Public Education: Yes It's Broken, But We Can Have Hope

Budget shortfalls are the norm here in the state of New Mexico as it relates to public education. Budgets are being slashed, salary raises are being frozen, and staff is being cut at schools all across the state, especially here in the southern part of the state.

Yes, things are bad, and it does not have all to do with the bad economy. Years of mismanagement or outright shady business practices by central office administrators all over the country (especially here in New Mexico) have put us in this mess. In my short career, I have already seen numerous snake oil salesmen come along, unloading their programs upon my district, all because one person downtown was impressed by what they had to say. I've seen millions of dollars spent on a program and a year or two later have seen that program forgotten. I have seen more and more kids crammed into classrooms, while the same central administrators who tell us that there was simply no more funds to hire another teachers gives themselves hefty raises. I've seen school funds funneled into new schools and schools where the wealthier students go while poorer and older schools literally fall apart.

There's no way around saying this, public education in New Mexico, and the United States, is in perilous disrepair. The people who actually do the educating, and the students, who are the point of this whole education thing, have been shelved so far down the food chain that they've been all but forgotten. In this age of standardized testing, with the multi-billion dollar testing industry banking in, and with the government happily playing along, there's not much left to go around. And what is left has been pilfered a dozen times before it reaches the classroom.

So yeah, things are screwed up, but there is hope. Hope lies in the fact that central administrators really don't do much (trust me, their decisions have minimal impact on classroom instruction, they could just sign paychecks and make sure the money is divvied out evenly and everything would work fine). Hope lies in the fact that there are many great teachers out there, who can make a difference without Reading First, Nancy Fetzer, Malcolm Baldridge, Reading 180, and all the other flavor of the moment programs. Hope lies in the fact that there are people out there who care, and who don't appreciate seeing tax money thrown away on nonsense.

There are a lot of reasons to think that public education is faltering, and I would agree with many of them. But that doesn't mean we give up. Public education teachers, support staff, and other interested people will keep caring, will keep working, and will do it even if there is 50 kids crammed into a class and there's not enough money to run the air conditioner. Because after all, at least we know that the head honchos can afford another year of membership at the country club, right?

The Lost World of the Public Library

Here in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the city's public library, called the Branigan Library, sits basically in the center of town. The problem with Las Cruces is that there are no satellite branches, so there's one big library in the center of town.

I'll admit, this isn't a huge city, but for people like me who live on the edges of town, we may find ourselves as far as 10 to 15 miles away from the library. For the more economically disadvantaged in the area (most of whom live on the southern or eastern part of town), this means either a multi-stop, multi-change over bus ride just to get downtown. So for some of them, the public library simply isn't on their to-do-lists.

For me, I try to take my children (as in my sons, not my students) to the library at least twice per month, where we check out books by the dozens. The things I always notice about the library is that it's never very crowded, the majority of people that are in there are there for the public computers, the overwhelming majority of people in there are adults, and that the library is a safe haven for people that have no other place to go.

The problem with this all is that there are never very many children in the library, which is, in my opinion, the people the library should mainly be trying to serve. It's great that there are resources out there for adults, but kids are the ones who need to read, and for most of them, their school libraries are simply not adequate in terms of broad interests in books, and a trip to Barnes & Noble is simply out of the question, because it's so expensive.

After talking to a few of the librarians at the local public library about my concern, they had a few things to say as well. They said that first of all, the libraries are a by-day shelter basically for many homeless people who just want a roof over their heads. They said that as long as these people don't cause any trouble, they have as much right to be in there as anyone else. They confirmed that the majority of patrons enter the library to use the public internet computers, and that on any given day, there are probably ten books checked out to adults for every one to a child.

There are many different directions I can choose to continue on from here, because the issue of how to get kids in the public library, and why it seems that less are going is obviously one that has many influences. Let's just start from the angle of why I have defined public libraries as "the lost world." As a student at New Mexico State University for many years, I have lived near the main undergraduate library (the Zuhl), and have spent time in the graduate library (the Branson).

As an undergradute, I never had any massive need to enter the university libraries, and even now, as a doctoral student, the majority of research and texts that I need can be found online through the university article search features (which aren't cheap, but are included in the cost of tuition).

Applying this to public libraries, I'm beginning to think that people decide that if their kids can't find the books at school, then they can't find them. They decide to find those resources online (if the kid is interested in fantasy books, why take them to the public library to get The Lord of the Rings when they can read fantasy fiction online?) Of course, there's also a major problem of parents not knowing or caring what their kids are reading (if they're reading at all). But that's an entirely different discussion that could go on for days and weeks.

I have asked my own students about their perceptions of the public library, and can basically summarize their opinions in a few ways, which I'll try to do without offending anyone. In the state of New Mexico (I say this because I don't know how it works in other states), a school librarian does not have to be certified as a librarian, in fact, they don't have to be certified at all. They make about the same pay as an educational assistant, and are basically required to have the same amount of education (a high school diploma, some college preferred).

The problem then is that the person in the building who should be a resource to teachers and students alike has less knowledge and skill in the area of children and young adult literacy than probably anybody else in the school. The students see this, have to deal with it every time they walk in the door, and begin to associate the library with boredom and tedium.

This isn't true at the public library level, at least in most decent sized cities. There are many certified librarians who have that appropriate educational background, people who understand literacy issues, who children read and why, and who actually know the books and authors. The problem is, many kids get disillusioned at school, or have apathetic parents, and never make it to the library to begin with.

One of the great, eye opening experiences I've had while running this blog is that I've come across some professional librarians, and they are the people who should be running the libraries, not just at the public level, but in our schools as well. Librarians who read the children and young adult literature, who try very hard to stay at the forefront of new reads, and who know the ways to get those books on their shelves as soon as possible upon their release.

We need more of those people, as well as those who advocate the use of public libraries. We need to educate parents that these places are great resources to keep their children loving literature, a great place for children and adults alike to find not only books, but movies, documentaries, video games, cook books, magazines, etc. We also need to, as teachers and literary professionals, bring clarity to children about the joys of holding a book, and the satisfaction that comes with finishing one. We need to show children how much more fulfilling a book is than a web page or texting on a cell phone. If we can't get kids in the libraries, they surely will become lost, they're already practically empty.

Rich Schools vs. Poor Schools & Standardized Testing Accountability According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

**Since today is Christmas Eve, I figured it would be a perfect time to re-post something from my much older yet much less popular personal blog, a post that probably fits the content of this blog much better. This post was originally published on November 25th on my other blog, The Buss**

Since August, my world has been fairly upside down. It's not one of those major things that I should be complaining about, but all the changes, the changes in routine, the pace of life, and everything else, made it hard to sit back and find things to complain about (the basic purpose in having a personal blog such as this one).

This really put certain things in perspective for me, and is probably my most appropriate reaction to the test heavy school culture we now work under in the field of public education. I've heard it said that teacher bonuses should be tied in to test results, and on the surface that sounds like such a nice, wonderful idea, that is, until basic common sense takes over.

When I was an undergraduate student at NMSU, I continually had this thing called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs rammed into my brain. It's something that is common knowledge now, and that is this. Take a look at the pyramid here:
This pyramid shows the levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The bottom needs are the basic ones, and without those needs being met, major psychological setback occur, and the person not having those needs met will suffer. In education, this means that kids who aren't getting enough food, sleep, a consistent family life, consistent financial situation, a consistent place to live, and a safe and secure existence with routine, then they will not reach the upper levels.

Look at the top of the pyramid. Those are all the great things that we want our children to achieve. Teachers and parents dream of children who show those traits.

Now, with that in mind, who will show those traits? Will it be the homeless child looking for a place to sleep at night, wondering where their next meal will come from and where they'll be living in a week? Or will it be the kid who goes home to the same house every night, has a family that's always there, never has to worry about basic needs, and has a safe, secure existence? Of course, it's the latter.

Now, is this a rich vs. poor issue? Yes it is. Take this argument to the schools, and you'll see that if things like teacher pay raises and school accountability are tied to test results, who will achieve higher? It's quite obvious, on a number of different levels, that the more affluent, or even simply middle class schools will have a much better shot than "poor school."

The reality is right there, and it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. For me, personally, some of my needs weren't being met there for awhile, nothing major, just a few changes in my life. Those changes caused me to re-think my priorities and everything for awhile. If those smaller changes can affect an adult so much, imagine the extent that a child would be affected by not having those basic needs met. It's staggering. Somebody in the government needs to pay attention to common sense, abolish No Child Left Behind, and stop rewarding people for working in rich schools while punishing poor schools. It's classism, and it's wrong.