Dear President Obama:
Education in American is as badly broken as the economy, our foreign policy, and health care, to name a few other huge issues we need to collectively solve as a people and nation. In terms of urgency, we won’t see the results of the failure of education for some years, but it’s no less a threat to the sustainable strength of our country.
Half-measures and “tinkering” won’t solve the problem because the causes are so deeply embedded in “how we’ve always done things.” It’s the story of “The Blind Men and the Elephant.” Each constituency and interest group sees the problems through the lens of its own biases. Like the partisan battles that have crippled government you referred to in your inauguration address (Bravo!) simply fighting over which partial, and ultimately doomed extreme solution won’t work.
My thoughts:
Use your communication power to elevate the issue to a recognized state of emergency and crisis. It takes that to get people’s sustained attention (in contrast to the short-lived impact of $5 gas). Fortunately, you should be able to do this credibly because education really is a crisis. Enough people will believe you to create the energy for action.
Define the ground for solutions as you are doing with other critical issues:
- No more fads and expensive window dressing that produce profits for the providers but no lasting results for kids.
- No more acrimonious and pointless debates from lobbies and interest groups over issues such as “tough standards” vs. “learning how to learn,” “teacher-centered vs. student-initiated learning,” “skills vs. understanding,” or “nation-wide regulation (NCLB) vs. local control.”
- Instead of the false debate between irreconcilable opposites, we need creative, synergistic “both/and” pragmatic solutions that work.
- Our children should not be used as pawns in the attempt to further social, political and religious agendas. If as a government and a people we get out of the way and make kids the priority, the answers are available.
Rigorously measure what matters, and following your stance on political change, “throw out what doesn’t work,” no matter how sacred a cow it has become. There are some very clear, sensible voices on measuring student success. The problem is that currently, those voices aren’t being heard.
Tap the spirit of giving you are creating to revitalize the teaching profession. Teachers hold the future of America’s most valuable asset in their hands. The times call for a new sense of focus and dedication among teachers to take on a new challenge – and a lot more good teachers to give kids the attention they need. It’s not fundamentally about hours, or compensation – it’s about being committed. If this means challenging unions to live up to their obligation and promise – then they get the same mandate being given to Congress: be part of the solution or get out of the way. The same standard applies to the education lobbies and entrenched, self-serving bureaucracies.
Accelerate efforts to build networks of people and organizations committed to finding solutions to the crisis in the same open, pragmatic spirit with which you want Congress to operate. There are potential allies and wise thinkers all over the internet. More than any of your predecessors, you have the resources to find and tap them.
As you are doing in other initiatives, use the support you have earned to re-enlist parents and communities in what really is their battle, too. We need to be responsible and accountable as individual citizens.
Set a deadline to foster urgency and commitment. “We are withdrawing from the failed war on America’s Children by x date.”
Thanks for your attention and Godspeed!
