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ACCORDING TO LIZ - CityWatch has run a number of articles on the poor quality of California education, and for good reason.
Without a good education, California children will not be able to achieve the economic mobility, citizenship building, hope for the future, and improved intellectual curiosity that will benefit them all their lives.
California needs to rethink its approach to schooling. It is not child care, it is not preparing factory workers, and it is not keeping potential gang-bangers off the streets.
It is an investment in all our futures – a chance for kids to climb into better economic levels and the best opportunity for the state to maintain its economic stature.
But to get there…
We desperately need more effective approaches to keep kids in school. Too many drop out and most are not as lucky as Wendy Carrillo in getting the help to build a life that has ended up with her representing part of Los Angeles in the California Assembly.
Half her class at Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights ended up in the school-to-prison pipeline and even after “rehabilitation” faced a lifetime of challenges exacerbated by limited job prospects, lack of resources, and the escalating costs of food, housing, and healthcare.
Many factors impact literacy and these can vary significantly between cities and states, ranging from political leanings and tax-base to the number of immigrants and their command of the English language.
Most important is the financial commitment across the country necessary to provide quality education for everyone. As Bernie Sanders has pointed out: "If we can spend close to $900 billion last year on the military, more than the next 11 nations combined, please don't tell me that we cannot make sure that every teacher in America is treated with dignity and respect."
Overburdened, underpaid teachers trying to control too many students while feeding them facts to regurgitate for standard testing will be able to graduate only what we have now – a generation passively accepting Tweets and the screeds of entertaining outliers instead of learning to make their own decisions.
A broad curriculum is essential to lay the groundwork for success in life and social mobility – in addition to quality reading and writing skills, our children need computer science to learn problem-solving, the humanities to expand worldviews and teach critical thinking and empathy.
They will also benefit from ongoing positive interaction between them and their teachers to illustrate how to negotiate differences, and tolerance of these differences to create the art of the possible to allow each child to achieve their own goals.
Schools should also provide a safe haven for the vulnerable – for children who are emotionally younger than their peers, who have difficult home lives, or are otherwise at risk. And the intervention to services that can divert them from being sucked into gangs or go down a rabbit hole of mental fragility.
But none of this will happen without quality educators and the budget to employ them.
And education must employ a holistic approach, engaging parents and the local community, acknowledging and encouraging the critical role of parents and others in inspiring young people to thrive.
Because while there was a significant decline in math skills acquired through remote learning, there was no similar impact on reading, perhaps because most parents do have better reading abilities themselves but are often intimidated by math, especially as it is taught today.
Above all, education must get out of the punitive discipline business and cut the chains of the school-to-prison pipeline.
Every American must do his or her part in demanding that our governments set priorities showing they truly understand that the children are our future.
If the United States, if California, if Los Angeles are to compete successfully in the ever-changing global economy, we must improve the education provided to the next generation to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to flourish… not only for themselves but also for the success of the city, state, and national economies.
To develop such a workforce, first we must solve the shortage of teachers, of teachers with the pedagogic skills and in-school support to make a real difference.
Right now, American schools lack over 200,000 teachers, and that’s based on current student-teacher ratios which are appalling considering the challenges facing our public education system. More than half of all American schools are under-staffed, disproportionately so in the communities of color and low-income neighborhoods that need educational help the most. And these are also the places that can’t afford to attract the best teachers.
Money makes a difference. Inequality begets wider inequalities.
In a world re-imagining itself in technology, education innovation non-profit Code.org reports that there are 400,000 computer positions now vacant in the United States, but only 47% of our schools teach computer science, and only ten states provide classes at all grade levels.
And we must address the root cause of why it’s so hard to attract and retain quality teachers. Even though many do enter the profession for altruistic reasons knowing that they won’t end up as millionaires, too many become quickly disillusioned and depart.
Their peers who go the Wall Street route look down on public school teachers as church mice while, in reality, they should look up to them with respect and admiration for crafting the next cohort of American ingenuity.
If Wall Street’s measure of success is money, perhaps we should be making millionaires out of teachers. If nothing else, salaries that indicate their importance will allow teachers to concentrate full-time on their profession and not have to take on two or three other jobs, or rely on food stamps to support their families.
Such financial freedom and the attendant respect will go a long way towards reducing the stress and burnout endemic in today’s system.
If nothing else, investment in pre-K and K-12 education today is a major step toward reducing violence a decade or two from now. Stopping frustration in the classroom, giving youth a path out of poverty, can wipe away the internalized anger that too often leads to a life of crime.
Americans must radically change their attitude towards the importance of education and demand that every teacher, those teachers to whom they entrust their children every day, is paid better than garbage men and car salespeople.
And they deserve resources equivalent to the fancy trash-compacting trucks and lavish sales rooms.
Urge your elected officials to fund a better education system for all Angelenos and all Americans. And don’t pass the buck downhill to future generations.
Bernie’s proposed starting salary of at least $60,000 annually, more where the costs of living are high or there is a desperate need for teachers who can make a difference, is just a start on the path of rehabilitating the American school system.
(Liz Amsden is a contributor to CityWatch and an activist from Northeast Los Angeles with opinions on much of what goes on in our lives. She has written extensively on the City's budget and services as well as her many other interests and passions. In her real life she works on budgets for film and television where fiction can rarely be as strange as the truth of living in today's world.) Top Photo: Wendy Carrillo, CA Assemblymember representing 51st District. Photo Credit: ian paredes
