Thread by @Maemae1917, Who is interested in knowing why the current education system is so [...]

Who is interested in knowing why the current education system is so inequitable and suggestions to prevent you from voting against student interest in education?? My passion is education equity because education is freedom!

It starts with local control. In the US we have am education system of local governments having the majority control over educational decisions. This means school boards and small governments can decide what goes into curriculum and what goes out (climate change for instance).

The problem with this is that most people suggesting tweaks to local education often seek for removal of what they don't understand. For example there are still several states which do not teach evolution and even more smaller school districts which avoid the subject.

Further complicating this model is funding. About 70% of school funds are local. Meaning that the funds come from local property taxes. Which means the fewer people paying property tax the less funding a school has. You can imagine what income brackets have the best schools...

The schools with less property tax money rely on state and federal funds to make up the difference. In the US there are two major statutes that allot federal funds. IDEA funding focused on special education and NCLB now ESSA focuses on funds for impoverished school.

Funding from both programs has been slashed or simply underfunded for well over a decade meaning local governments and states have to make up the difference usually in the form of budget cuts which leaves educators with fewer resources

It also means districts are deincentivised to hire high quality educators and instead hire new teachers with less education and experience to teach those students with the greatest needs (poverty and special education) Mad yet?

Further more affluent schools in high property tax areas have the benefit of having community members with money. This means they are able to fund raise for costly items like field trips, extracurricular activities, classroom care packages and so much more.

In contrast, schools in impoverished neighborhoods can't ask already struggling families to buy from a fund raiser so the kids can get better classroom technology or hell a box of tissues...

Any questions yet? Educator so I do check for engagement lmao!

So then where does the the funding shortage fall? On the person employed to educate children equitably. Remember in the lowest income schools the educators are very often new teachers at the lowest end of the salary scale.

So what have we learned so far?
*local governments control the majority of education including funding and curriculum
*the fed assists with impoverished schools and sped programs but hasn't funded as needed in over a decade
*impoverished schools can't fundraise

*impoverished schools hire new teachers with less education and experience to save money
*with limited resources these teachers pay for their own classroom materials

What could possibly go wrong?

So then we have standards. Standards are the expected knowledge children are required to gain each year to show that the school and educator are effective in their work...
For wealthy schools no big deal. Parents often get additional tutoring for struggling students.

For impoverished schools educators have to combat the effects of poverty including food insecurity, insecure relationships, inconsistent medical care, lack of early experiences which starts kids 3 years behind their socioeconomically stable peers...

When educators in these schools are unable to make up for the effects of poverty due to limited funds and educator experience they are labeled a struggling school and required to make improvements or lose what little funds they have...

Enter charter schools. These are "public schools" that do not have to report academic progress or educational spending the way a true public school does. These charters offer "private school" to all students. You can imagine how good this looks compared to a "failing school"

But how are charters funded? Well actually the community school you know the one already strapped for cash? They pay tuition to the charter for each kid that chooses to go to this alternative. Meaning public money goes to a charter which does not have to report how money is used.

Now these charters do not have to be in the community for parents to send their child. That means that impoverished parents can travel hours a day back and forth to the charter in hopes of giving their child a better education than at the community school...

I do not blame these parents obviously everyone wants the best education for their kid. But what about the community school? They still have to improve education to keep their funding and pay tuition to an unaccountable charter for each kid that doesn't go to their school.

And what about the families who can't travel their kids out of district? They have to stay in a school that is reported as failing with even fewer funds than ever. And that poor teacher is spending even more of their own cash trying to make up for lack of resources.

Given that many first year teacher in the US make less than 40k, this person who still has student loan payments, rent, groceries, car etc. Now is using money out of each check to buy classroom materials so they can show student gains (necessary for their teacher evaluation BTW)

If the teacher is unable to afford to buy for the classroom as many teachers are their students make fewer gains and the teacher is evaluated poorly (seriously!). The teacher then has to decide to keep trying to make ends meet, take another job or leave the district or profession

About half of all teachers leave the profession completely in the first five years. Given that the field has all the above mentioned problems and a crap salary there is a mass teacher shortage in the US. Meaning if the teacher leaves, that position could go unfilled.

Or worse filled by someone who is not qualified and they too run for the hills after year one...
The worse the school does the more students that are able attend charte schools. The less money districts have to meet student needs, hire staff or get off the failing school list.

So what happens? The school closes or is absorbed by another district or even the state.. Parents then all have to find school placement for their kids. Because of having attended a limited resource school they may be years behind the other students despite being the same age.

Because of NCLB and ESSA the student isn't kept back to remediate necessary skills (the science doesn't support grade retention anyway). So they are in (overcrowded) classrooms with same age peers expected to learn at the same rate while still gaining the skills they missed prior

So let's look at the teacher of this over crowded classroom. 1 teacher to 35 kids (most contracts are around that in more populated areas). A third of these students have special needs, half need skill remediation to access current lesson.

6% are gifted and bored with the lesson. The rest need the lesson and all need differentiation to make the content relevant and meaningful. Plus there is admin observing that teachers are meeting the needs of all students at all times.

And because a school in the state failed now there are more standard requirements and graduation requirements to make sure no child is left behind due to a failed school. (Because meeting the needs of 35 students with varying ability, interest, and knowledge wasn't hard enough).

Now the educator must keep a portfolio of each students progress for each standard to show growth and proficiency. Specific tasks are selected for the portfolio and student progress on the task is evaluated and it has to be evaluated based on the student IEP if applicable

If you've ever tried to get two kids to follow an expectation you know that getting all 35 to complete a required task that was designed to be done in a day or two to prove they understood the unit you taught is a friggen nightmare. Now multiply that by 4 or 5 class periods.

It also takes about an hour to plan for each class you teach plus you have team meetings to discuss curriculum, what ever committee your on (which yes is expected and often reflected on your teacher evaluation) IEP team meetings, time to call parents, meet with kids etc.

It is no wonder any teachers work 12 hours a day! But they get summers off right? Wrong. In the summer you prep what you csnt in the school year and take professional development which you may have to pay for yourself. Plus complete grad school so you can hope to afford life

Finally you and your fellow teachers have enough you ask your union to strike. In states where striking is illegal youre told no and nothing really happens to improve your work load and you're still underpaid. In states where it is legal you negotiate with the district.

The district usually has been fighting tooth and nail for more education funding anyway often to no avail because remember local control? There are only so many funds in that piggy bank and the fed is not doing their share.

So you strike. The local government demands you get back to work because kids need an education. The state government says there is nothing they can do without raising taxes. Parent in the working class want better education for their kids but are barely by with their checks.

The strike gets national attention. You're demanding
Smaller class sizes
Mental health services
Universal free lunch and breakfast
More class funding
A higher teacher salary
All proven to actually improve student education.

The district and state tells you they just don't have the money. (They've let your school continually struggle while giving th cops war weapons). Antiunion and antipublic school then campaign the importance of "school choice" the same kind of choice that stole funds to begin with

And your strike ends with more school choice campaigns and because of local control increased local taxes to meet even part of the demand teachers asked for. Parents then get mad about funding a school district that raised their taxes and look at choice options.

So the cycle continues. To cut costs districts hire more new teachers at the low end of the salary, increase requirements to show growth and spend more money on training and lesson on classroom supplies. Teachers then dive back into their own bank accounts to fund their classes.

So how do we fix it. Well we are one of the only countries with a local control funding model. Countries with education as a priority fund it at the federal level and teachers are paid as federal employees complete with the salary needed for high quality ed.

Charters are outlawed in other countries to force public funds to fund accountable public schools. But here charters are backed by both conservative think tanks as well as dems (check out charter expansion under obama)

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