Tags
assessment, charter school, Common Core Curriculum Standards, educators, New Jersey, New Jersey Department of Education, PARCC, parent teacher group, public education, public school, public school reform
**Our PTA President gives a statement about his views regarding public education reform.**
For the past few years, pundits, national and state politicians, and other public figures have drawn a picture showing our public education system as a failure to all children. Through this picture, ALL public school educators and school-level administrators are seen as money hungry individuals who only care about their pockets and not the children they are serving. Politicians and other public figures give press conferences to continue to paint this picture by discussing failing grades on standardized tests and the need to reform our public school system to “save” our children by providing vouchers, increasing charter schools, and closing public schools. This leads to changes in policies and laws to continue to push the messages crafted in the picture created by our “leaders.”
Even though they are out there, we rarely, if ever, hear about the successful public schools, educators, and school-level administrators. This does not belong in the picture created by our “leaders.” Therefore, we are led to believe that our schools and educators need reform and all of the policies and laws that come along with it. When we come to this assumption, we do not realize that most of the individuals creating the picture have never actually taught in or led a public school. They are mostly going off of their beliefs from reading reports and statistics rather than finding out what really takes place within the classroom.
As the President of the parent-teacher group in my school, I’ve made it a priority to ignore this fictitious picture and go into my school to see first-hand what my public school’s educators and administrators are going through. My background is not in education but I truly care about our public school and feel that I won’t know what is truly going on unless I get a first-hand account. This helped me see what is going on inside of the school and how the new policies and laws are affecting our educators and school-level administrators. 
I am realizing that the reform movement is not the benefit to our children that our politicians and other public figures would like us to believe. The countless assessments that our children take are drowning the creativity and enthusiasm out of them. In addition, these assessments and the hours of reporting, observations, trainings, and meetings are drowning the enthusiasm from our educators. Unfortunately, in New Jersey, this is only the beginning because major changes in assessments and processes (i.e., PARCC exam, Common Core Curriculum Standards) do not come into effect until the next school year.
We won’t know the full damage of these new policies and laws until 2016 and beyond. By that time, our public school system will be destroyed, making it easy for our politicians and public figures to tell us that their picture was accurate even though they were the ones that truly destroyed the system in the first place. Therefore, we should think twice before believing that a picture drawn by non-educators is an accurate depiction of our public education system. Maybe it’s time for us to sit down with our educators and school-level administrators to get a real look into what is affecting our local public school. It might open our eyes before we sign up to destroy it, our educators, and the entire public education system.
PS27 PTA Briefer 
Beautifully said! The only way to stem the tide of these destructive policies is my teachers and parents working together. Thank you for your efforts.
Thank you for your comment. It is very true that parents need to come together and support our educators during these challenging times.
I used to be one of those parents that would also believe the perception that teachers are “evil” and “lazy”. My mind changed when I started getting involved in my children’s school. Dealing with other people’s children is not an easy job and the amount of work required to maintain order, educate, and inspire a classroom is tremendous.
Let’s hope other parents and the general public can wake up and see the reality for themselves. There are bad apples like in any other profession but that is no reason to start a vendetta against our educators.
Thank you for the article!
I agree with your commentary fully. To share a recent incite, on the backside of our ballots for the gubernatorial race among their statements the candidate Kenneth R. Kaplan makes it clear that the long term plan is to price working class families out of education.
On the subject of education he states “Public education is failing in many districts, and is unfair to taxpayers who have no children or who home school or send their children to private or religious schools. Privatization of education, where diverse schools, SUPPORTED BUY TUITION PAYMENTS INSTEAD OF TAXES, WOULD COMPETE FOR STUDENTS, to force schools to compete for student, etc, etc,”
I capitalize to emphasize the relevant point, for the masses of parents who continue to struggle to buy food and pay the rent, the added expense of tuition payments for the children’s education will be unaffordable.
A concerned father.
Thank you for your input. It’s sad to see the rationalization that so many “leaders” use to privatize public education.
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