Public Education: A State of Emergency
North Carolina’s Governor, Roy Cooper, recently declared an ostensible “State of Emergency” with regard to public schools. He did so acknowledging that his actions had no legal import, as the Governor has no applicable “emergency” powers. Instead, the declaration was a political stunt. It was a public relations ploy. The Governor’s declaration and the mostly fawning press coverage that followed, were intended to motivate a public outcry against any, who might dare to touch or alter the sacrosanct school system (no matter how poor its performance may be). It was intended to guilt, shame, and silence duly-elected Republicans, who hold veto-proof majorities in the legislature and whose opinions with regard to public education differ from his own.
The problem with public education, as with anything that is free (or at least paid for primarily with other people’s money), is that there is insufficient buy in from the principal participants and beneficiaries. Persons expect benefit without sacrifice. They expect to receive something for (nearly) nothing.
In the instant case, the would-be beneficiaries are students and their parents. Parents and students too often expect that the hard work will be done for them — that children with be educated without adequate motivation, participation, and commitment from the students themselves and without active involvement and support by the parents.
Many parents see schools, teachers, and the state as providing free babysitting services. It is eight hours a days that their little rugrats are someone else’s burden to bear. Those parents surrender their children to the state expecting government and its agencies to act in loco parentis. Being substantially relieved of the burdens, obligations, and responsibilities of child-rearing, they are unconcerned about the costs (both near-term and long-term), and they are indifferent toward the inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. Their children become other people’s problems and responsibility.
Teachers and administrators, who must shoulder the burdens of classrooms full of unmotivated and oftentimes unruly children (formerly called “incorrigible”), become frustrated, overwhelmed, and burned out. Eventually, educators commit themselves to doing just enough to get by — to maintain employment until retirement. As performance wanes, standards are reduced in order to give the appearance of success.
Numbers become more important than individuals. True learning becomes secondary to just graduating. Social promotions become the norm. The value of the resulting education is diminished, but any meaningful cost-benefit analysis is discouraged. With each cycle or iteration, the problem gets worse. It is a downward spiral, from which there may be no recovery. The end result is the reduction of all persons and things to the lowest common denominator.
Parents, who want more and different for their children, and others, who want and expect more from society (and government), are chastised and demonized for acting “against” public education. It is not that they favor “ignorance,” but they refuse to accept the unpalatable status quo. In defense of public education, they are expected to throw good money after bad. They are commanded to participate in the charade. After all, “good intentions” are more important than beneficial outcomes where government is concerned.
