With all the flap in Philly over the new work rules imposed on the teachers, I got upset over this article written by a York/ Lancaster/Lebanon County state senator, Mike Fowler. Here is my reply to him:
Dear Mr. Folmer,
You are no friend of public schools, students, and their
teachers. You have swallowed the koolaid handed out by the corporate so-called
reformers who have the privatization of the public school system at the heart
of their lies and scare tactics.
You recently wrote an article on your website that railed
against bad teachers and smart kids. You claimed that students who spoke at his
educational summits and knew about the education budget in PA had been
”educated” in advance by “adults with vested interest in the outcomes.” You
included the observation that “Students are well versed on the Commonwealth’s
education budget but some have little or no knowledge of our Constitutional
republic or its history.” And that one student was “so familiar with school
funding formulas she knew more than most Senators.”
It appears as though some Senators may need to go back to
school.
You blame the fact that the students know so much on the bad
teachers who “used (students) to advance a political agenda.” If the teachers were bad, would their
students know about current Issues in Civics? That is a course of study in high
school, after all. Sounds like the teachers did their job well with those
students, doesn’t it? And of course, no one in the Governor’s seat or the
legislature ever uses educational issues to advance their political
agenda, right? Excuse me while I laugh.
It’s a travesty that you believe that students who are
“college and career ready” would not have thought to educate themselves on hot-button
issues in education. They are, after all, affected by these issues today more
than ever. These are students who attended schools that in 2010 were found, by
the state legislature itself, to be underfunded by at least $4.4 billion. $1.1
billion being the amount that the city of Philadelphia was underfunded by in
that year. These are students who have
seen favorite teachers laid off and arts and music classes cut because of this
underfunding. In Philadelphia, these students have had to be educated in schools
without enough teachers, without extra-curriculars, counselors, nurses, and
materials needed for their studies, and with increases in class sizes. Students
are affected by underfunding every single day in our state. They have a much
bigger stake in it than any of the adults involved.
The City Paper states, “Pennsylvania, under Corbett, scrapped a measure that considers needs, like the number of students who are living in poverty or are English-language learners. The result: huge shortfalls in poorer districts like Philadelphia, and teachers continuing to spend hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to buy paper and other basic supplies. Municipalities throughout Pennsylvania are also wary of further property-tax increases. In 2011, a record 135 school districts raised property taxes above the normal legal limit. AThe education-funding crisis, deepened by the budget cuts, has made Philadelphia’s predicament uncomfortably familiar to people in towns and cities statewide.”
In advancing your own political agenda, you turn away from
the very real education budget crisis and write about that tired, old, and
inaccurate stereotype of the bad teacher that no one can get rid of, even
though everyone knows who they are. Are there bad teachers in PA? Certainly.
There might even be as many bad teachers as bad legislators on Capitol Hill. If
a school can’t get rid of a bad teacher, then the problem is with the
principal, who has always had the power to release a teacher after proving the
teacher is ineffective. Principals often choose not to wield this power,
instead they “encourage” the teacher to transfer to another school, starting
the cycle all over again. The members of the teachers unions do not want bad
teachers in the profession either, but they do make sure that there is proof of
incompetence and they do provide a hearing for that teacher, through
tenure.
Many people, maybe even the senator, are unaware that tenure
in the K-12 school community doesn’t mean a teacher has a job for life, good or
bad. It basically means that a teacher is guaranteed a hearing if accused of
something. Seems to me that is a basic tenet in our justice system, presumed
innocent until proven otherwise. If the process takes too long, it simply means
that the administrator did not follow protocol to get that teacher out. Put the
blame where it belongs.
You state, “However, every day we fail to provide children
with a quality education, we adults fail to meet the mandate of our state
Constitution: to provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and
efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.” I
agree wholeheartedly with you here. But where you would rather tear down the
public schools at the expense of charters and get rid of tenure, I am for
bolstering the public schools so they can offer each child a “thorough and
efficient education.”
Fair funding for public schools, increased scrutiny of
charters, and respecting the job that hard-working teachers do every day will
be a good start.
You should go back to school. There are many things you have
yet to learn.
If you wish to leave Mr. Fowler a note: Go here:
http://www.senatorfolmer.com/voice-your-concerns-2/
http://www.senatorfolmer.com/voice-your-concerns-2/
Still learning!
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