Friday News Roundup…

It’s a rainy morning in Iowa this morning. Time to review this week’s news so I can make like a duck and head over to the Drake Relays today.

The Education Culture War is Raging. But for Most Parents, It’s Background Noise (NPR)

This one is a head scratcher. In a new national poll conducted by National Public Radio and Ipsos, by wide margins – and regardless of their political affiliation – parents expressed satisfaction with their children’s schools and what is being taught in them. 88% of the 1,007 surveyed said “my child’s teacher(s) have done the best they could, given the circumstances around the pandemic.” 82% agreed that “my child’s school has handled the pandemic well.” The NPR report concludes that “For decades, voters have expressed concern in polls about the state of K-12 education in the U.S. But when you zoom in closer, parents seem to like their own kids’ school, and they like their kids’ teachers even more.

Something doesn’t jive here. U.S. performance on the National Assessment of Academic Progress, or our Nation’s Report Card, has flat-lined for the past 40 years, and our country’s schools continually receive a “C” when EdWeek, one of the nation’s most respected educational news sources, releases its annual assessment. Yet, 88% of parents are satisfied with their children’s schools and teachers.

There’s an old management model that says, “Dissatisfaction leads to motivation, and satisfaction doesn’t.” Or, in other words, you reap what you sow.

Teacher Salaries Aren’t Keeping Up with Inflation (EdWeek)

In its annual report that ranks and analyzes teacher salaries and education spending by state, the National Education Association estimated that the national average teacher salary for the 2021-22 school year is $66,397 – a 1.7 percent increase from the previous year. But when adjusted for inflation, the average teacher salary actually decreased by an estimated 3.9 percent over the last decade. In other words, teachers are making $2,179 less, on average, than they did 10 years ago, when the salaries are adjusted for inflation.

I spend my time these days in three states: Iowa, Vermont, and to a lesser degree Texas (although I lived and worked there for 35 years.) The sad news is that all three of these states are below the national average when it comes to teacher pay. Iowa pays their teachers on average $59,262, while Texas pays theirs $58,887. Of the three states, Vermont pays their teachers the most at $62,866.

I wrote about system failure earlier this week. A big part of system failure is when the system doesn’t reward their talent commensurate with that talent’s value back to the system. And we wonder why half of our teachers want to quit these days.

Lawmakers, Education Secretary Clash Over Charter School Rules (EdWeek)

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona defended the Biden administration’s stance on a range of education issues during a House appropriations committee hearing this past Tuesday, including tightening regulations on federal funding for charter schools… Cardona appeared on Capitol Hill to support President Biden’s recently released $88 billion federal budget proposal for the U.S. Department of Education, which includes substantial increases in funding for high-need schools, mental health support for students, and students with disabilities. But newly proposed regulations for charter schools drew more attention from lawmakers than any of those initiatives.

“You may be an advocate for high-quality charter schools, I take you at your word on that,” U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, told Cardona. “But what you’re doing by these new rules is discouraging people to take the risk to jump in.”

Everyone knows Joe Biden isn’t a big fan of charter schools. President Biden has always believed in the salvation and future of the public school system. And now, it appears Biden and his administration are ready to double-down on public schools at a time when many, including this writer, are questioning their effectiveness. But even more damaging than doubling-down on public schools might be discouraging innovators, whether they be charter operators or not, to “jump in” as the Michigan congressman so aptly pointed out.

Does anyone else out there feel as though this nation is stuck when it comes to innovation applied to learning?

Universal school meals. PCB remediation. Tech education. Can a $95 million surplus pay for it all? (VTDigger)

I spend a fair share of my time in Vermont these days, so I decided to end this week’s news roundup with a story from the Green Mountain State.

Late last year, Vermont officials announced good news for Vermont’s education fund. Buoyed by strong tax revenues, the fund – which pays for the state’s public school budgets – is enjoying a surplus of nearly $100 million. Now as the legislature wonders what to do with that extra cash, lawmakers may be forced to choose from several different proposals: Free breakfast and lunch for students? Remediating toxic chemicals? Tax rebates? But lawmakers also realize that this surplus might be soft money, meaning it won’t be around after a year’s time. Wouldn’t it be sad to pay for breakfast and lunch for one year and not the next?

Here’s a suggestion from a part-time Vermonter on how to spend the money. Establish an innovation fund that can be accessed by the most creative learning leaders across the state. The money can be spent in anyway that helps young people learn, but with one caveat – none of the money can be used on existing programming already contained within the traditional public school system.

The only way we innovate is to support those who want to innovate. If we don’t do that, we just end up getting the same old stuff, over and over.

Have a good weekend. I’m headed to the Relays, rain and all. Talk Monday. SVB