Let’s take a closer look at big money, which seems to be permeating every facet of our lives as Americans, and the education of our children. Somewhere between the mid-70s and mid-80s, big money burst upon the scene and took a chokehold upon how we go about educating our children.
It does not matter if its intention was to assure that all children regardless of their economic status received a quality education or if its ulterior motive was really just money if it achieved that desperately sought-after and seemingly cunningly-elusive thing called a ‘quality education for all children;’ but upon until this time, it hasn’t. I happen to be one of those who believe that there is an ulterior motive and that ulterior motive is without a doubt money.
Big money has always been more interested in its bottom line than anything else and it appears that this is still the case. It has long been said that if you want to find the answer to questions that you may have, especially when money and/or power is involved, follow the money. The direction that the education of our children has taken is no exception to that rule.
This does not necessarily mean that all of those who have advocated for programs like the Edison Project, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race To The Top (RTTT) are all about the money but we must also accept the fact that money was and remains the driving force for big money contributors who are strong supporters of the current direction in which the education of America’s children is headed.
In January 2013, I wrote an article that was published in the Denver Post under ‘Quality teaching in DPS vs. tenure rights’, which was entitled ‘Quality Teaching Is More Than Test Scores.’ I recently read an article in Salon by Susan Engel entitled ‘We’re teaching our kids wrong: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates do not have the answers.’ If I could write an article that would virtually perfectly summarize my thoughts on what is happening with the education of our children, why we should be concerned about it and why we should band together in every local community to do something about it at the grassroots level, it would be a carbon copy of this article by Ms. Engel.
Ms. Engel’s article does not condemn those who support those who are taking the education of our children in its current direction and those who were or remain advocates of this approach to educating them, instead, she points out why this may not be the right direction and also points out reasons as to why we should reconsider this approach and possibly change it.
There was a time back in the 1990s when I was a board member of an organization called Citizens for Quality Schools (CQS). I believe that this organization had the best interest of Denver K-12 students in mind but, at the time, it was in favor of and pushing for charter schools. They believed that charter schools would not only give parents greater choice as to which school they would like to send their children to but that charter schools would also be an avenue to improving the quality of education that these students would receive.
Although I was not a proponent of charter schools – because of other elements that CQS espoused like Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) Committees and School Improvement Accountability Committees (SIAC), I felt that CQS truly did have the best interest of Denver K-12 students at heart. This gave me hope that we would eventually find the best possible solution for all stakeholders. Now we are in year 2015 and, unfortunately – thus far, big money has continued to prevail.
For a long time now, big money has had its way with respect to how America’s children will be educated and we still have not regained our standing as number one among the nations in the field of Education. If the current road is not the right one that we should be traveling to provide all children with a top-quality education then we should find the right road now and get on it.
An education that is second to none for all children is extremely important not only to all parents but to America as well if we are to effectively compete on the world stage. Therefore, I encourage all of those who read this article to click on the above link to Ms. Engel’s article in Salon. I am sure that you will find that reading it will be worth your time and that it will be a thought-provoking article no matter which side of this education issue that you support.
Eulus Dennis