Yesterday I introduced Representative Harold Dutton, a member of the Texas Legislature from Houston. Dutton, along with many other elected state officials from the Lone Star State and others, believe it is their responsibility to set policy when it comes to public education. And all of them would be right, since there isn’t one state that doesn’t have a constitution that expressly states that it is the state’s responsibility to provide a “free and appropriate” education to the children.
But what if the person closest to the young learners in the traditional system – the teacher – believed otherwise?
Last week, EducationWeek online released an article titled “Most Teachers Want Politicians to Stay Out of Their Classroom Decisionmaking.” Here’s what the article had to say,
“Teachers say they feel caught in the midst of a culture war, and they want politicians to stay out of their classroom decisionmaking.”
“When politicians do talk about schools, teachers want them to focus on education issues more broadly – and they want their elected representatives to listen more to educators and families.”
“These findings on teachers’ beliefs about the intersection of politics and schools come from a new survey of about 1,200 traditional public and charter school teachers, released by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and administered by the Harris Poll, a market research firm.”
“The results illuminate the difficult political line that a lot of educators are walking right now.”
“Since 2021, 18 states have passed laws or taken other measures to restrict how teachers can discuss race, gender, and issues deemed ‘controversial’ in the classroom. All of these laws have been introduced by Republicans. With one political party attacking educators’ classroom practice, teachers have said it can be challenging to defend their profession and advocate for public education without facing claims of partisanship.”
“’Everything is political in education, especially public education,’ said Irene Sanchez, a Latino studies teacher in the Azusa Unified school district in California who was not involved in the study.”
“Her Latino studies class is in part an attempt to teach students history that they might not get in mainstream social studies courses. ‘You’re having pushback from people who don’t get it, like, ‘Why can’t things just stay the same?’ But they don’t see the fact that people made these choices to deliberately leave out groups in our history,’ Sanchez said.”
“Other surveys have shown that these bans aren’t popular among educators – regardless of political affiliations.”
“Data from a 2022 EdWeek Research Center survey shows that educators across the political spectrum opposed these laws. When asked whether the government should restrict how teachers talk about certain issues – including slavery, religion, politics, and gender and sexual orientation – a majority of teachers said no on every topic. Opposition to restrictions varied by topic, rangin from 68 to 77 percent of teachers.”
“The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools survey also asked teachers about their biggest challenges right now.”
“The top response was student behavior and discipline issues, with 74 percent of teachers citing that as their most pressing problem. After that, the next most common challenge was pay, with 65 percent of teachers choosing this option.”
“Concerns about student behavior have also surfaced in other surveys conducted after the start of the pandemic. In an EdWeek Research Center survey from April, 70 percent of educators said that students were misbehaving more now compared to 2019.”
“The findings on pay in this survey were nuanced. Only 7 percent of respondents said they were motivated to teach based on the salary. But 84 percent said they believe higher pay and better benefits would help teachers stay in the profession.”
“Sanchez linked these issues of compensation to teacher retention.”
“’If people want to ensure that teaching remains this profession where you get those most highly qualified people, I think politicians do need to pay attention to what teachers are saying – that they need more resources, they need more compensation. Those are the things that I think teachers want to communicate: That politicians should be valuing the service that teachers are providing to our society.’”
Politicians like Harold Dutton should perform three services for us when it comes to public education.
First, they should set broad learning goals, like reading, writing, problem-solving and character development, for all learners within the public education system.
Second, they should provide the resources necessary for all learners to meet those goals.
And third, they should be there to make sure everyone is teaching and learning the right way, meaning that no one is cheating along the way just to make their schools or districts look better than what they are.
That’s it. That’s the role of government when it comes to public education. Beyond those goals, the state needs to back off and support the “triangle of learning” between the young learners, their adult learning coach, and their family. Those are the relationships that matter when it comes to deep learning.
Til tomorrow. SVB
A Better Path to Learning 
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