And winning will require resolute leadership the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in American politics.
ADRIAN FENTY UNDERSTOOD THAT. I was fortunate enough to serve under a leader who put his personal and political interests aside to pursue the lofty goal of reforming public schools. Fenty was willing to back our radical reforms, though he knew his support might cause his downfall. For Fenty, educating children was more important than saving his own political skin.
Despite the fact that many predicted that Fenty’s political demise would dissuade any mayor from addressing school reform with the same zeal, others are beginning to take up the mantle.
Frank Jackson, the Democratic mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, is collaborating with Republican governor John Kasich to exert more authority over the Cleveland schools. At great risk to his political base, Jackson proposed encouraging new charter schools by allowing them to benefit from local property taxes. He also advocated using teacher evaluations rather than seniority to determine transfers and layoffs. Improving schools for students, for Jackson, was worth the risk.
Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles, used to be a teachers union organizer. Recently, however, he has chosen to take over a subset of the worst-performing schools in the city. Along the way, he has called out the unions as “a major impediment to reform.”
Under KMJ’s leadership, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Conference of Black Mayors both passed resolutions asking for the end of LIFO, the adoption of rigorous teacher evaluation systems, and the ability for parents to force the restructuring of failing schools through a “parent trigger.”
While small numbers of brave leaders are beginning to step forward, it’s not enough. A courageous leader in Cleveland or Los Angeles or Sacramento is not enough to turn the tide for the nation. We need throngs of mayors, governors, and legislators taking up the charge.
It’s still sad to me that Democrats are not up in arms trying to fix this situation. Every Democratic Party ideal is being compromised by the poor quality of our public education system.
The reality, however, is that nothing will change without everyday people getting involved in the political process. When you look at national polls, it’s easy to see that the vast majority of Americans think the public education system is broken, and they also agree with the commonsense reforms that StudentsFirst advocates. The problem isn’t winning over the public. The problem is that there’s a significant disconnect between what the public wants and what our elected officials are doing.
State legislators can get away with passing and maintaining laws that are bad for students because we aren’t holding them accountable. We aren’t demanding that they change. We’re not voting for someone else if they don’t. But that’s precisely what we need to do if we are going to succeed in changing public education.
TO MY GREAT SURPRISE and appreciation, President Barack Obama has proved himself to be a positive force for education reform—nationally and in California, where reform is stuck in reverse.
Given my experiences over time with Democratic politicians, I was not particularly optimistic about what would happen if we elected a Democratic president. However, I certainly didn’t have any reason to question Barack Obama himself; in fact, I counted myself as a big fan. I was skeptical of the party in general when it came to the willingness to take on education reform.
In September 2008, I was watching a debate between John McCain and Obama, but I had had a tough day and dozed off. Suddenly my BlackBerry and phone were going nuts. KMJ was calling, so I answered. “They just talked about you!” he said. “Huh?” I replied, still confused. “The debate! McCain and Obama just talked about you. They were arguing about whether or not you support charters or vouchers.”
I could not imagine a scenario in which a presidential debate would lead to a conversation about the District of Columbia’s schools, but I thought it was a good thing that education at least had come up as a topic. It was depressing to see how little school reform was discussed in the campaign. It worried me.
KMJ, however, was a staunch Obama supporter. He was not only absolutely convinced that Obama was the right person to become president, but also confident that Obama would be strong on education reform. Based on those conversations, I voted for the president. He hasn’t disappointed. I did not think that I’d live to see the day when a prominent Democrat would say the kinds of things Obama has declared about education. He’s been clear and consistent since day one. His willingness to support charter schools and the fact that he has said that we need to reward highly effective teachers and move the ineffective ones out of the profession has moved the needle. It has absolutely made it more acceptable to talk about the critical issue of tenure.
And there is no doubt that Obama’s key education initiative, Race to the Top, has catalyzed legislative changes the likes of which we’ve never seen. Race to the Top has set up an incentive for states to adopt reform-minded policies. Not only has it allowed states to take on issues they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to; the administration has also used it to force change in states that have resisted reform, such as New York and California.
Take the tortuous course of Assembly Bill 5 in California.
WHEN KMJ TOLD ME I should headquarter StudentsFirst in Sacramento because it was the “belly of the beast,” he wasn’t kidding. The California Teachers Association (CTA) has a stranglehold on the legislature. Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes introduced a bill on teacher evaluation in December 2010 and stated: “I believe the time has come for the state to ensure that all students, regardless of race, ethnicity or ZIP code, have a fundamental right to be taught by an effective, qualified teacher.” While the bill was very modest, and not one that StudentsFirst endorsed, what happened to the bill was a clear lesson in California politics.
The CTA opposed the bill initially because it took a small step in the direction of using student performance as one measure in a teacher’s evaluation. Not surprisingly, the bill was put on ice.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a group of parents was suing the school district over a little-known 1970s statute called the Stull Act. The act required the district to put in place new systems to measure student progress and evaluate teachers, but neither had been implemented nor enforced. The judge ruled that student achievement be a part of the district’s evaluation, though the extent to which that was the case and the means by which it would be measured had to be collectively bargained.
Seeing the writing on the wall, the CTA tried its next maneuver: to resurrect Assembly Bill 5 and modify it to nullify the Stull Act.
So while Race to the Top has inspired thirty-eight states to follow the lead that we set in D.C. to require that student achievement play a large role in teacher evaluation, California, at the behest of the CTA, was poised to move in the opposite direction. That’s where the Obama administration and StudentsFirst came in. We worked with our members and reform organization partners across the state to educate the opinion makers, legislators, and general public about how poor the bill was and how it would be a step backward for California. Our members emailed and called legislative offices for days leading up to the vote. And a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education issued a statement saying that the bill would not necessarily help California win the much-coveted waiver from some requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act.
We were successful in setting the narrative, with the media weighing in heavily on why the bill was not good policy. However, while we were successful in scuttling this bad piece of legislation, the lesson is stark. Not only are we nowhere close to trying to craft meaningful evaluation policy in California, but we’re having to pull out all the stops to try to defend against legislation that would move the state in the wrong direction. Had StudentsFirst and the reform community failed to mobilize quickly, in all likelihood this bill would have swept through the legislature, moving the state’s public education system backward, without any pushback or opposition.
T
his is the dynamic that we’re up against in California and the reason why it will take a massive grassroots movement to achieve education reform in the Golden State.
IN STATES ACROSS THE country, everyday people have already begun to find success. Last year, in Florida and Connecticut, we saw a significant shift in education reform because parents and teachers demanded change. In Florida a Republican governor spearheaded change. In Connecticut a Democrat led the charge. StudentsFirst members encouraged politicians in both states to introduce legislation that would significantly alter tenure and seniority provisions so that teacher effectiveness would be the predominant factor in staffing decisions. The teachers union reacted with vigorous opposition. In Connecticut the union even aired ads attacking a Democratic governor. The man they helped elect!
But we didn’t allow that opposition to drive the narrative. We mobilized teachers and parents from throughout the two states to descend upon Tallahassee and Hartford. The numbers of concerned StudentsFirst members even outnumbered the union opposition in some cases. Our members spoke compellingly in front of the legislatures about the need to put student interests ahead of adult interests.
It worked. The legislatures in both states, hearing directly from parents and teachers, voted the bills into law.
It was a powerful example of how dedicated citizens can enact significant reforms on behalf of children. But this is just the beginning. The fight to reform the country’s education system will be long and hard. We are taking the fight to the difficult terrain of New York and California, the strongholds of Democrats and teachers unions. To prevail will require significant commitment and courage from all of us. But nothing is more worth fighting for than the future of our children and the integrity of the country that we love.
The bottom line is that if we continue to allow partisan politics to dictate how our schools are run, we’ll continue to suffer as a nation. The answer is quite simple: as citizens, we must hold our elected officials accountable for making decisions based on the interests of kids, not special interests.
If we were to do that, we would end up with an agenda and a public education system that are neither Republican nor Democratic. It would create a student-centered society that has the ability to put our country’s education system back on top, so we can continue to lead and prosper.
Part III
The Promise
12
A Radical’s Vision
I am rarely at a loss for words or action. I don’t feel overwhelmed very often. But on this particular day, I was both. I’d been asked to speak at a naturalization ceremony, where the country recognizes and honors our newest Americans.
I was in the atrium of the National Archives. The marble floors and pillars make for a beautiful setting. I was sitting at the front of the room by the dignitaries who were presiding over the event. All of a sudden, I was overcome with emotion. I imagined my parents sitting through their own naturalization ceremony at the courthouse in Toledo, Ohio, forty years before. I know for a fact that at that time, they never could have imagined that one day, their own daughter would grow up to run the public schools in our nation’s capital. That she would be the keynote speaker at a naturalization ceremony in the hallowed halls of one of America’s most important landmarks. This is what makes America great. Anything is possible.
I looked to my right. There were about fifty new citizens hoping to build prosperous, fulfilling lives, just like Inza and Shang. To see their kids achieve things they couldn’t even fathom. Suddenly, my emotions shifted. “Do their kids stand a chance to do that?” If their children attend the D.C. public schools, are they going to be prepared to attain the American Dream? The judge presiding over the ceremony introduced me. I hadn’t thought about what I would say, so I told the story of my parents’ journey to America. Their struggles. Their sacrifices. Their hopes and dreams.
“I imagine my parents sitting where you are today forty years ago, with limitless dreams about what would be possible for their children by becoming American citizens,” I said. “And here I am. A first-generation Korean American, running the education system in the nation’s capital. What other country could that possible happen in? None. Only America. In America anything and everything is possible.”
The new citizens applauded in appreciation. They smiled broadly.
“But . . . ,” I said. I could see their eyes narrow. “It won’t come easy. You can’t assume that now that you’re here, everything will fall into place. We have a significant problem in our public education system today. It’s not what it once was. It’s not the institution that serves to equalize the playing field. Your children are guaranteed an education, but they’re not guaranteed a good one. That’s your job. You have to fight for it. You have to demand it. It is your responsibility to fight to make this nation what it is supposed to be. Demand the best for your kids and for everyone’s children. It’s your duty to your new country.”
WHY AM I A radical?
Because in order to live up to our promise as a nation, we cannot rest until we provide a quality education for all of our children. If America is truly going to be the land of equal opportunity, we have to provide that opportunity to every single child, regardless of where they live, what color they are, and what their parents do.
Right now, that’s not happening. Right now, our public school system isn’t working for every child. It isn’t working for our economy. And it isn’t working for our democracy. As a result, individuals cannot live up to their potential, cycles of poverty repeat, and the nation is falling behind its international competitors.
A generation of children—too often children of color and from poor communities—is being denied its civil rights to a high-quality education, and just as important, being denied its promise of equality and opportunity by its nation. And at the same time, our nation is being denied an educated workforce and a new generation of innovators and leaders.
But let’s not kid ourselves. The troubles in public education spread far beyond minorities and urban areas. They mirror our culture, and it will take a cultural shift to change the trajectory of the American public education system. We’ve gone soft as a nation. We have to find a way to reclaim our American competitive spirit. This pertains to many aspects of our society, but particularly to the way we’re raising our children and the culture that exists in our schools.
Today, we are so busy making kids feel good about themselves that we’ve lost sight of the time and effort it takes to make them actually good at anything. I see this with my own two children every day. Starr and Olivia are thirteen and ten years old. They play soccer. They suck at soccer. Unfortunately they’ve inherited their mother’s athletic prowess, or lack thereof.
And yet—if you were to go into their rooms today, you’d see trophies and medals and ribbons. If you came from another country, and you didn’t know any better, you’d think, “Michelle Rhee is raising the next Mia Hamm!” I assure you, I am not.
And it’s not just me.
“What the heck is happening to this country, Michelle?” a well-known philanthropist in Texas asked me one day. “This past summer, I had to attend the summer camp awards ceremony for my great-grandchild.”
He said it lasted nearly three hours.
“It was so bad that by the end of the ceremony it sounded like this,” he said. “ ‘The next award goes to the best ten-year-old, blond-haired, blue-eyed boy named Bobby who has red shorts on today.’ Bobby’s parents are snapping pictures of him with his arms raised triumphantly over his head.
“Why do we have to spend three hours telling all of them that they’re the best when they’re not?” he asked. “Not everyone can be the best.”
Other countries operate very differently. I vividly recall the school year I spent in Seoul, where every one of the seventy children in the classroom was given a rank, from one to seventy depending on academic achievement. Being the KSL (Korean as a second language) student, I was number seventy. Every child and his
or her family knew exactly where they stood. If you were number eighteen, your mother pushed you to get to at least number fifteen by the end of the semester. If you were number eight, the expectation was that you needed to get to six. There should have been only one happy kid in the classroom: student number one. But that wasn’t the case. The top student was always looking over her shoulder. “Oh crap,” she’d think. “Here comes number three!” Or, “Number two is gunning for me on this test.” Number one turned out to be the most terrified of them all.
I’m not advocating for our society to become like Korea. The constant competition creates too much stress in many students and strains within the families. But it’s important to know what we’re up against. Children in other nations are fiercely competitive. We are not doing our kids any favors by teaching them to celebrate mediocrity, to revel in the average, and to delight in merely participating.
IN THE WORLD OF education, we don’t want anyone to feel bad, so we tell everyone that they’re great. Teachers are teaching well; students are getting promoted, even if they can’t read or add. We are creating a skewed and unhealthy dynamic. It’s a dynamic that would never be accepted in other realms.
One way that we do this in public education is by treating teachers as if they are all interchangeable widgets that we can move from school to school, class to class with no impact on the children. We don’t want to tell great teachers they’re great and ineffective teachers that they’re not, so we essentially tell all of them that they’re doing well. In rating teachers nationwide, fewer than 1 percent are given an unsatisfactory rating on their performance evaluation.
The unfortunate result is that we don’t celebrate greatness, because we’re not differentiating at all. And it leads to some very negative policies.
This line of reasoning would never be acceptable in other endeavors. Take sports. When StudentsFirst recently lobbied to change “last in, first out” policies in Minnesota, we found an unlikely ally. Fran Tarkenton, famed Minnesota Vikings quarterback, weighed in.
Radical Page 25
