Public school systems across the country are now engaged in a “Race to the Top”—a nationwide competition between states for a slice of the federal stimulus package pie.
 Teachers rally against budget cuts, Los Angeles, April 28, 2009. New anti-teacher legislation in California adds insult to injury. |
But the race is, in fact, to the bottom. President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have made $4.35 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package available to states for education, but the criteria is little more than a thinly veiled, broad attack on public education and teachers.
Among other guidelines for receiving money, a July 24 press release mentioned rewarding “top-notch” teachers and empowering districts to replace school staff in poor-performance schools. Secretary Duncan has explicitly asserted that states that place a cap on charter schools or prohibit linking educator pay to student performance will be ineligible for receiving funds under the program.
States are already rushing to enact legislation that may improve their chances of receiving a part of the federal funds. California dropped its ban on linking teachers’ pay to student test results in October . In June, Louisiana dropped its cap on charter schools, and Indiana passed a budget with language allowing factors other than seniority to determine teachers’ pay .
None of these states are guaranteed to get a single penny—only the “top reformers,” as determined by the federal government, will get anything. But that is not stopping state governments from gutting legislation that protects public education and teachers’ rights.
At a time when school funding is so desperately needed, tying education dollars to these measures is a frontal assault against unionized teachers’ wages and a further step toward privatizing the school system. The program comes up not only against the interests of educators but also students and parents with a stake in public education.
So what is the problem with linking teacher pay to standard measures of student performance? Secretary Duncan wants student performance on standardized tests used as another measure for the evaluation and compensation of teachers, regardless of the fact that many still question the reliability of the exams as a measure of student achievement. This would undoubtedly penalize many hardworking educators whose positive impact on their students is not reflected on a multiple-choice test.
Blaming the victims
The teachers’ unions understand this and have fought against it, which is why Secretary Duncan attempts to undermine them with this new initiative. For years, unionized educators have been paid on a scale according to their academic credentials and the number of years of experience they have accumulated. These terms have been reached through collective bargaining, and bolstered with research that shows that professional development and years of experience both contribute to teacher quality and consequently to learning outcomes.
 Teachers must work even harder to cope with crowded classrooms and lack of resources as education budgets are slashed nationwide. |
The underlying reasoning behind “Race to the Top” implies that the interests of teachers are somehow at odds with their students. It has been suggested that teachers do not care about the success of their students because their paychecks stay the same no matter how the students perform.
In fact, educators are among the most self-sacrificing professionals. Teachers across the country are already overworked, planning their lessons and grading assignments off the clock. Many pay for classroom materials out of their own pocket so that their students will not have to do without.
Education budgets are being slashed across the country. Schools are shutting down, classroom sizes are swelling, and educational resources are lacking. Poverty, which is known to adversely impact students, is on the rise. Schools, particularly those that serve working people, are operating on shoestring budgets.
Who pays for this? The burden falls almost entirely on teachers whose jobs are at risk and who are being pushed to do more with less; and students, whose access to quality education is slipping as resources are pulled. The ability of these schools to actually improve test score performance in order to get federal funds is minimal. “Race to the Top” has nothing to offer them besides further erosion of the public education system and teachers’ work conditions.
Scapegoating educators conveniently shifts the discourse away from the real culprits. The policymakers who are starving schools of funds are the ones to blame for the challenges facing public education.
Corporate dollars set the agenda
“Race to the Top” reveals a deep intertwining of the corporate world and education policy. According to Associated Press reports, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been spending nearly $200 million a year in grants to education. Secretary Duncan’s chief of staff and his assistant deputy secretary are both former Gates employees. The foundation has offered $250,000 to states to help with the application process provided they align with the foundation’s goals of introducing performance pay and the expansion of charter schools—goals that are eerily similar to that of the secretary.
While many claim that charter schools spark educational ingenuity, they also allow for dubious relationships between corporations and schools. In New York City, Eva Moskowitz, the executive director of the Harlem Success Academy, a chain of four charter schools in Harlem, made $371,000 during the 2006-2007 school year. (Daily News, Feb. 27, 2009).
This sum, which is roughly three times what the average New York City principal makes, came from three different positions: $85,000 as the executive director of the Harlem Success Academy, $186,000 as chief executive officer of the Success Charter Network (a separate non-profit that “manages” her schools), and $100,000 as an “independent contractor” for Friends of Gotham Charter Schools, which finances the Harlem Success Academy.
Despite their formal separation, all three organizations share an address and have millionaire hedge fund managers as officers. As in countless other charter schools across the nation, the teachers of the Harlem Success Academy schools are not unionized. It is only under a privatized model that this muddy relationship between non-profit corporations and the schools they serve is possible.
Education reform is always a hot topic for mainstream politicians because it is safe and easy. Who is not for making schools better? Who is against children learning? Using this rhetoric, Secretary Duncan and other top education policy makers are attempting to undermine the teachers’ unions in pursuit of their corporate vision for the public school system. They have attempted to pit working-class parents who want the best for their children against the hardworking educators who want the same.
Public school teachers, parents, staff, and students are on the same side. We want a say in the direction of our children’s education. We are the ones who have the most at stake. Foundations and politicians compromised by their ties to corporate money are hardly the ones who should be setting our educational priorities.
We want school funding funneled toward safe and modern classrooms, decent pay to educators, and higher education accessible to all people.
In a country where inequality and racism run so thoroughly throughout every institution, Duncan’s assertion that “education is the great equalizer” is an attractive one. However, access to quality education for our children cannot be achieved through breaking a unionized workforce or privatizing the management of the school system.
Education is a right. It is a fundamental obligation of the government to make it public and accessible to all in a way that meets the needs of parents, students and teachers.
