A Little Light

My children's grade school principal used to start the school year with an assembly where he led them in singing, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." He was a Mr. Rogers kind of principal, perhaps a little too gentle for this world, but you knew he cared about children.

When parents are blindsided by the hiring of a principal who is under investigation for fixing test scores at another high school, and signed to a 4 year contract before the issue is resolved, they are understandably upset. How could this have happened? Parents wondered that too, so they started showing up at school board meetings and asking questions about this and more. As the meetings weren't televised on local cable access, parents videotaped the proceedings themselves, and some meetings-that-officially-weren't prompted questions about violations of the Illinois open meetings act, enough to warrant a letter from the state attorney general.

This kind of arrogance and disdain for parents and the public happens all too often, in communities across the country. It's happened in Wilmette, and here's a recent example via Diane, Respublica, from St. Louis. So maybe it's not news, but you'd have to look elsewhere to find the point of a recent Tribune story about these parents, beyond their use of YouTube to distribute school board tapes. (There is a brief quote from a community activist making a predictable leftist ad hominem attack on the parents.) It is good news that this technology is being put into play to share information at the local level. But here's the parents' website with some of the background missing from the story. More here and here.

Now another information-sharing opportunity for those concerned about their children's education. Let's shine a little light on this subject---you may think you have "local control" of your school, but the teachers' union, which "represents" your children's teachers has an agenda of its own. You may not agree with their priorities for schools, and your school's teachers may not agree with use of their dues for partisan political purposes. WSJ:

Hard-working union members deserve to know, for example, that of the AFL-CIO's $82 million in discretionary disbursements from July 2004 to June 2005, only 36% went to representing members in labor negotiations -- which is what unions were created to do. A whopping $49 million, or 60% of its budget, instead went to political activities and lobbying, while another $2.4 million went to contributions, gifts and grants. The National Education Association was even more skewed toward politics, spending only 33% of its $143 million discretionary budget on improving its members' lots.

Some might like their money back. And we'd like our schools back. The number one political issue for years (aside from their own pay) for teachers' unions is opposition to school choice. With little accountability and less competition American schools have been dumbed down for two generations and poor children are too often locked out of real learning. Even the NY Times has recognized there's a problem with our public schools, at least in the area of math, an "unfortunate development", though predictably can't offer more than a few limp-wristed and vague suggestions. (Oh, but in conclusion we get some get tough talk---"Until we bite the bullet on those basic, critical reforms, we will continue to lose ground to the countries with which we must compete in the global information economy.")

Here is some serious talk from the Heritage Foundation:

Children across the country would benefit from greater choice in education. Millions of American children are enrolled in underperforming public schools. According to a Department of Education report in 2006, more than 2,112 public schools have missed state benchmarks for five or more years under No Child Left Behind.[36] In some large school districts, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, hundreds of thousands of students are enrolled in persistently underperform­ing public schools.

And here's the Illinois report card for school choice.

Schools that excel are called lighthouse districts. Well, there are too few lighthouse districts in this country. We need a lot more to let a little light shine for every child in every neighborhood.