Last week, I began "Round 0" for TFA Year 2, along with training with a new program that the district is adopting. In other words, it was a big reality check: oh, I really do have to work. This summer thing is coming to a close.
I've had some good conversations in the past week about education, education reform, and what should be important for our kids. My two best friends from teaching last year (non-TFA) are now both working at other schools. One in TPS, the other in a neighboring district. The friend in TPS told me the other night about her new school and we commented on how dramatically DIFFERENT this other middle school is. She even had a conversation with a janitor at the new school who's only view of my school is based on just how different it is. The implication was that my school was much worse off.
The comment in this exchange that stuck out to me the most: "It shouldn't be this way. How can two schools, in the same district, be so different? It shouldn't be this way."
This stuck out because it is true. True that it shouldn't be this way, but true that major gaps exist in our education system.
I don't want to drone on about the gap here. I know it exists, in so many ways and on so many levels, but it's too depressing to recount. I just want to continue work to close it. This means work in my classroom, but increasingly, also work in my community and on policy surrounding education.
SQ744 will be on the ballot. I've done some more research and will continue to look into the issue. My base feeling though, is that it is good: it guarantees money in a system that needs it, and it rises our standards for what we want in our education system. It also includes a great deal of local control, which tells me that if it passes, I will have to focus my policy work at the local level. The accountability piece was my greatest concern, but it seems workable:
There is already an existing oversight board in Oklahoma in regard to education. This bill forces that board to publish a public report outlining the path of education spending in all districts as well as student achievement scores. The implication is that if spending isn't helping student achievement, then what do we adjust? The board would have some control as to mandating certain district-level changes, but the ball of change will really be in the local district's court. This is, I think, a good compromise on spending and local control. It doesn't give the state government more power, but does give more information and resources to localities.
I also found out that an education statute does exist in the Oklahoma Constitution. Article XIII is in its original condition from the state's founding, and it mandates that the state spend $42/pupil on education. A whopping $42. Now, OK obviously spends more than this, but SQ744 not only updates this number, but adds some measures of accountability to the process of education spending in the state.
Shout out to Walton Robinson from the pro camp on getting me some great resources and information!
This week, my pursuit will be to get to the bottom of why anyone would be opposed to updating this part of the constitution in this way, especially if it can positively benefit kids. My kids. I also won't accept "it will be a giant tax increase!" as an answer. How else do we suggest investing in our kids' futures?
By the way, I am still rolling over Dan Maes' reflection on bike sharing in Denver. Obviously, my connection to the project got this article sent to me a dozen times over ("Bike agenda spins cities toward UN control, Maes says" reads more like The Onion than the Denver Post, and it's not the writer's fault), and Keith Olbermann even did a segment on it. I guess Maes uncovered my ulterior motive in moving forward with bike sharing. I'm definitely aiming to turn Denver into a U.N. community, one red bike at a time;-)
Oh, Dan Maes. Can't we just be happy that maybe some pollution didn't happen in Denver today? Or that somebody enjoyed a nice bike ride down the 16th street mall? Sheesh.
Back to planning for my kids...so that they can be equipped as citizens in this republic. We need some critical thinkers who aren't afraid of red bikes or good investments.
~MJ
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