EDUCATION REFORM IN AMERICA

Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the U.S.; that’s a student every 26 seconds, 7,000 a day.

About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.

Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students.

In the U.S. high school dropouts commit about 75% of crime.

1. Across the nation there are local school systems, K-12, that consistently develop well educated high school graduates, who have been trained to a high standard.  Good work.  However, generally speaking, education across America is a broken system. Our standards are pathetic. Teacher unions are completely out of their lane. Education should not be a political football, but it is. The more we spend, the less we produce.
2. Can we fix it?  Yes, we can, and the solution is really not that difficult, but it does take some common sense which seems to be in short supply in many parts of the country.  Examples:

Last summer, 2021, Oregon Governor Kate Brown cancelled the proficiency standards for reading, writing and math for high school graduation requirements, saying, “Suspending the reading, writing and math proficiency requirements will benefit Oregon’s Black, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian and Pacific Islander students.” Comment: Great idea, if we are going to dumb-down, make sure we don’t leave any one out; equity at its worst.  I predict Oregon will soon lead the nation in percent of high school students who graduate, the problem is they will not be prepared for what lies ahead. That simple piece of legislation just told the teachers, Principals, Superintendents and School Board members that they will not be held accountable for passing out high school diplomas to illiterate graduates.  

A recent Arlington, VA Board of Education proposal would force educators to allow students an unlimited number or retakes on assignments, ban giving out extra credit and would effectively eliminate homework by prohibiting it from being graded at all.  Proponents claim that certain basic standards, like having late penalties, could harm poor and minority students. Comment:  By all means, let’s make sure all of our high school graduates understand that life will be full of do-overs when your boss says your work is substandard.

December, 2021 headline: Many of California’s largest school districts are dropping “D” and “F” grades.  The move is called “competency-based learning.”  Comment:  There are other names for it but let’s keep them to ourselves and move on.  

More snapshots that illustrate what is happening in government-run public schools:  Providence, RI:  Only 5% of eighth graders are proficient in math.  Newark, NJ: 21% proficiency in math.  North Carolina: 44 % of fourth-graders are not proficient in reading.  Wisconsin: Black American eighth graders perform only slightly better than white fourth graders in reading and math.  A recent survey found that 20% of American adults cannot name even one of the three branches of government. And so it goes across the country.  Depending on what study you read, the U.S. world ranking is about 38^th in math and 24^th in science. Whatever the number you find, it is unbecoming to our great nation.

But wait, there is one area in which the U.S. ranks number one:  in 2017 we spent $14,100 per K-12 student which was 37% higher than the average among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member counties. And therein lies the problem; Politicians believe the federal government can buy good education. 

3. Before we move towards a solution it may be instructive to look closer at some verifiable statistics on our nation-wide education problem. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the only assessment that measures what U.S. students know and can do in various subjects across the nation. Also known as The Nation’s Report Card, they grade mathematics, reading, science, writing, technology, arts, civics, geography, economics, and U.S. history for grades 4^th and 8^th every 2 years and 12^th grade every 4 years.

PRE-COVID NAEP REPORT CARD: In 2019 NAEP tested 150,600 grade 4 students, 143,100 grade 8, and 26,700 grade 12 students.  Here is a summary pulled from a large comprehensive report:

Reading:  The assessment measures reading comprehension by asking students to read selected grade-appropriate materials and answer questions based on what they have read. 

                                                Grade 4           Grade 8           Grade 12

NOT proficient:                         59%                 66%                   76%

Mathematics: The assessment measures both mathematics knowledge and the students’ ability to apply their knowledge in problem-solving situations.

                                                Grade 4           Grade 8           Grade 12

NOT proficient:                         65%                   66%              63%

Other subjects were even worse.  For high school seniors 88% NOT proficient in history, 77% NOT proficient in writing ability and 78% NOT proficient in science.          

Generally speaking, two thirds of our high school graduates are not adequately prepared to be all they can/should be.  And that says nothing about the 7,000 students who drop out every school day.  BTW, there is a correlation here; nearly 80% of prison inmates are school dropouts.

4. Who should be directly accountable for proper education? The point of execution for education is in the leadership the locally elected School Board members, the local Superintendent and the individual school Principals.  Period.  Their job descriptions are not difficult to understand but are critical to the success of education. Two rules:  First it is their job to provide a safe and secure environment for learning on all school property.  Secondly, the leadership group, Board members, Superintendent and Principles, are responsible for teaching every subject every day to every student to a prescribed standard.  Period, no ifs, and or buts.  Focus every day on those two requirements, hold the leaders accountable and we can get ourselves out of this mess.  But and this is a big but, in order for this to happen in every school, we have to get the feds and unions out of the decision cycle.   

5.We have to begin with standards; an organization without standards is a failed organization. The key to success is NOT the federal and state Departments of Education, they being a greater part of the problem than the solution.  it is NOT more money from the feds.  It is NOT more “guidance” from above.  It is not interference from the Education Unions. Success in education will flow from establishing standards and from enforcing those standards at the local level. 

The states should be accountable for establishing the standards for every subject, ever grade K-12. If Oregon wants low standards, so be it and let the voters decide if that is the correct choice. This is not rocket science, its common sense in action.  I would put the state Lieutenant Governor in charge of this undertaking.  Here is how it can happen; no funding, no contracted “study”, no psychologists or councilors or union reps required.

Organized and led by the Lieutenant Governor in every state, on day-one there will be a meeting of three experienced outstanding kindergarten teachers and three equally outstanding elementary school Principles.  Their task is to define what every Kindergarten student should achieve by school year-end; that is, the end state standard. Having done that, they will then outline, in general terms, what to achieve during each of the six-week intervals on the way to the end state. That’s it, they are done, the kindergarten standards are set.  Every kindergarten teacher will be responsible for developing their weekly lesson plans and submitting them to their Principal for review and approval.  Every elementary school principal and kindergarten teacher in the state will then work to achieve that standard.

A similar group of 1^st grade teachers, who silently sat in on the kindergarten session, now have a clear understanding of the kindergarten end-state which clearly defines their start-point for 1^st grade standards. They then set about to establish end of 1^st grade standards.

And so it would go day after day during a summer-long session to define standards for every grade and every subject K-12. 

6.Accountability, an essential element in every organization’s success. Who, in this scenario is accountable?

President: The President is accountable for making sure the Department of Education does almost nothing because of their total failed record. In other words, they are a big part of the current problem and have been since it began operations 40 years ago; they should go away. Additionally, the president should not act as a pawn for the Education Unions, irrespective of the vast amount of money they contribute to his/her campaign; the American Federation of Teachers $1.6 million and the National Education Association $371,000 contributed mostly to democrat candidates during 2020. 

Governor: The Governors have three responsibilities, one to create the standards for their K-12 schools. Secondly to keep their State Board of Education and the state Department of Education from interfering with the local Boards of Education. Finally, to keep the education unions from interfering with local Boards of Education

Board of Education: Local Boards of Education ensure their Superintendent uses the state-developed standards for every class, every subject, every day. Will some Boards go off the rails with wild and unreasonable ideas about how to educate kids? Yes, but this gets at the heart of the decentralization discussion.  When our schools are operating from and reacting to rules and regulations emanating from some nameless faceless bureaucrat in Washington, what are their options?  Just comply.  But if the problem is with the local Board of Education, the solution is clear, vote them out of office.  Keep education decision-making close to the point of execution. 

Superintendent: Superintendents require every Principle to have a complete set of teacher lesson plans that will achieve State standards for every class, every subject for every week. 

Teacher: Teachers stay in their lane, teaching and testing their subject and leaving gender and sex education where it belongs, in the home with parents.  The teachers’ routine is to teach to standard, test to standard, teach, test, teach, test and achieve the end-of-year-standards.  The rationale for emphasis on teach/test is that a teacher must have a tool for knowing if the students’ “get it”. Without frequent testing they simply will not know.  End-of-year testing to determine if the students achieved proficiency (see para 3, “76% of 12^th graders are not proficient in reading”) is not adequate.   If found to be “not proficient”, what, at that point In time, can they do about it?  Nothing, it’s too late. The alternative is to just pass them on to the next grade where they will get further behind until a few grades later they hit the off-ramp onto the drop-out-highway to nowhere. (see para 3, “nearly 80% of prison inmates are school dropouts”).

Parents: Parent vigilance is the icing-on-the-cake for the local education team. Parents should be proactive in their relationship with their youngsters’ teachers.  If they sense things are not going well at school, find out why and do something about it. “Tell me about your classes today” should become a standard conversation opener every night at the dinner table.  Kids will get used to it, expect it and believe that their parents are genuinely interested.  Parents should pay close attention to homework, especially if, routinely, there isn’t any.

An organization without accountability is a filed organization and we are failing miserable right now.

7. This formula for success is simple, direct and easily within the art of the possible. How do we make it happen? We need to make improved education a national imperative.  We need to make citizens across this nation believe we can be, not only better, but the best in the world. Improving education needs to be a part of every political campaign at the state and federal levels.  Every candidate needs to believe he/she must stake out a strong pro-education position.

Those of you who have read my writings on education over the past couple years may recall that some of the above material is a repeat. But I needed that background to set the stage for how we the people can go about getting it accomplished. We can, with Rip McIntosh’s help, influence political campaigning in every community in America from now through the 2024 Presidential election.

This is a rare moment in time when the Republican Party has a very high confidence of winning in big numbers across America in the next two elections.  The Party’s first responsibility is to carefully and strategically define in plain language what we stand for and intend to accomplish if elected.  That is, publish a list: 1) spending and debt reform, 2) education reform, 3) a strong military, 4) smaller federal government, 5) regulation reform, 6) states’ rights, 7) individual rights, 8) law and order, 9) secure borders, 10) lower taxes, 11) school choice, etc. In order to get everyone singing from the same sheet of music there needs to be a brief, succinct, paragraph explaining intent for each.  For those of you who know and can communicate with the RNC chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, urge her to publish this now.  A key recent Democrat talking point, beginning with President Biden, is, “what are you Republicans for?”  Well, It’s time to tell them.

On 22 January Rip was kind enough to publish a “special edition” on Spending and Debt Reform.  What follows uses that same formula to achieve Education Reform in America.  Here goes:

8. Phase 1, Planning and Message Proliferation. Now through November 2024.

• Of the tens of thousands of Rip’s subscribers who are reading this, some of you know and can communicate with the Republican candidates for State and Federal House and Senate seats this year.  Those of you who believe Education Reform is necessary, encourage your candidate to make Education Reform a priority in their campaign. If this happens, Education Reform awareness will be set up across the nation for the 2024 presidential campaign. 
• There are Republican movers-and-shakers who have national influence and are frequently asked by the media to comment on policy and issues; three that come to mind are former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Governor Mike Huckabee, and former presidential Special Advisor Karl Rove.  Additionally, we can easily begin to make a list of potential 2024 presidential/vice presential candidates; for example, Senator Tom Cotton, Governor Ron DeSantis, former Governor Nikki Haley, former President Trump, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senator Lindsey Graham, Governor Kristi Noem. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and other influential Republican stalwarts also need to be on the list.  The point here is that those of you who know and can communicate with those on the list should have a serious discussion with them about making Education Reform an important addition to their political position from this date on through the 2024 election.

9. Phase 2, State Legislatures and the 118th U.S Congress, January 2023-2025.When State Legislatures and the U.S. Congress convene, the electees should take the momentum from the 2022 campaigns and inculcate Education Reform into daily political dialogue and appropriate legislation.

10. Phase 3, The 2024 Presidential Campaign. During the primary campaigns, all Republication candidates should agree that Election Reform is a critical issue facing the nation and if elected will make it a priority to execute the reform process.

During the general-election campaign, the Republican presidential candidate will make it clear that Election Reform execution will begin January, 2025 and be a priority for their administration.

11. Phase 4, Post-2024 Election Planning.  Selection of a Secretary and Deputy Secretary for the Department of Education will include consideration that they are enthusiastically on-board with all elements of Election Reform.

12. Phase 5, Legislation to support Election Reform.  Within the White House, write the proposed legislation to completely change and downsize the Department of Education:

• Scale it down to a small agency for fed-only tasks such as federal grants.
• Change the mission to support decentralization of education in America. Downsize and eliminate the majority of their current functions.
• Task the Governors to establish education standards for every subject, K-12.
• Fund the operations of The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), tasking them to continue to be  “The Nation’s Report Card” by executing the same procedures, testing and analytical processes currently in use.

13. CONCLUSIONS:

• In retrospect, our 24-month COVID experience provides a perfect illustration of the advantages of decentralization vs centralized control of education.

While Presidents Trump and Biden debated nation-wide one-size-fits-all policies for schools and Governors came on line with state-wide policies for education, the union spokespersons were completely out of their lane on national TV attempting to dictate policy.  For example, a major Los Angeles teachers union demanded, as a condition for reopening schools, defunding police, a moratorium on new charter schools, a new wealth tax on California’s wealthy and federal Medicare-for-all. You could not make up a scenario this ridiculous.

By contrast, we know that every community has had its own individual COVID-related issues. Here is a decentralized policy scenario: On Monday morning the local Board of Education Chairperson sends a memo to the Superintendent of Schools and simultaneously released it to the public.  The memo says, in part: “On Wednesday the Board will host an open-to-the-public meeting to hear student parents’ views on in-class vs remote learning, masking, vaccinations, etc.  Saturday morning the Board will meet in closed session with Superintendent Smith and all of our schools’ Principals.  This week each Principal will determine the number of teachers who agree/disagree with the following COVID-related policies…. The board’s decisions will be announced Saturday afternoon.”  Gather local data to make local decisions to fit local situations.  Makes a lot more sense than the nonsense we have lived with for the past 24 months.

This is a formula for how to run education; keep it local and make education a local team effort with parents, students, local education administrators and teachers focusing on the end state, high school graduates who are proficient in every subject and ready to be high-performing adults.  

• For decades, in every presidential election, the candidates have said they would improve education.  As the saying goes, “all hat and no cattle.”  It’s time for some positive action and you who are reading this right now can help make it happen. 
• Real, workable Education Reform actions will only happen if the momentum is from we-the-people pushing up.  Wake up America, throwing federal money at the problem is a failed concept.
• This concept of operations will work because it is what worked in the past when no one talked about Education Reform because we were the best in the world. 

14. BOTTOM LINE:

• Business-as-usual politics in Washington cannot achieve Education Reform.  It must come from a “movement” and that can happen with hundreds of Republican candidates for state and federal positions pressing the issue.
• For decades Education “Reform” has consisted of hundreds more regulations, thousands more bureaucrats and billions more of your tax dollars.  A failed concept of operations.
• As we look toward the 2022/2024 elections issues like Spending, Debt and Education Reform will resonate with Americans and the Democrats have little ammunition to fight off this Republican assault.
• Something to contemplate: “Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed” Joseph Stalin.

Marvin L. Covault, Lt Gen US Army, retired, is the author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines NC, and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.