State legislature’s inability to properly fund public education remains top concern among school leaders.

by Dr. Jack McKay, Executive Director, The Horace Mann League

The Fifth Annual Survey of Public Education again revealed that the nation’s educational leaders believe that their state legislature’s inability to properly fund public education is the number one factor obstructing school reform efforts. The nation-wide survey, involving over 250 school superintendents, professors, school board members, and educational agency leaders participated in the survey during October 2000.

Participants in the survey selected five factors from a list of 20 educational issues believed to be negatively impacting on efforts to improve their local public schools. The “Top Five” factors represent a wide range of issues reflecting political, social, and educational concerns.

1. Legislature’s inability to adequately fund public education
2. Family’s responsibility to prepare children for schooling
3. Media’s perpetuation of myths about the public schools
4. Citizen’s emphasis on standards and testing
5. Educator’s reluctance to seeing schooling differently
Table 1. Ranking of Factors Impacting on Efforts to Improve Public Schools

1. Legislature’s inability to adequately fund public education
To the defense of state legislators, increasingly during the past 30 years, pressures have been mounting to reduce taxes, to fund a growing number of social services, and provide fair salaries for all state employees. However, the state legislators continue to pass numerous laws and regulations related to increasing school safety, expanded programs and services for students, along with imposing academic standards and testing to promote educational accountability. However, legislators are reluctant or unable to deal with the obligation to effectively provide equal access and the opportunity for all students to learn, no matter where their school is located in the state. Today, a child’s opportunity to learn is more dependent where they live in the state rather than in the state where they live.

Compounding the disparities within a state, dependence on the local property tax, is the fact that communities least able to tax themselves are also those same communities that have the higher concentrations of children in need of special services. Legislators know these children need more social and health services, have the greater needs for additional teachers with special training and experience, and in need of more extra-curricular and remedial opportunities. Yet, the legislature’s inability to address school funding issues inhibits the access to critically needed services and opportunities for the students of poverty in the urban and rural schools. But, these same legislators expect all of the state’s students to take the same tests and meet the same standards.

2. Family’s responsibility to prepare children for schooling
In being part of one of the wealthiest nation, that values diversity and tolerance of ideas, that is the most productive in the area of goods and services, and having the most advanced level of medicine and technology, we are still somewhat reluctant to place a high priority on the care of its children. We spend more on defense, pet food, and gambling, than on the opportunity for young children to have access to a quality schooling experience. Our nation has one of the highest percentage of children living in poverty, has one of the more inadequate process for health care of children, and one of the poorer means of providing good levels of child care. It seems that the state’s citizens are wanting accountability for public schooling , yet are unwilling to provide the support of good nutrition, health care, and living conditions so necessary for all children to be winners in the classroom.

Parents have a significant role in preparing their children for schooling. Promoting universal moral and ethical values in the public schools. Parents are needed to support tolerance of differing ideas and cultures. Parents are needed to nurture respect for other’s rights and responsibilities. Parents are needed to support respect for legitimate authority of school employees. Parents need to support and encourage learning. All of these activities are all critical to child’s success in school and later careers.

3. Media’s perpetuation of myths about the public schools
Criticism of the public’s schools is ongoing since the creation of the public school. The public schools were criticized in the 1940s and 50s, interestingly for the same reasons expressed today -- not enough rigor, undisciplined students, and inadequately trained graduates. What might be different now is the intensity placed on the teachers and administrators.

There are two primary reasons that generate myths about the quality of today’s public schools.

First, there are the extremely ambitious goals placed on the community’s public schools. Schooling is about reaching for perfection in the shaping of young people to be thoughtful, articulate, productive, intelligent, patriotic, worldly, realistic, challenging, accepting, critical, and loyal. We expect our schools to overcome the influences of dysfunctional families, poverty, and abuse while at the same time fix the environment, promote worldwide peace and serve the community.

Second, criticism of the public schools will continue because the citizens do not agree on the primary goals of their schools. Should the schools emphasize individual excellence or equality for all? What about innovative strategies of instruction or the traditional structure of the teaching? Should there be more emphasis on patriotic values or independent thought and critical thinking? Then there is the growing concern about tolerance of divergent views and cultures and how diversity should influence the school environment. Finally there are the implications related to tracking, high stakes testing and standards, and organizational structures of schools.

One thing about criticism of public schools -- we are not being ignored. The alternative is indifference about issues and not caring -- certainly a far worse situation. Our challenge is to counter the allegations and myths perpetuated in the media. We need timely, continuous, and creative ways of promoting the values and benefits of good public schools for all children in all communities across our state and nation.

4. Citizen’s emphasis on standards and testing

Probably the most interesting outcome of the HML survey is that school leaders perceive standards and testing as hindrances to school reform in their community? I do not believe school leaders disapprove of standards, testing, and accountability. My sense is that school leaders are indicating that just testing to standards is such a “one-dimensional indicator” relative to what is being accomplished every single day in the community’s public schools. Just testing to meet standards alone is misleading the citizens at best, and counterproductive to genuine school improvement at worst. Saying test scores are the bottom line to schooling would be saying profit is the only indicator of quality in the business world. While test scores and profit are certainly important, they are only one of the many important indicators of success in their respective environments. In business, success indicators could be product quality, employee retention, returning customers, new products, and timely delivery of goods or services. In public schools, indicators of success are reflected in the student’s interest in learning, faculty and staff retention and commitment, students being respectful, students participating in a wide variety of curricular and extra-curricular activities, a well articulated curriculum, timely adoption of well researched instructional practices, and service to the community.

School leaders are maybe saying that there are other equally important goals of a neighborhood public school-not just testing to meet politically established standards. Why not published scores measuring the teacher’s instructional and motivational skills, students liking and attending the school, students embracing different cultures and beliefs, students being mental and physical ready to learn, and parents’ support of their children’s school. Public schooling is a multi-purpose endeavor -- not adaptable to an one-dimensional measurement device.

Maybe school leaders are indicating also that testing to standards are negatively impacting school improve because testing blatantly disregards equity of opportunity for both students and teachers. The state’s citizens, through their legislators, refuse to deal with school funding disparities caused by reliance on the local property tax. Citizens continue to believe that all the state’s children should take the same test, even though there are wide disparity of access and opportunity to learn. Educators know counting the number of Volvos delivering children each morning is just as reliable a means to predict the school’s achievement scores as a battery of tests. Another factor that might be contributing to the reluctance of educators to embrace testing is the believe that more tests is based on political motives, not sound educational research and practice.

Finally, schools leaders are maybe reluctant to say that more testing and higher standards are helping their school’s improvement, because these efforts are not directed towards such things as ingenuity and creativity in problem solving, perseverance, intuition, adaptability, sensitivity, empathy, self-control, honesty, motivation, effective communication skills, trustworthiness, healthy self-confidence, open-mindedness, generosity, cooperativeness, kindness, friendliness, or emotional maturity. Ask any employer who he or she would hire - the person who solves the long division problem or the person who has the personal qualities mentioned above, but not measured on the test?

“When the equity of opportunity to learn is solved, then high stakes testing will be more valued.”

5. Educator’s reluctance to seeing schooling differently
Yes, there is some reluctance to see schooling differently. Schooling is a complex activity involving a variety of constituencies that often differ on how to achieve conflicting goals. It does appear safer for school boards, administrators, and classroom teachers that sustaining the status-quo. The stakes are high and the rewards are relatively low for those advocating change in public schools. Most educators consider their public school fairly successful when considering the resources and agreed or lack of agreed on goals. Most students are successful at acquiring knowledge, make good judgments, and being good citizens. Sure, there are some school systems, school administrators, teacher, and students not maximizing opportunities, but the large majority are successful in reaching their goals.

Likely, public schools will not be significantly different in the next ten to twenty years. The current reward system does not provide the financial incentives nor career status to be a change agent as a teacher or administrator. Being a “mover or shaker” in public education is usually a path to career oblivion. More importantly, until there is sufficient time to plan, implement, and follow through on the impact of the innovative instructional arrangements and practices, there will be few school leaders who will be convinced that change from the relative success of the current instructional and organizational practices.

For significant widespread change to take place in the public schools, the citizens must come together on what the primary purposes of their public schools should be and then provide the educators with the financial incentives and professional autonomy to take the risks necessary to promote and sustain change and innovation.

Table 1. Ranking of Factors Impacting on Efforts to Improve Public Schools. 1996-2000

Yr/Rank	‘96 Factors	‘97 Factors	‘98 Factors	‘99 Factors	‘00 Factors
First	Negative myth about the quality of a public education	Family responsibility to prepare children for schooling	Negative myth about the quality of a public education	Negative myth about the quality of a public education	School funding based on local tax source
Second	Family responsibility to prepare children for schooling	Negative myth about the quality of a public education	Time to plan, implement and evaluate change in the schools	School funding dependent on local tax base	Family responsibility to prepare children for schooling
Third	School funding based on local tax source	School funding based on local tax source	Citizens’ lack of agreement about school goals	Time to plan, implement and evaluate change in the schools	Negative myth about the quality of a public education
Fourth	Citizens’ lack of agreement about school goals	Educators’ inability to see schools differently	Family responsibility to prepare children for schooling	Family responsibility to prepare children for schooling	Emphasis on testing and standards as basis for school quality
Fifth	Educators’ inability to see schools differently	Citizens’ inability to deal with local social Issues	Professional self interest in preserving status-quo	Educators inability to see schools differently	Educators’ inability to see schools differently