Voters and media enjoy noisy campaigns. We scrutinize large issues and trivialize small local offices. Yet a candidate selection close to home has consequences that reverberate through our communities, across our nation, and into the future — school boards. Whether you are a parent or not, school age children are part of your world. They will be the teens who attend college or train in vocations. They will be the adults who teach, run businesses, provide your medical care, and take on all the roles in society, including addicts, homeless, and criminals.
People we vote onto the school board have influence over each student, teacher, administrator, and school in the district and through these they influence the world. While your district is different from mine and specific details vary, most of my local troubles are systemic throughout the country. Our votes can help overcome these troubles and provide quality education open to all students.
Do you know if your school board gives each school appropriate attention and consideration? Consider this —
- If some schools serve higher poverty level areas should the students be viewed as lost causes or less important?
- Are your local tax supported charter schools the new form of school segregation?
- How do administrators affect funding and policies that perpetuate each school’s graduation rate, college admissions, and other traits that define student lives?
I’ve not paid close attention to the school board for decades, since my daughter was in eighth grade and my friends comprised the board (she attended private high schools outside the U.S.). My renewed interest in local schools dribbled into me during conversations held at odd moments: an enounter in a parking lot; waiting at a doctor’s office; chatting with a neighbor in his front yard; listening to a kid who came to my house selling candy to support her school’s art program. These conversations sparked appalled curiosity and I began poking around, finding people who work at schools, interact with the current school board, and whose children attend our schools.
Through talking to people in my community, I heard the inside stories of our school board and learned that students are being profiled. Some are categorized as disreputable lost members of society beginning in kindergarten. Other students are selected to succeed in school, college, and careers. Behind all this are local school board members and policies.
Although my area is rural, sprawling across forests and slopes of the Sierra foothills, the issues and problems in my school district parallel what I hear from friends in other rural areas and in cities. This is not just a local problem, it’s nationwide. Most districts include some schools in areas with wealthier families, others in lower income neighborhoods. Most also have charter schools. While individual charters have different names, many operate under a few large charter school businesses (or organizations) with systems designed to ensure charters aren’t fair to the district’s student population and receive a disproportionate amount of funding.
All but one of our local charter schools (funded by the district and our taxes) cherry-pick students, choosing those from wealthier families or with good support systems at home — students likely to succeed in the classroom. These kids don’t need extra help and the staff knows how to funnel district funding to their control. By selecting these students, charters meet school testing criteria easily. Regular public schools must take any child in the district so they end up with many students who need extra help and services. The school system is ghettoing children.
One of my district’s charters is held in a church building. The name and curriculum of this school are not obviously religious as they understand how to appear secular. But the result is faculty and students from families sharing the church’s views, such as seeing Common Core as the devil’s footprint and part of The Muslim Agenda. Of nearly 75,000 people in my county who claim a religion, 1,100 are Muslims. Our school district is one of 15 in the county and serves a total population of about 36,000.
At the other extreme from the charters are three schools in the lowest income portion of the district, the most rural area (population 11,000). It is geographically separated from the more wealthy and middle-class portions of the district, has minimal public transport, and is furthest from the district administration. Families in this rural area must drive their kids to charter schools (if they are accepted), which further stratifies the student population. This separation is reinforced by the school board.
Although the board intentionally schedules their meetings in district schools to learn more about each school and give parents opportunities to attend and be involved, they’ve never held a meeting in these three schools. The board calls the students hillbillies and says they are from pot grower and meth head families, if they even have a family. These kids aren't meth heads nor are all low income families meth users and pot growers — most are victims of the recession in one of the poorest counties in California with limited jobs and low wages. Many families haven’t had an opportunity to recover from the recession and are lucky to have a home. The parents’ socioeconomic status shouldn't define the students’ public school opportunities and education.
This rural area has a high percent of students who are wards of the state (foster kids) and many live in group homes. At one of the three schools, 98 percent of students come from families living below the national poverty level. The board has done little to understand what these children need to help them move beyond the situations of their lives. Until recently, the three schools had no WIFI and no school computers although all the other district schools did. Dedicated parents on the school Site Council worked the system, pressured the Board, and finally last year acquired computers. One month ago they brought WIFI to these three schools.
While parents can be effective in forcing the district administrators and board to give attention to the schools, often low-income and foster parents have no spare time or energy. Some don’t even know they have the right to expect fair treatment from their schools or what fair treatment might entail. The school board’s job is to ensure that the necessary educational services are offered to meet the needs of students at each school.
These kids need after-school programs offering remedial help but even when a program finally was established this year, the district offered no late bus to take the students home. Without transportation, students who most benefit from this program cannot attend as many parents are unable to provide transportation. Some parents might be available but can’t afford gas for a daily commute. Another example of flawed service was the Special Ed teacher who was non-contract and had no official classroom. The teacher had no union-backing to ask for support. She traveled among the three schools but without a permanent classroom students didn’t know the teacher well and didn’t feel part of a regular program. Again, the efforts of a few parents (whose children didn’t attend Special Ed) forced the district to change this and establish a permanent classroom.
These services shouldn’t be ignored until parents demand them. Electing the right people to the school board is the first step in overcoming this system and offering quality education to all students. The board hires the district’s adminstrators and it is admin’s job to know how to monetize the student population, allocate resources, and even out disparities between charter and traditional public schools.
A knowledgeable administrator knows how to categorize student diversity to bring in federal funding. In general, public schools receive extra federal income based on three categories of students: English as a second language (ESL), free lunch program, and wards of state (foster) children. Each student, however, can only be placed in one of these categories although some actually meet criteria for 2 or 3. The easiest category to meet is free lunch and when 98 percent of your students qualify that does bring in federal funding. But some of those students also might be ESL or wards and these categories will bring in more funding if enough students are included. Clever adminstrators will work these categories, using them to qualify for as much federal funding as possible, and passing programs on to the students.
Administrators and boards need to know other income sources (such as the money that may be available for schools if Proposition 51 passes). This money isn’t dealt out by a state oversight agency that independently determines the needs of each school. It’s up to the boards to know how their schools qualify and to submit applications that meet criteria for funding awards. Without this skill and a board who cares about marginalized schools, extra help goes to schools that already have better facilities because they also have knowledgeable boards and administrators.
Charter schools can be held to higher standards, as is happening in other areas now (I am told Berkeley does this). Because charters select students who are most likely to be high achievers, they can be expected to produce higher results. Charters are allocating all their funding to the top students and not on extra support because they avoid students who need remedial help. Often these latter students have troublesome lives at home and by segregating them into schools apart from other students they are given the message that they aren’t as worthy. Children learn that they cannot succeed and their lives will always be unfavorable. And the board says “see, they became meth heads just like their parents.”
School boards that understand their populations and what obstacles keep students from succeeding can design remedies to help remove the obstacles. After-school programs are one example. Foster kids who live in group homes often receive less home attention to their school needs. With fifteen students in one foster home it is difficult to give one-on-one attention, even though the guardians truly care and do the best they can. Many of the group homes in my area are run by people who were in group homes as children. Boards can provide training to teachers in how to better serve these children.
Candidates you elect to the school board can determine the life course of a child. I don’t want to live in a society that decides a person’s future at age five. Elementary schools lacking proper educational support fail to prepare students for high school and adult lives. High schools, such as the continuation school in my rural area, are holding cells for children too young to be abandoned by the public school system. Not all continuation high schools are warehouses for failures but it is up to school boards and administrators to ensure they offer suitable training and aid.
Learn about the candidates and make informed choices. Often the teacher’s union endorsements are good clues about who are the best candidates (this is definitely true in my school district). Parents and active educators may be good choices, as are people who work in social service non-profits (this suggests an interest in helping people and understanding how to connect with funding). Discover what candidates know about all the schools, not just what they tout about the best situated ones.
Candidates who promote running the school as a business may not be serving people. Look for candidates who live in lower income areas of the school district. Don’t elect the same people over and over unless you are certain your schools do much better than the examples I’ve described. Demand that school board meetings be held throughout the district and that parent engagement is actively encouraged. Support board members who want to know about all the district schools and students. Attend board meetings, especially if you are a parent, and learn how the board views their district. Advocate for programs that mitigate student obstacles.
Some supportive information about topics I’ve raised came to my attention after I began writing this story. What I’ve shared is based on conversations, not on reports, studies, and official documents. Since I began writing this, I’ve seen items that confirm and expand on what I’ve written.
The area where she lives and works is best known for its crowning geographical feature: the breathtaking 14,162-foot Mt. Shasta. It is almost entirely surrounded by national forests, where residents and visitors hike, camp, and fish.
Few realize there is a serious downside to living in the area: federally protected lands, including national forests, don’t contribute to local tax bases that provide funding for public schools.
Now, crucial support for 9 million students in 4,000 school districts in 720 rural counties is at risk because Congress has not renewed the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. The act passed in 2000 to help offset the lack of tax revenue, but it expired a year ago, and the last payments were issued in March.
[The charter school program is] a privatization juggernaut. It receives massive funding from the richest Americans, who incorrectly blame traditional schools for not solving poverty. It benefits from seductive marketing that goes unquestioned, with major media often acting as its propaganda wing. In too many communities, charters present a false hope, as many local activists and parent groups have found. Scarce funds are redirected from traditional schools, students are cherry-picked as communities are roiled and divided, and better educational outcomes are not guaranteed.
We are calling for a moratorium on the expansion of the charter schools at least until such time as:
(1) Charter schools are subject to the same transparency and accountability standards as public schools
(2) Public funds are not diverted to charter schools at the expense of the public school system
(3) Charter schools cease expelling students that public schools have a duty to educate and
(4) Cease to perpetuate de facto segregation of the highest performing children from those whose aspirations may be high but whose talents are not yet as obvious.
There’s a lot more to Election 2016 than just the race for president. Elected officials at every level—local, state, and federal—shape how our schools operate and determine the resources they’ll have to meet the needs of all students.
Take a look at how the folks we elect to the positions outlined below can affect public education. Then find out more about what will be on your ballot this fall, and which candidates are the best choice for students and educators.
- A statement by Robert Reich posted on Facebook points out the same problems I’ve outlined. (Here is his page, I can’t link directly to this statement.) He’s discussing differences among school districts, not within one district. In this case, the disparities between the haves and have nots is even greater than what I’ve described.
1. The gap in quality of schools is widening, so the graduation rates don’t tell us all that much about future success. Schools in poor communities have far fewer resources per pupil than schools in richer communities, due to (1) an increasing concentration of the poor, middle class, the rich children in separate communities; and (2) continued reliance on property taxes, which bring in decreasing revenue in poor areas and increasing revenue in rich communities.
2. The gap in percentage of high school graduates going on to college is also widening – with rates continuing to decline in poor schools even as they increase in middle class and wealthy schools.
3. There’s a big racial component to all of this. De facto school segregation is on the rise.
There is still time to learn more about your school board candidates. Don’t decide based on who has the fanciest signs. Learn who the candidates are and their visions for your schools — all of the schools. the children they serve will run the world one day. be sure the children are well-served.