What public schools can (or cannot) be
By Ari Kaufman (12/06/07)
One cold morning, I drove a dozen miles to the southeast corner of Marion County, Indiana, on a business excursion. As a writer, military historian for the Indiana War Memorials Commission and a former Los Angeles teacher, I was told that an elementary school had a 30 foot replica of the 285 foot Civil War Monument that has resided in downtown Indianapolis for more than a century. I also went to see how a middle-class, Middle America school of similar size compared to the inner-city LAUSD school I toiled at for three long years.
Approaching the gleaming parking lot after passing subdivision homes, farms, chain restaurants and large ball fields, I entered, mistakenly ignoring the recreated monument directly in front of me that I had come to view. My attention had been caught by the automatic doors, spotless interior, amiable staff, and tie-donning 5th grade teacher who greeted me promptly with a smile.
Eventually, I looked at the monument with him, discussed its 20-year history (it was built when the school opened, with the perimeter---high atop and under a magnificent glass ceiling---showing the exact skyline one sees in Indianapolis when at Monument Circle), and the school's "Junior History program," which funds "only five after school field trips per year." I explained to this assiduous teacher, who had brought his group of 30 friendly fifth graders to the monument for a tour last month, that in LA I had "only had three tours rejected by the district in my time." He chuckled embarrassingly.
This school was a charter school in a local township within the city's boundaries, and thus, not bound by the bureaucracy and size of Indianapolis Public Schools, which has the same negative reputation as LAUSD and any big city school district.
I told him about my abridged teaching career, what had occurred and what I saw each day, and this man, speaking quietly as a class of genteel students passed, said "I could never handle that. My kids are angels. I am truly blessed."
Needless to say, this was a different world. But here I was just 15 minutes from Midwest urban decay, so what accounted for this new world? The autonomy of charter schools. No wonder the unions and school districts in major cities have always stood vehemently against this successful movement and school-choice type programs.
Not only are so-called "progressive" urban districts from Indiana to California incredibly adept at perpetuating the status quo, so are the Democrat powers-that-be in these cities. They seemingly need each other’s support. It is always about politics, it seems.
Based upon endless reading, writing, talking and observing, I have a thousand other theories, but this one has historic and factual legs: Politics run the educational world too often.
And if a Democrat, such as erstwhile Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, who was recently upset in the most surprising election in Indiana history, attempts to buck the trend and assist students, he's bounced by the intolerant leftists that run public education and big city governments.
According to an insightful November 20 column from Indianapolis-based writer, RiShawn Biddle, in The American Spectator, "Across the nation, Peterson was lauded by education reform wonks for breaking with the Democratic Party -- and its support for the public education establishment -- and becoming the only mayor in America to authorize charter schools." Unfortunately, not even receiving the "Innovations in American Government Award" from Harvard University's Kennedy School mattered in the end for the two-term mayor."
Of course, compared to LA's educational woes, Indianapolis is the hospitable heartland city most believe it to be.
As was reported November 28 in the LA Daily News, "Hammered by a barrage of negative publicity in recent months, Los Angeles Unified School District officials have quietly hired two consultants to help improve their public image."
Often reticent to criticise public education, a November 29 Los Angeles Times op-ed emphatically slammed the nation's second largest district and top-notch dropout factory:
"So what does the district do to correct the natural perception of its incompetence? Fix the problem? Nope. As first reported by our colleagues at the Daily News, it hires image consultants. It's paying Victor Abalos, a consultant for Supt. David L. Brewer, $178,000 for one year to restructure the district's PR department."
Among their rationale for hiring consultants at nearly $200,000 per year for some individuals to mend their tarnished image (and payroll system problems), LAUSD Superintendent David Brewer has turned the tables, fecklessly claiming that local newspapers, "love to focus on all the negative going on in the district.
With intrepid yet unnecessary moves like this one, the fodder for the educational reform seekers will be easy to locate. Even the LA Times, rarely critical of public education, can do that:
"It's (LAUSD) also paying Michael Bustamante $90,000 for six months to focus on the payroll fiasco, and it has signed up the public relations firm Rogers Group as well. This, the paper reports, is on top of a six-person communications department with a $1.4-million budget. And they expect journalists not to pick on them?"
Precisely.
Ari Kaufman
http://www.ajkauf.com/
Related Links:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-lausd29nov29,0,1721214.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/11909276.html
http://spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12335
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/24/112510.shtml
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