Good morning and on behalf of the school board, I would like to welcome you to the start of a new school year. I would like to talk to you about what a wonderful year you are going to have and the great strides your students are going to make this year, and I believe whole-heartedly that that is what is going to happen all over District 118 this year. But in the last couple of years, a change has occurred in the landscape of America, and I would like to address that first. It seems that, for some inexplicable reason, public educators have become the latest villain of the day. In the war against “big government” that is being waged, in a remarkable sleight of hand, the very people who imploded the economy in this country, manufacturing the recession which now plagues us, have successfully misdirected the justifiable anger of the American people away from them and towards teachers.We have seen that change at Board meetings. We have had several people attend who want to ask about the terrible job we are doing in our public schools. When we ask for specifics about this terrible job, we are given quotes from political talk show hosts. “It’s well known that half our students can’t read when they graduate from high school.” And “You know there was a teacher in California that they found couldn’t read at all and had been teaching for years.” No specifics, of course. My job in these meetings is first to make sure Dr. Coles remains in his chair, then to work our way through specifics. Have you looked at our school report card? Have you seen the data for Wauconda Middle School and Matthews Middle School, and all the other schools in D118? Have you read the Community Link, which celebrates some of the marvelous things our students are doing, because of the teachers in D118. Well, not really. And so it goes. Our job is to coax them back onto the path that holds public education in esteem, but the fight is going to be a tough one.I don’t know if you have seen the Youtube videos that have started to appear on the teachers’ side of things. Recent ones from Matt Damon and Jon Stewart, whose mothers were both teachers, talking about how the job insecurity of no tenure doesn’t make teachers better. It’s the love of teaching and the love of kids that make teachers want to be better. And the video last year from the teacher who is jokingly asked by the lawyer at a dinner party, “We all know teachers aren’t paid much. What do you make?”, who responds, “I make a difference. How about you?”Education reform from the so called experts, Michelle Rhee, Bill Gates, and, I’m sorry to say, Arne Duncan, is all about how we need better teachers. Unfortunately, the data says something different. From Paul Thomas, professor of education at Furman University in South Carolina:“South Carolina joined the accountability era at the beginning, taking “A Nation At Risk” seriously and creating standards, testing and accountability in 1984. Despite nearly three decades of precisely the process supported by the new reformers, South Carolina finds itself still ranking at the bottom of education in the US. The real dynamic here is that South Carolina remains a high-poverty state – the true cause of low test scores – and also that South Carolina is a non-union state, with no union contracts for teachers and no tenure.”We will continue to argue at the Board meetings that good teachers are important, and that is exactly what we have in D118. We have mentioned the Phi Delta Kappan public survey results that come out every year:“Public education? – it stinks and teachers are terrible – well, not at my kids’ public schools. Their teachers are great and my kids love it there, but, you know, public education stinks."We will be vigilant in protecting your reputation to the public, because that good reputation is well deserved. And we would like to thank you for what you have done and will continue to do for our children. Have a great school year.
Taylor Mali's, video about "What Teachers Make."
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