In EduPolicy

In the Fall of 2021 multi-billionaire Mackenzie Scott, former wife of Jeff Bezos, made headlines in her quest to give away $6 billion. Her philanthropy has entered the news cycle again in a discussion as she donated another $2.74 billion to 286 organizations

I applaud Mackenzie Scott not because of the amount of money, but because unlike other billionaires who have proclaimed their selflessness through foundations and buildings made in their names, Ms. Scott had the foresight to know that she doesn’t know everything. She understands that there are literally tens of thousands of organizations out there that are already doing good work. She is self-aware enough to know that she is not an expert in education, dance, or racial injustice. Rather than hire researchers and design her own solutions to complex problems about which she has not spent a lifetime studying, she asked her staff to develop a list of organizations that impact the community. In particular, Scott writes in her blog post on Medium that “we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others.”

In a time in which the richest of our land seem to be remarkably out of touch with reality, it is refreshing to see someone who understands the impact of education. Amongst the organizations that received money are the University of California at Merced, El Paso Community College, the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, the University of Central Florida, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Long Beach City College in California. The money is likely to have a lasting impact for students at these institutions.

While as my regular readers know, I would prefer that the general inequity is reduced through taxes and that the government provide more for our society and eliminate the need for individual donations. Still, until we have a political class that is willing to take serious steps towards equality, Ms. Scott provides a lesson for the elite who give: give what you can to organizations that are already transforming society AND give without strings. It isn’t about you, it’s about the world beyond you.

In the past few weeks states and cities have started reporting budget surpluses. From Arkansas to Greenville to Texas, the coffers are full. Perhaps the biggest winner for the past year is California with a surplus of $75.7 billion. Already there is discussion as to what to do with the excess funds. When large sums of money come into play, often they are chopped into multiple pieces in an attempt to please everyone. Tinkering at problems is a little like dueling windmills. It is a fool’s option.

Our societal and in particular education challenges are much bigger than spending dollars here and there. It takes a focused agenda to address poverty, inequity, and teacher shortages to name just a few. When managing these unexpected surpluses, it would be better to focus on one issue to address. Governor Newsom of California could take the $75.7 billion and make an impact. Here’s a couple ideas:

1. Return to tuition-free college for state residents: It would take an estimated $4.3 billion per year to provide tuition-free college for California residents in the UCs and Cal State universities. If the $75.7 billion earned no income (interest, etc.) that would be 17+ years of tuition free university for Caifornia residents. Alternatively, the funds could be placed in an endowment fund earning even as money is taken out to expand the years that this program could be offered.
2. Universal preschool for all: This is a popular idea, but what is often proposed only provides preschool for disadvantaged families. While I absolutely agree that those are most in need, I also know that policy that is enjoyed by all, whether fair or not, has a better chance of staying in place. Imagine trying to take social security away. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, who clearly do not need any extra income, receive social security benefits. It isn’t about need; it is about providing a service to everyone just like the roads we drive on and the public schools available to our children. Universal preschool has been called the “best investment Americans can make in education.” Although often debated for its long-term effects, there is significant evidence that an investment in early education can have long-term benefits, particularly for disadvantaged students. The cost of universal preschool in California is estimated at $2.69 billion (in 2021 dollars). This is equal to 28+ years of universal preschool with no additional funding.
3. Paying teachers as professionals: The massive teacher shortage that has plagued us for more than a decade is no surprise. Teachers are largely underpaid and unappreciated in our society. Attracting and retaining the best and the brightest to the profession takes a true investment. According to a report from the University of Southern California, the median teacher salary in California in 2019-2020 was $82,746. Starting salaries begin near $45,000 depending on an individual’s education and years of experience. To put this in perspective, the median teacher salary in San Francisco Unified is $75,872 yet the median home in San Francisco costs $1.3 million. The median salary of a software engineer in San Francisco is $163,393, not accounting for stock bonuses. Personal assistants in the same area earn $80,000 to $120,000 a year. We expect teachers to educate the next generation and pay them little. Using the $75.7 billion surplus to raise teacher salaries could have a large impact on generations to come.

If Newsom chose just one, it could have a longer-term impact than the piecemeal division of funds.

There is a slew of legislation rolling out in state legislatures aimed at reducing “indoctrination” in education. Topics cited by legislators as dangerous in schools includes everything from critical race theory to the reality of pollution in the ocean. From Tennessee to Arizona to North Carolina, our lawmakers are concerned about education as a tool to tell the truth about our history, climate change and more.

In North Carolina HB 755, “An Act to Ensure Academic Transparency,” recently passed the state house and will move to the senate. The bill requires that all public schools under the control of The University of North Carolina submit: “an outline of all school activities held during instructional hours outside the classroom that includes a list of presenters and instructional materials; an outline of a teacher’s instruction in each course that includes a list of all instructional materials.” The materials would be made publicly available allowing citizens to comb through them for evidence of “indoctrination.” Essentially the bill would allow a “citizen police” to decide if what teachers taught was okay. While I like to think that the majority of the public trust teachers and schools, such legislation could open a Pandora’s box of critiques of curriculum to the point that everything from climate change to the Harlem Renaissance are deemed to be “indoctrinating” our children.

Another source of indoctrination, according to some legislators, is the use of “critical race theory” in schools. Critical race theory recognizes that racism is a systemic part of American society. In other words it suggests that racism exists and shapes both policy and opportunity in America. Tennessee recently passed a bill banning the teaching of critical race theory. Tennessee’s new law will withhold funding to any public school that teaches white supremacy. It is notable that as of this writing there was no concrete evidence that critical race theory is being taught in Tennessee’s public schools. Last week Idaho governor Brad Little signed into law a similar bill(H377) banning critical race theory from being taught in schools. According to the new law, teachers are prevented from “indoctrinating” students into belief systems that claim any group to be superior or inferior to other groups. Texas is expected to take up a ban on critical race theory in schools later this year. Arizona is also currently considering a similar bill that would allow schools to fire teachers for teaching controversial issues. If passed the legislature is endorsing a literal whitewashing of our curriculum.

Mike Jordan from The Guardian stated it well identifying how statehouses are pushing bills “that attempt to quell the momentum of teaching slavery and other such moments of American history as dark periods of the country’s past that continue to affect American life today.” It is as if the legislators are rewriting history to suggest that there wasn’t slavery or the Ku Klux Klan. These laws are clearly motivated out of fear and insecurity. The legislators seem to believe that if we don’t teach about reality, past and present, it will not exist.

The “indoctrination” cry has grown out of control. What about the truth scares these legislators? Is it that they fear that the next generation will realize that for decades policy has been passed not to support but to hinder future generations? Do they think if we don’t teach about Japanese internment camps then we all can just feel good about ourselves? We aren’t accountable for the actions of our ancestors but to not acknowledge the impact that those actions had is whitewashing the world for our students. It is irresponsible and counter to creating an educated population. And perhaps at bigger issue at this moment in time is to think about if this is the best use of any legislative sessions. Let’s be real. There are much bigger issues in education than what is any one teacher’s lesson plan this week.

Nonprofits do some of the most important work in the United States.  I regularly read reporting from nonprofits such as EdSource, NPE, and Pew Research.  I give to nonprofits that support education research, preservation of nature, run aquariums and more.  Nonprofits provide essential services, education, and entertainment. The vast majority of the nonprofits have an annual operating budget of less than $500,000. They operate as a small business but receive donations and nonprofit tax status. They are sometimes valuable entities. They also push policy agendas, influence curriculum and offer money with their own magic solutions.

My problem with nonprofits is two-fold: they are influential and they fill gaps that shouldn’t exist.

1. Nonprofits fill gaps: many non-profits fill gaps not addressed sufficiently by the community. Soup kitchens provide food to those who don’t have enough. Nonprofits run after-school enrichment programs, tutoring centers, and sports. They provide free medical care and legal advice. Nonprofits educate small children through preschool programs and public television. They fundraise through events and individual asks to donors. And when I get asked to donate, I often give, but really I would prefer not to be asked at all. It isn’t that I don’t want to give, but I would rather these programs not exist separately. I would prefer to just pay more in taxes and have the government run these services for all, so that it isn’t a matter of who is lucky enough to get extra support. And while you can argue that many programs run by non-profits supplement government-run programs, the fact that additional nonprofit support is necessary means that these programs are underfunded. It would be better for society if instead of individuals such as myself choose which nonprofits are worthy of our support, the given to non-profits was simply paid in taxes. To put this in context, according to NPTrust Americans gave “$449.64 billion in 2019.” Corporations gave “$21.09 billion in 2019.” This money is spread over a wide variety of nonprofits from churches to after-school programs to arts schools to political action organizations. The money that is given could go into the government to expand and enhance existing programs. For example, putting the money given by individuals into schools would increase school budgets by 50%, approximately $6,000 per student. Just imagine what could be done in terms of teacher pay, classroom size, and after school programs.
2. Nonprofit influence: while most nonprofits are small, the big ones such as the foundations wield considerable influence over policy. In the Gates Foundation 2018 annual letter, Melinda Gates wrote “World leaders tend to take our phone calls and seriously consider what we have to say. Cash-strapped school districts are more likely to divert money and talent toward ideas they think we will fund.” Although Melinda acknowledges the influence they have, she is unapologetic. The foundation simply is acting as a policy maker without actually being part of the government. Foundations employ experts who testify in front of legislatures. The Gates foundation even used their funds to launch a separate lobbying group. The reality is that nonprofits often in their influence over policy makers and in the ways in which they provide funding shape policy.

Nonprofits are not inherently bad in their goals. They want to help. Theoretically, their goals come from a good place, but with hundreds of different nonprofits pushing different policies, we waste a tremendous amount as a society tinkering while not really getting anywhere.

In March the California State Board of Education unanimously approved a 900 page Ethnic Studies curriculum to help teachers educate students about groups that are different than them. The curriculum is voluntary and was developed over a multiple year effort and with thousands of public comments. The resulting curriculum is the fourth draft. The curriculum “helps students see themselves as active agents in the interethnic bridge-building process we call American life.”

Since the approval of the curriculum, the “hate” over the optional curriculum has exploded. A small but vocal community of residents have vehemently opposed the ethnic studies curriculum. It has been called anti-White and anti-American. Opponents in Los Alamitos, a city in Orange County, wrote in their letter of opposition to the elective that it “teaches children that America is based on white supremacy and that white people are racists, even if they don’t know it.” This is a fairly far-reaching opinion. The reality of our history in America is that the white population has dominated other cultures forcing Native Americans off their land in a death march and interning Japanese-Americans, for example. Knowing our past is not designating today’s children as necessarily racists. The idea is that they talk about different cultures in hopes that there is more acceptance of people who are different than ourselves regardless of race or ethnicity.

Other opponents believe the curriculum is anti-Western forcing students to self-identify as oppressors or victims. In a letter to the Santa Clara County Board of Education, residents began by stating “We are concerned citizens, parents, and voters of Santa Clara County.” Yet, a careful examination of the signatories shows that many of the supposed citizens, parents and voters are not actually residents of the county. They live in places such as San Mateo and San Bruno (in a neighboring community), Napa, Walnut Creek, and Encino (more than 300 miles from Santa Clara county).

They go on to suggest that the curriculum should have parent input. Never mind the fact that the curriculum has gone through multiple drafts with public comments. There has been plenty of opportunity to voice an opinion. The signatories, many of whom are Asian, argue that this has been put upon them and the curriculum is full of hate. They are particularly wary of the “critical ethnic studies” that may be placed in schools. It especially interesting that this is occurring in Santa Clara County, an area considered to be quite liberal, and where 80% of the student body in the county are non-White. Thirty-percent of the student body is Asian. So, here is a small group suggesting that teaching about other cultures is anti-American.

Parents have argued that teaching ethnic studies is the equivalent of teaching anti-White curriculum. This bimodal interpretation of humanity is disturbing. Learning about other cultures is not equivalent to being anti-White. You can value both Black lives and White lives as well as Asians, Latinos, and other ethnicities. The opponents seem to be scared, of what, I am not sure. It is as if they don’t understand the value of other cultures. Research has shown that enrollment in ethnic studies courses can improve attendance, grades, and other educational outcomes for high school students. Furthermore, it is clear that there is a deep need for better cultural understanding. Police shootings of blacks, violence against Asian-Americans, and continued attempts to disenfranchise minority voters are just examples of how far we still have to go. Not only will our students benefit from inclusion of ethnic studies but is clear that many of the residents of California would as well.

As I walk through the Upper East Side of New York in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, I see kids everywhere. The playground at the back of the public elementary school is filled with screams and laughter. In the north end of Central Park, there are classes having PE or lunch. Some kids are wearing uniforms; others are not. The vast majority of the children I see are white. As I walk westward and up towards 100th, there are less children in the park. On the West Side when I pass the local elementary school, the playground is silent. There are no children to be seen anywhere on the streets. It’s pick up time but there are no parents waiting. I have passed this elementary school every day for three months. It has closed and opened many times over the course of these months. The vast majority of the students in this school are Black or Latino.

The media often reports on the disparity in educational opportunity particularly over this past year. A walk through neighborhoods that are literally separated by a few city blocks puts this disparity in front of your eyes. Unless you are blind, you can’t ignore the inequality. This is an inequality that affects generations.

There is a curious loyalty that we universally have to our family, our team, our school. It makes sense. We want to be positive about communities in which we are involved. There is a pride in being part of a place. We invest in our school. It is the one we know. It is the we care about.

This isn’t just my opinion, an annual poll of adults in the United States to gauge their attitudes on public education backs this theory up. There are some common threads year after year. Overall, adults and parents agree that education is important. In the 2020 survey, “Six in 10 adults and 7 in 10 public school parents call public education highly important in their vote for president this fall.” Generally, support for education is high but increasing taxes is not.

While different issues have emerged as more important than others in different years, there is one universal year after year: the rating of local schools vs education nationally. Invariably, survey respondents give their local school a higher grade, usually around an A and national schools a low grade, often in the C or D range. The local school district and state assessment comes somewhere in between these.

It is fascinating, although perhaps not surprising, that adults consistently believe that their local school is outstanding while maintaining a largely negative view of the education system at large. They know the local school. Their children likely attend or attended it. They might know a teacher there. They walk by it and see kids playing happily. It is tangible and in sight. The national system is abstract. Furthermore, the media and policy makers paint mostly a negative view of the school system, often decrying our “failing” schools. So, while schools as a whole are inadequate, local schools are not?

If so many people believe their local school is doing well, then how can schools collectively be failing? More importantly if education is highly important, why are willing to not put the money behind it to support them? The truth is that we are willing to fund and support schools only locally. School foundations run by parents are able to raise millions of dollars in some areas to support schools. In Palo Alto, California, where the median home value tops $3 million, the Palo Alto parent group raised over $6 million during the 2019-2020 to fund additional teachers, aides, and activities. School bonds pass at a higher rate (84% across 13 states) at the ballot than other bond measures (around 84% across 13 states). When it comes to taxes beyond the local, the electorate says no. For more than 15 years, survey respondents have said funding in schools is the biggest problem schools face yet when asked if taxes should be raised to better fund schools 40-50% (depending on the year of the survey) oppose raising taxes. If it’s “Not My School,” then when it comes to sharing the wealth, we are unlikely to give to the broader community.

To say it has been a rough year plus for students, parents, and teachers would be an understatement. Schools opened and closed. Some kids lived on Zoom while others were sent homework packets. Women left the workforce in great numbers to help support their now at home full-time children. Teachers left the profession at a larger rate than usual, and those that stayed are exhausted.

As the school year begins to close, there is great debate about what the next year will look like. Discussions around “learning loss,” safety and reopening abound. In California Governor Newsom has doubled down on full reopening of schools this Fall. While I rarely support Newsom’s statements as he tends to be a do-nothing governor, I would be very surprised to see schools not open normally in the Fall. All the data points to this being not only feasible but also absolutely necessary for our students. So, rather than plan more “re-opening” strategies, schools should right now be focusing entirely on re-engaging the community in public schools.

The 2020-21 school year saw a mass exodus of students from the public school system in states across the country. Michigan reported a drop of 53,200 students (4.1%) in December 2020 from previous years. New York Public Schools had their largest decline since 1981, enrolling 66,424 fewer students (a 2.6% drop) than in 2019-2020. California lost 155,000 students, a decline five times greater than the current trend of 20,000-30,000 students to lower birth rates. According to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, homeschooling nearly doubled for the year. Schools tend to be funded based on their enrollment. It is important to entice students back to the public schools next year.

Truly, this is an opportunity to bring out the very best schools have to offer. It is a time to demonstrate the creative teachers who have students clamoring to be in their classes. It is a time to show off the robotics clubs and arts programs and sports that connect students beyond the academic classroom. It is a time to promote education as an interactive partnership between teachers, students and parents. Elementary schools should be throwing up fresh coats of paint on their murals and planning community picnics for the summer to welcome the community back. High schools need to take a breath from the college rat race and give students back just a little of all they missed – homecoming events, school spirit weeks, and prom. They need some fun! Many students struggled with online learning and had to balance additional stresses such as watching younger siblings or loss of employment by a parent. The need for human connection goes way beyond academic needs. Schools have to address the emotional well-being of students before they can take on the academic needs.

Schools have been given significant additional funds for next year through federal and state programs. This is an opportunity to provide free after-school programs in programming, the arts, and more. Rather than just think of “returning to normal,” I’d love to see schools transform to even better. Why aim low when we can do even better? Schools are amazing learning environments. With the extra funding coming their way, I challenge teachers, parents and administrators to think outside the box at what could be. What does your dream learning environment look like? Use this re-emergence as an opportunity to take even just one step closer to that dream!

For the better part of a year, the vast majority of education news has related to the pandemic: what schools are and aren’t doing, anger from parents, battles between teachers and policymakers, the effect on students and more. Researchers are accumulating an impressive amount of data which will be analyzed for decades to come. All of this will hopefully yield some important lessons to inform future decisions. Still, when schools open in the Fall as they did in 2019, the same challenges will be there, some even bigger than before. Just a few of these include:

1. Teacher shortages: Teacher shortages have been building for decades. This past year has been particularly discouraging. Early retirement is up 44% in Michigan this year. Teacher attrition rates in the United States are already higher (on average about 8%) than in other countries (Finland’s is 4%). High stress, low pay and poor working conditions are just some of the reasons teachers leave. Furthermore, less people are choosing to enter the profession in the first place. According to a report from the Education Policy Institute in 2019: “From the 2008–2009 to 2015–2016 school years, there was a 15.4 percent drop in the number of education degrees awarded and a 27.4 percent drop in the number of people who completed a teacher preparation program.” So, we have large numbers leaving the profession and not enough people coming in. Ultimately, this hurts students who end up in overcrowded classrooms or without qualified professionals providing their education.
2. Teacher pay: As noted above one of the major issues in teacher attrition is low pay. Simply put we don’t pay teachers enough for the work they do. Education is perhaps the single most important service a government can provide the community. By not paying teachers what they are worth, we struggle to attract and retain talented individuals to the profession. When I met my husband, I was in my third year teaching. I had a master’s degree and I made less than half what he did as a third year engineer, not counting his stock options and bonuses. According to the OECD, United States teacher salaries rank 27th among 32 developed countries. Teachers are paid significantly less than other professions with similar levels of education. Simply put, teachers need to be paid more.
3. Unequal funding: The distribution of funding still favors the upper, middle class White students in the United States. According to a 2018 report from Education Trust, schools with high concentrations of Black or Latino students receive on average $1,800 less per student than low minority schools. Schools serving high-income students receive approximately $1,000 more per student than low-income students. Even if you reject the argument that high poverty schools need more money to provide necessary resources, there is no reason why schools that education students of different races or incomes should receive different amounts. At the minimum every school should receive equal funding for students. (You can read my thoughts on what is truly equitable funding elsewhere). The school funding formula is complex and varies by state, but ultimately it is the government’s job to provide equitable funding for every student.
4. Less experienced teachers in majority poverty schools: Majority poverty schools face unique challenges. Research shows that as compared to schools with high-income students, schools with high concentrations of low socioeconomic students come to school less prepared, have higher absentee rates, have lower rates of parental involvement, and higher rates of health-related issues. The least experienced teachers are often placed in these challenging environments, ill-prepared or equipped to deal with problems that go beyond simply educating children. High-poverty schools are likely to have large numbers of newly credentialed or un-credentialed teachers who have less experience teaching. Attrition is higher in the first five years of teaching, which means that there is high turnover in high-poverty schools, which negatively affects the school climate and ultimately student outcomes. The good news that recent research shows a narrowing in the gap of teacher experience in some places. For example, New York City has been able to increase the qualifications of teachers in high-poverty schools.
5. Unequal opportunity: segregation by class and race
6. The billionaire “silver bullet:” There is an arrogance amongst billionaires that because they have been successful in one area of their lives, they know how to fix the world. Education is a target for many of the billionaires. You know the group I’m talking about it: Gates, Zuckerberg, Reed, Walton, and Carnegie, to name a few. Non-education professionals swoop in with their big money and ask desperate schools to jump through hoops to implement their “silver bullet” solution. As has written about extensively, these programs not only tend to fail but also cost schools valuable resources that could otherwise be spent on best practices for students. If billionaires want to contribute to educational outcomes, they should simply pay more taxes or donate the money with no strings attached.
7. Charter school expansion: Although recent legislation has begun to curb the growth of charter schools, their growth continues to take valuable funds from public school. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Between fall 2000 and fall 2017, overall public charter school enrollment increased from 0.4 million to 3.1 million.” Charter schools are funded with public education funds but operate independently of school districts. Their teachers are not members of the teacher’s union. They determine their curriculum and schedule. The cost to school districts is non-trivial. Operating two education systems is expensive. Furthermore, charter schools divert funds from traditional public schools. This is a problem that cannot be ignored as we move forward.
8. Multi-generational poverty: people like to ignore the simple fact that poverty does affect educational outcomes. We simply cannot provide an equitable system without reducing the number of children living in poverty. Being raised in poverty can impact not only cognitive ability due to poor nutrition or access to food but also educational attainment. Research shows that multigenerational poverty can have even a greater negative impact.

These are problems that have persisted for year and in some cases decades, which I suppose is why they continue to be largely ignored. Policy that tinkers at the edges of change has done little to improve our system. It is time to stop fooling around and make meaningful change. Addressing one or more of the above will impact generations to come.