The Roman Emperor Nero reportedly fiddled while Rome was consumed by fires that he ordered to be set. Our national educational establishment is missing only the togas and fiddles to be clones of the corrupt Nero.
There are mounds of evidence as high as Mount Everest proving the abject failure of the educational zeitgeist that has ruled K–12 education in this country. In all but the wealthiest of enclaves, all too few students are relegated to underperforming schools that fail to prepare them for college or real life. Yet the bureaucracy, and sadly some educators (secure in jobs protected by deeply ensconced rules that make it impossible to fire even for gross incompetence or abject failure to actually educate kids), fiddle merrily away while their students’ futures go up in flames.
But don’t take my word for it. Here are three examples making news — this week!
Tulsa, Okla., public schools revealed that only one-third of its high school juniors were ready for college or a career. For the math-challenged, that means two-thirds, or about 67 percent, have not been prepared for, well, anything. As usual, it is minority students who are being shortchanged the most by being stuck in failing schools. About 14 percent of black high school juniors were deemed ready for college or career before their senior year, while a quarter of Hispanic students were college- and career-ready. About 57 percent of white students met the readiness bar at that point.
About 33 percent of students being deemed college- and career-ready is below the dismal national average of 46 percent. The district didn’t meet its goal of increasing its college- and career-ready rate to 37 percent, and only a third of its high schools met their goals. A robust charter school alternative path for these students would give them a way out of their failing schools and a much more certain path to being prepared for college and/or a career.
Next up is an item that shows the results of such failure at the high school level. According to a 2016 report from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, somewhere between 40 to 60 percent of first-year college students now require remedial courses in math, English, or both. Many estimate it to be much higher. Millions of students are trapped in classes that only cover content they should have learned in high school.
These kinds of classes used to be called “gut” classes, yet they come at a steep cost. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2017–2018 school year was $34,740 at private colleges, $9,970 for state residents at public colleges, and $25,620 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. The traditional way of doing school is simply not working for most students. It’s time to bring on transformative educational pathways that ensure students develop competency in subjects rather than check a box of courses for old time’s sake and throw gut classes into the ash heap of history.
Our last item is a truly sad indication that the proverbial education Neros are ignoring the fire of failing schools. In July, the Hellenic Classical Charter School made the first step in the process toward opening a second charter school location in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, from the New York State Education Department.
The move paves the way for HCCS to open a possible second location. Their first location in Sunset Park/Greenwood Heights is a dual language K-8 school with a diverse class range: 23 percent black, 44 percent Hispanic, and 27 percent white. HCCS would add 450 seats to one of Brooklyn’s most crowded school districts and is expected to launch with grades K-1 in fall 2019. After their first year, 2019-2020, the school will add a grade each year until the school serves K-8. The proposed elementary and middle charter school will focus on challenging content and supplementing instruction with classical study of the Greek and Latin language, history, etc.
Sounds pretty good, yes? Well, not if you’re an official whose livelihood comes not from success but from the status quo. The education establishment, in league with local elected officials (and not very enlightened liberals) have vociferously opposed letting HCCS expand opportunities for poor kids stuck in schools that don’t educate them. They don’t want these students to have better pathways? Shame on them.
As educational failure continues to blaze, too many education and elected officials stoke the fires and fiddle. You may be sure that the parents of the students in Tulsa and Brooklyn want a way out for their children. There are two ways, actually. One is to transform the schools into a bastion of student-centered learning, with educators merely helping direct students as they work to their best potential and achieve competency. It’s where all schools (public, private, or charter) should be.
But until every school can do that for every child, they need every alternative available under the sun. They need educational choice — and elected officials bold enough give it to them.
Jeanne Allen (@JeanneAllen) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. She is CEO and founder of the Center for Education Reform.
