When is Enough, Enough?

I had an interesting exchange with an educator on Twitter today. She was an advocate of public schools and acknowledged the persistent shortcomings of the public school system. However, she believes that public education can be fixed with some “radical, innovative thinking” as opposed to parents pulling their children out to homeschool or send to private schools. According to her Twitter bio, she has 30 years of teaching experience in another state. I respect that degree of experience, but at the same time, I don’t understand her logic.

I reminded my Twitter friend that sixty years of education reform has failed to produce sufficient gains in America’s public schools. Sixty years of the top minds in education coming up with plans that were purported to raise the bar in education, have failed to improve achievement. Yet she, and many others, want to hold on to hope that public education will somehow be improved as long as we hang in there and wait for it to get better.

The problem is that each year that we sit waiting for the magical seeds of education to bloom, countless children are falling farther and farther behind. We judge our housekeeper, lawn guy or dry cleaner based on outcomes. If we go to a café and the food is substandard, we don’t return. If we go to a salon and get a mediocre haircut, we won’t go back. Why is it, despite decades of data showing the profound failure of public schools, so many people are willing to sacrifice their children’s education, and potentially their future, to wait for ed-ucation to improve?

In my opinion, the time for waiting for improvement has long passed. Now is the time for parents to explore options for there children’s learning. For children identified with a disability, this is extremely critical. Instead of judging the intent of public schools, judge the outcomes. There are phenomenal educators in our public schools. This is not about them. This is about the system in which they work. If the last sixty years produced no improvement, do we really want to gamble with our children’s futures another sixty years to see if anything changes?

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