To hear voucher advocates tell it, their goal is to "save" inner-city students by sending them to private schools. They claim this, despite the fact that Proposition 38 on the November ballot would mostly benefit middle-class and wealthy students already enrolled in private schools - and negatively affect the majority of urban students.
Yet, in every campaign, voucher advocates prey on the fears of minority parents in urban areas. Take, for example, voucher advocate Andrew J. Coulson's statement on his Web site:
"Some schools, especially in the inner city, have already slid beneath the waves, extinguishing the educational hopes and dreams of countless children."
There is no denying that our urban schools have real problems that need real solutions. But abandoning our schools - via vouchers - is simply not the answer.
Millionaires and CEOs who have never set foot inside an inner-city classroom are setting themselves up as "experts" because they advocate a free-market approach to education - vouchers - based on profit rather than the public good. Many education advocates, including Coretta Scott King, believe that voucher proposals are really part of a movement to eliminate public schools altogether and divide those who live in minority communities.
The truth about education reform frequently gets lost amid the hype and hysteria. To find real solutions for the problems of urban schools, we asked the real experts - teachers in the classroom trenches with enough wisdom (and then some) to share as CTA escalates the battle against Prop. 38. All of the following teachers work in urban schools. Although they teach in different areas of the state with diverse populations, they share some common views and concerns.
Michael Bustos is a math teacher at Will C. Wood Middle School in Sacramento and a member of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. He has been teaching 26 years.
Lois Bradford is presently a full-time release officer of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). Prior to that, she taught a special education day class at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. She has been teaching 15 years.
La Quita Cole teaches kindergarten at Cleveland Elementary School in Oakland and is a member of the Oakland Education Association. She has been teaching 31 years.
Deborah Harrison , a member of CTA's Board of Directors and UTLA, is a fifth-grade teacher at San Gabriel Elementary School in South Gate. She has been teaching 26 years.
Carol Robb teaches at Alvord Continuation High School in Riverside and is a member of the Alvord Educators Association. She has been teaching 31 years.
Tom Rogers, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association, taught for 25 years before assuming the presidency full time. He last taught at Ethel I. Baker Elementary School in Sacramento.
What are the real solutions to the major problems facing urban schools today?
La Quita Cole: Students enter the school system at a disadvantage when they come from low socioeconomic situations. We need universal preschool, so all children can come to kindergarten with the phonemic awareness that will prepare them for reading. Just hearing songs, stories and nursery rhymes gives children an advantage.
In addition to promoting early education, we need to make our urban public schools the center of the community - not just a place to educate children. Schools can be a place where parents take classes, perhaps to learn English. Schools can provide health information and referral services. Schools can give the community whatever it needs. Parents, in addition to getting the services they need, will become more involved in the school and their child's education in order to help their children succeed.
Tom Rogers: One of the biggest issues and problems facing urban schools is the ability to hire and retain qualified staff. I don't think that urban schools should be considered a place to train teachers before they move on to so-called "good" schools. We should be attracting already-trained teachers to take on the challenges of teaching here.
We need to increase our schools' ability to meet the needs of the community, by providing on-site after-school tutoring, adult education, healthcare referral programs, social service programs, English as a second language classes for parents, and classes for parents to help their kids succeed in school. If this experiment were tried, it would build a bond between school and community. Distrust and other problems will go by the wayside, because everyone will understand they are working toward the same end. Non-teaching staff could help provide these quality activities for the community before and after school hours. We need to let the teachers teach. Anything beyond full-time classroom duties can take away one's ability to teach.
Deborah Harrison: We need to involve parents more in their children's education. We need to impress upon parents that school is an important place. We need to welcome parents. A lot of schools don't go out of their way to make parents feel welcome.
We also need to increase funding and make sure that new teachers get the training and support that is necessary to work in an urban school. I am in a Title 1 school that receives federal funds, but it's still not enough for the materials that are needed.
Many of our teachers don't have credentials. At my school, 75 percent of teachers are on emergency credentials.
We need to believe in our schools and our students if we want them to succeed, say teachers in South Central Los Angeles
Michael Bustos : There are many problems you don't find in higher socioeconomic areas - gang issues, teen pregnancy, teen suicide and violence. We need to fix up our schools so our kids take pride in them. We need to provide modern, technologically advanced school sites, with clean fountains and working restrooms. I've heard kids say, "Who wants to go to a junky old school." When they go to a filthy, rundown school, kids have a mindset that the community doesn't care about them. Kids become defensive and decide not to care about the community.
Also, teachers in urban areas need to provide nurturing above and beyond what most teachers are able to provide. In many cases we are surrogate parents. We need to let kids know we care about them, are concerned about them and will take time to get to know them as individuals. Of course, this is difficult with accountability, STAR testing and changing curriculum.
Lois Bradford: Inner-city schools are the worst when it comes to overcrowded conditions. You have year-round, multi-track schools and teachers who are "rovers" with a shopping cart and no regular classroom.
There is also a problem with the high transiency rate. We need to have teacher salaries be competitive with other professions that have similar education levels. We need better working conditions and facilities.
And we need clear and consistent expectations, academic standards and discipline. What typically happens is that you have a new superintendent or administrator every three years, so you have a new program that lasts three years, then it is thrown out with the bath water. Then another new superintendent or administrator comes along and you have another program.
Carol Robb: Students live in poverty. Parents may not speak English and don't know how to help their children. The key to student achievement in lower socioeconomic areas is positive parental involvement. When there is good parental involvement, you have higher student achievement.
School districts, administrators and the local teacher association need to work together to promote positive parental involvement.
We need to boost teacher salaries to get better teachers in urban schools. Teachers know what needs to be done. Just give us the materials we need, a reasonable class size and a decent salary - then get out of our way and let us do our jobs.
