I decided to write this morning’s post at Gateway Market in Des Moines. I wanted to escape the office and pound out something insightful about last night’s primaries in Colorado and Connecticut. I thought Gateway would be a quiet place to write. I was wrong. The place was packed with people and it was hard to concentrate on other states with so much of Iowa and Des Moines talking around and to me. (The blueberry muffin was mighty tasty though.)
Max Knauer was chatting to some folks about his campaign for the Broadlawns Medical Center Board of Trustees, there were Democrat campaign staffers at one table, business folks at a few others, and Des Moines School officials were meeting with a representative of the United Way over coffee in a far corner. A few people stopped at my table to talk about politics and the world. Next to the rain, the main topic was the state of our schools. The approaching start of the school year and yesterday’s rushed vote by Congress to send money for education to the states had many asking, “are we getting our money’s worth from education spending?”
Iowans take pride in our reputation as an educational leader. Much of this reputation is justified, but the high standing is partly due to the fact schools in other parts of this country are failing miserably. Comedian Chris Rock has a classic bit he performs about low expectations; calling yourself a good dad because you take care of your kids, or a good person because you never went to jail is ridiculous. You are SUPPOSED to do the former and NEVER do the latter. Those are minimum standards. The fact most Iowa kids graduate high school, or that most do pretty well in the long run are shockingly low standards when one deconstructs Iowans’ school pride.
In the coming days, students all over Iowa will return to the classroom and teachers will renew the battle to inspire and educate. More than one politician will make strong statements on the campaign trail about his commitment to education and, with teary eyes, try to demonstrate his unwavering commitment to public schools. I won’t paraphrase Chris Rock’s expletive laced comment, but a public servant is supposed to support education. The question to be asked is, “what exactly will you do to support education?”
Yesterday’s passage of the $26 billion aid package for schools will pay for many things. Some teacher jobs will be saved and a whole lot of money will change hands, but will our schools be any better? No, but they won’t be any worse. That, my friends, is not good enough. The middle school curriculum in Des Moines and across the country has not changed much over the years. Every year countless kids walk out of junior high school for good as we collectively look the other way. Most students stay – most of them survive middle school. As Rock would say, “they are supposed to!”
Middle school teacher Andrew Rasmussen will soon be standing in a classroom trying to get through to a bunch of hormone pumping eighth grade social studies students. Last spring, he and his fellow educators were unable to think about much beyond the minimum. They held their breath hoping they wouldn’t lose their jobs in the next round of budget cuts. Finances are a bit better today, but it won’t last. The future still looks grim, but it could be worse, right?
I focus on middle school because we pay the least amount of attention to the middle years and, most important, this is when the most kids are lost to the system. Mr. Rasmussen wants the District to reinstitute a Middle School Study Committee to look into ways to improve junior high. Des Moines has done this before. A lot of noise was made about the committee and recommendations were made with a great flourish. In the end, not much changed in Mr. Rasmussen’s classroom or ones like it all across the city. This time, let’s form the committee and follow through with what comes out of it.
To be successful, the proposed middle school committee must be formed with a clear mandate and have the support of the school district administration, school board, parents and the community. Here’s hoping we can do something more than shake our heads over coffee, or pat ourselves on the back for being better than Alabama or Mississippi. Let’s urge our school leaders to listen to Mr. Rasmussen and create a plan to do more than create a committee to make ourselves feel better. Perhaps we can move beyond a Chris Rock punch line and doing the minimum when it comes to public education.
(Another blueberry muffin would be wrong, wouldn’t it?)
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