One of the great items of discontent in our community is the
school system. Graduation rates need to be higher; No Child Left
Behind has quashed a generation of excellence and rewards
mediocrity; teachers want more money; other school employees want
more as well and that’s before you even get to the hard choices
about buying light bulbs or providing a music program in the middle
schools.
One of the great items of discontent in our community is the school system. Graduation rates need to be higher; No Child Left Behind has quashed a generation of excellence and rewards mediocrity; teachers want more money; other school employees want more as well and that’s before you even get to the hard choices about buying light bulbs or providing a music program in the middle schools.
Administrators want the state and federal governments off their backs – too many mandates without enough funding. Not to mention an attendance reimbursement system so disconnected from classroom results, that filling seats becomes more important than filling minds. Administrative turnover is frequent, so one superintendent’s plan is likely to be diametrically opposed to the plan the next superintendent implements.
So, perhaps the only thing to do is blow up the system and start over. This isn’t a screed against teachers or unions or administrators. Everyone involved in our children’s education is underpaid and overworked. This is simply an observation that given the unceasing budget pressures and the escalating demands for improvement, we’ve gone beyond fixing the airplane our education system has become, while it is in the air.
We hear a lot about the success of charter schools, including the one here in Morgan Hill. We read how there are more students wanting to attend a charter school than there is space for. It appears there’s something going on here and it may offer the alternative everyone is seeking.
Take all the K-8 schools in the Morgan Hill Unified School District and make them all charter schools. It would introduce an academic element of competition and allow for specialized immersion programs in foreign languages, math and science, and other 21st Century areas in addition to the basic curriculum.
A collection of charter schools could make Morgan Hill an impressive center of learning, especially with our diverse population, the American Institute of Math and the valued knowledge worker base that Silicon Valley is. When students go onto high school, they will be better students, better learners and more prepared for the challenges that lie ahead of them in college and in life.
If this were to succeed, Morgan Hill would could be a blueprint for education throughout the country. It would be at the forefront of educational reform and on the cutting edge of public schooling. In fact, Morgan Hill could become a magnet for business and residents, because of its schools.
We don’t kid ourselves. This would be a lot of work. Such an idea is radical and faces many, many obstacles before it could be implemented and years before we know if the changes worked. However, now is a good time to see the possibilities and see how they could work in a community of our size. With a new superintendent, new ideas and old challenges, is there any idea that should be tossed aside – only because it is a radical one?
Think about this idea. Talk it over with your children, your friends and your neighbors. The goal is simple: a better school system. It can be achieved if parents, students, teachers and administrators focus on the goal and seek common ground on the means for how that goal can be achieved. If we want the best for our kids, we should be willing to try almost anything to make that happen. We’ve found charter schools can work. Now it’s time to implement what we have learned to improve the experience for all our students instead of a select few that are lucky enough to win the entrance lottery.
