Dave Sirota has it right. He had it right when Waiting for Superman was released. He had it right 10 years ago when I taught in a 53% free and reduced lunch school, in rural Arkansas. He had it right when I lived it as a kid. It's poverty not the unions that are hurting our kids.
In the 80's I grew up as a second generation welfare recipient and ward of the state in one of the most economically devestated areas, Flint, MI. I know the impacts poverty had on me and the kids in my neightborhood. I know that programs put in place helped me be successful and that I was lucky.
I had funded summer day camps to attend that kept me off the street, taught me how to make taco salads, and, of course, the ever popular love knot key chain. I had after school programs that allowed me to roller skate instead of sit at home waiting for someone to come feed me. These programs were provided by my school, my neighborhood school, the one I could walk to. The same school provided me with breakfast, lunch, a librarian who let me work with her after school and gave me discontinued books, Christmas gifts, etc. All of this was provided because of government funding, funding that doesn't exist anymore.
What if we finally saw and solved the real problem? We knew what that was when I was growing up, and I can see what it is when I look in my high school classroom (a high school that because it ONLY has 25% poverty doesn't provide free/reduced breakfast, so I keep cereal bars in my room for those kids). I see it in my suburban neighborhood. Poverty looks different here. It's when a student doesn't show up for two weeks, and I finally call home to find out "this number has been disconnected" to find out later from her friend that she's now "homeless." It's bright orange signs that hang on houses that are foreclosed, but that families still live in until they're forced out as they wear their designer jeans and nike tennis shoes. It looks different here, but it's every bit as impactful.
Under the current competive funding model, schools have to qualify with test scores to "earn" funds that can change the lives of their students. Cuts have devestated programs, even in my suburban district where there are not full time librarians for elementary kids. It goes beyond free breakfast and lunch. It's educating parents who are stuck in the poverty cycle about how to parent. It's providing after school opportunities early and often for young students so that by the time they get to me they have skills that can help them succeed.
What if we saw the real problem? Stop blaming those in the trenches trying to make change? Began funding based on need not on performance? Looked at students as real individuals, not as performance statistics? Do you think it would make a difference? What if we began REAL reforms?
What real education reform looks like
Awesome post, Lorraine!
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