinking, reliance on bogus statistics, pleas to save the minority children from the practices that they themselves willingly implement and, to make it all seem reasonable to limousine liberals, calls for more monies.
Is there a need for more equitable distribution of monies for all schools? No doubt. Man I wish that our rural poverty district got somewhere near the national average per student expenditure but as it is we have to get by with spending $9,000 per student per year versus the national average of around $15,000/student.
But until the massive fraudulent malpractices caused by NCLB, ESSA and RttT mandates are removed to allow for a more humanistic teaching and learning process guided by the student’s individual desires and needs, we’ll continue to throw good money after bad down the hellhole of the standards and testing malpractice regime to the detriment of all students.
Well stated, Duane. Sadly, the false “solution” to all the inequity is to turn students over to a bunch of Wall St. investors that will ignore poverty and only magnify the inequity.
true. So true.
Duane,
I also think it would be useful if a trusted source did a deep dive into what is actually being bought by that $9,000/student or $15,000/student that is “spent”. Because without good information, it is near impossible to make good public policy decisions.
For example, I always hear that NYC spends such a huge amount per student, but then it seems like an enormous percentage of that money is spent to service the pension and building debt that has nothing to do with expenditures that are spent on today’s student population. If every $20,000 “per pupil” really means $8,000 to pay for past debt and for the pensions and healthcare of retired teachers (not current teachers) and only $12,000 that is really available to spend on current students’ education, that is important to know. Pensions and debt needs to be paid for, but there also needs transparency so the public doesn’t get the wrong idea that one city is “spending” $20,000 per pupil and another city is spending $15,000 per pupil when that second city doesn’t have to serve huge pension and debt obligations out of the $15,000 and so that second city has a lot more money to spend on today’s students than the city “spending” $20,000/year.
Sometimes it is throwing good money after bad, or wasting a lot of money on test prep but it also can be that there just is not as much money spent per student in some cities even though it appears that those cities have very high per pupil spending. It’s impossible to know what is going on without being able to clearly see how much of that “per pupil” money is obligated to direct expenses in schools.
Don’t worry, the union-bashers & lib-bashers are well aware. We have the same issue in NJ, & ornery NJ conservatives bring it up on literally every article about pubschs in the NJ.com et al local news websites. As do the blue-state bashers on any WaPo article that says anything about more $ needed for pubschs (or even just about state/ mun $ needed due to covid revenue losses!)
For taxpayers in NJ there’s full data online breaking per pupil spending down for classroom instruction, salaries, admin, supplies, etc etc. The breakdown is there for state average as well as by county & individual district. Don’t know about NYC.
“Cost per pupil” (Total operating budget divided by student population) is a very deceptive term. bear in mind that the OB of large city school systems are equivalent to cost of running a large town or even a small city.
The “instructional cost per pupil” would be much more accurate for the average non educator which in NYC probably closer to $5,000 per pupil per year. (Average Teacher salary $65K divided by Student :Teacher ratio of 13). Add a little for supplies and TAs. The extra $15K goes to running the system.
Using your calculation, for my rural poverty district the average teacher make about $47,000 and has around 13 student/teacher ration (which is a bogus stat as counselors and adminimals are included in that “teacher” calculation which works out to about $3650/student. Result is that we still spend 27% less than in NYC per student when using your calculations.
I understand that large urban districts have their own set of more or less unique problems, especially in the infrastructure/building area, but that doesn’t contraindicate/mitigate against the reality that we woefully under support our lower SES community public schools.
There’s such a startling difference in nj between the big poor cities an the well-off suburban towns. Newark spends $21k per pupil, my town pays $16k pp (below state ave). There’s an equitable formula: Newark gets 80% state aid, we get only 15%. But we still get to spend a lot more in classroom instruction [$8k, 50%], whereas they are
probably paying more like $5-$6k based on Rage s guesstimate for NYC. We no doubt have a small fraction of their proportion of SpEd & ESL students. Plus there’s very little busing reqd here, & the good condition of facilities would make them much cheaper to op/ maintain.
**There should be a place on the report card for PT to replace the grade: Pandemic Time. CBK
Good simple workable solution!
One principal allowed me to write a disclaimer on report cards instead of having a classroom teacher give students a failing letter grade. Since we did not have a bilingual program for content subjects, we wrote “cannot fully evaluate at this time” for science and social studies.
retired I’m glad to see your example of someone actually thinking . . . instead of just giving bad letter grades in these exceptional circumstances. CBK
One part of the Marshall plan was US intervention in the election of 1947 in a war-torn Italy. Propaganda against Italian communists who threatened to create a government sympathetic to the Soviets (US state dept interpretation) defeated them at the polls in a move that was copied throughout the world over the duration of the Cold War.
We do not need that kind of Marshall plan. We need a plan that has the children in mind.
–better places to learn
–more resources
–higher pay for those in the trenches
–fewer tests and overseer administration
Janet Jackson is doing a great job in Chicago. 🙂
Sounds like a great plan…..UNTIL you get to the small print. The headline is catchy, but the article is mumbo jumbo marketing garbage. More of the same deform crap that we’ve had for 20+ yrs. Yeah, we NEED a Marshall plan for education, but we need to keep big business and the grifters out of it. To be fair, I didn’t read the article (only what is printed in the blog post), but I didn’t have to because it’s the same nonsense time and again. Why keep reading marketing op-eds and fake news.
Love the request for adequate funding instead of unfunded mandates. Do not love the Nation at Risk sky is falling talk of threats to our “global competitiveness”. Let’s not forget what education is for. It’s not money.
LeftCoast “Let’s not forget what education is for. It’s not money.”
Nor is education without the need for collaboration and open-source inform-ation. Healthy competition can only remain healthy IF it stands on those basic foundations . . . just like capitalism can only be or remain healthy IF it stands on a systematic recognition of a similarly-healthy community. CBK
Isn’t it a bit ridiculous for these men to claim that education is the “cause” for US global competitiveness and ignore years of malpractice and greed of MBAs & CEOs?
After the 2008 Wall St greed destroyed the world economy, the banks got a Marshal Plan of $7 trillion.
After banks used their public HAMP bailout money they cheated & foreclosed and made millions of Americans homeless,
And huge tax cuts to corporations they layed off MORE workers and bought back stocks to boost bonuses in the C-suite.
Our absurdly imbalanced trade deficit.
It seems the business community runs on one speed when it comes to education- contempt for public schools and the millions of people who love it for their children.
Class size matters. Teaching 32 kids (my 3 years in NYC) vs 18-24 (my 20 years in a suburban district) is the main problem that needs the most attention. All else comes after…teachers having a chance at interacting with more kids for more time is essential.
lmbleck,
That was my thought, exactly: I didn’t see smaller class sizes on the wish list. Not only do smaller classes improve education by allowing more individual interaction with students (in person and when grading/responding to student work), it is one of the best ways to reduce the spread of coronavirus.
That’s right. It’s pretty hypocritical of the superintendent of my district here in Los Angeles, Superintendent Investment Banker, to ask for money for schools when we had to go on strike against him to get a tiny reduction of class size, when we had to go on strike against him to get him to reduce wasted time and money on unnecessary standardized testing, and when he is currently using the pandemic as cover to renege on the strike-induced bargaining agreement that called for less testing by ADDING MORE tests this year! He doesn’t want more funding to help students in public schools; he wants more funding he can use to attack students in public schools. He’s throwing money out the school bus window — right now. This is an op-ed calling for more testing and the higher class sizes that go along with competency-based junk teaching. Yes, we need more funding. No, we don’t need to put more funds in the hands of Superintendent Investment Banker.
My last 4 books and 10 years of blogging is the “Marshall Plan”. I’m tired of talking into the wind. Go to http://www.wholechildreform.com and challenge me, IF YOU DARE!
Carranza is a disaster, but back to the actual topic… What is really needed is a comprehensive plan that encompasses the entire community – jobs, health care (including mental health), housing. Focusing on education alone is inadequate.
Schools definitely need those funds but if we ignore the communities around them we will still be failing our children. We can’t expect children living in horrible poverty, with families struggling to survive, to be well served by schools. We have to attend to both communities and schools. Congress was comfortable passing a seven hundred and fifty billion defense budget….. and massive tax cuts for the wealthy. There is plenty of money available to do both (invest in schools and communities) if we choose to do so.
Austin Beutner must go. It is time.
[…] of the nation’s three largest school districts – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – have called on Congress to appropriate funds for school cleaning and protective equipment, testing and contact tracing, […]
[…] of the nation’s three largest school districts – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – have called on Congress to appropriate funds for school cleaning and protective equipment, testing and contact tracing, […]
[…] of the nation’s three largest school districts – New York, Los Angeles and Chicago – have called on Congress to appropriate funds for school cleaning and protective equipment, testing and contact tracing, […]