United Way To Rally 1 Million Volunteers To Help American Schools

American schools need help. Unfortunately, that's no April Fools' joke.

On April 1, United Way launched a campaign to rally 1 million volunteers to get involved helping improve educational opportunities for the nation's youth.

The strategy is to encourage Americans to pledge to give their time to read to children, tutor them with their schoolwork or serve as a mentor. Once people pledge, they can get tips and tools online and search for volunteer opportunities in their communities.

With budget cuts hitting schools nationwide, volunteers are needed now more than ever.

According to The Christian Science Monitor,

At a Town Hall meeting in Washington that United Way Worldwide convened and webcast Thursday morning, [U.S. Secretary of Education Arne] Duncan said the goal of 1 million more volunteers can be transformative: "If we can systematically step up to the plate ... our young people from the toughest of backgrounds can do extraordinarily well," he said.

The announcement of the campaign coincides with the release of the United Way's report "Voices for the Common Good: America Speaks Out on Education," which explores through polling and interviews how individuals and families across the country feel about the state of schools.

The vast majority of Americans polled said they felt U.S. schools were declining. The report also signaled that many people are willing to help, but don't know how to go about it.

Some respondents stressed the importance of community in education.

"[The] solution needs to be grassroots, The communities have to decide to become involved again," said one individual. "It takes a village to raise a child. I grew up in a small town, and the entire community knew you and was aware of what you were doing... Now we are no longer connected. How many of us know our neighbors?"

The United Way campaign hopes to reconnect Americans with their neighborhoods by encouraging and facilitating volunteerism.

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy,

"The majority want to be involved," said Brian Gallagher, president of United Way Worldwide, in Alexandria, Va. "They just don't know how to do it. They feel disconnected from the schools."

Pledge to volunteer and get more information on how you can pitch in at LiveUnited.org/Volunteer.

Comments

[Paul Calvaresi]

09:50 PM on 04/03/2011

No. As a teacher I equate this movement to reenforcing bad behavior. The bad behavior being the politicians who are cutting school budgets. I understand that this is for the children, but make the people who take from the children understand that. Instead, these volunteers (bless their hearts) are almost vindicating the decision to cut education, because, when politicians cut spending, they get free labor.

[Erin Starr]

03:25 PM on 05/17/2011

Never would of thought of it that way. Thank you for the perspective!
My first instinct is to give the time that I have . I'm active in my own daughters school PTA- but there are so many schools out there that just don't have that support and need it desperately. What's a mom who wants what's best for the kids in her community to do? We can't let these children suffer while the lawmakers try to figure it all out.

[Verbal Bruce]

10:30 AM on 04/03/2011

I believe this program is to fill the gaps temporary until the funding is available. I plan to create a program myself to shape up the student in the near future. They may lack motivation, direction and untold stories of success.

[maninal2]

09:21 AM on 04/03/2011

Wonderful idea... lay off all the teachers and have the United Way corporation provide the volunteer staff.... what's next? The Chamber of Commerce volunteers in class instead of professional educators. What crazy brain dead idea is next?

[rodjard]

05:43 AM on 04/03/2011

A Teacher, a book and a student. That is a school.
It was declared long ago that this nation, in it's best
interest would provide a public education for all it's
citizens.

Now the student, has to pay for their own, historically
edited propaganda books. A teacher is relegated to
have to organize a union in order to have a decent
standard of living.

Facilities to provide the education are determined by
ethnic and parent social status differences.

A well rounded education is seperated into
caricular and non-caricular activities in order to further
discriminate as to differences in athletic and musical
or other talents being developed.

Our public education system is just an excuse for one.

[umbrarchist]

02:43 AM on 04/04/2011

{{{ A Teacher, a book and a student. That is a school. It was declared long ago that this nation, in it's best interest would provide a public education for all it's citizens. }}}

"Long Ago" is the point. Now it's just a netbook and student. The question is what to load on the netbook..

[rodjard]

03:22 AM on 04/04/2011

I agree. I said "Now the student has to pay for their
own historically edited propaganda books."
It is discriminatory also in that, if the student goes home
to an environment where their guardians aren't into helping
with homework or if they have no access to computer lateracy
they are left way behind. I am 64 now. I never got help at home
growing up, however it was easier to keep up then than it would
be in todays environment. We help with grandkids. They have
homework piled on them, with instructions to parents. In too
many homes, that just ain't gonna happen.

[6p023E23]

09:44 PM on 04/02/2011

American schools need help in purging the junk out of the school system. Period.

[maninal2]

09:19 AM on 04/03/2011

I agree...lets get rid of the corporations, the charlatans, the reformers and the profiteers...

[mdfinch]

04:14 PM on 04/02/2011

Nice thought, but why not rally 100 million people to pay more taxes to fund the short fall in school budgets, hire more teachers, and lower class sizes. corporations that need future skilled employees should refuse tax cuts from States and earmark revenue to school systems to get involved in education. Quit blaming teachers and unions and give schools the funds and tools to do their jobs.

[poeticjustice4all]

01:14 PM on 04/02/2011

It's pretty clear from these and other postings that teachers don't want voluteers from the community in schools. They love, love, love to complain about how awful the parents are -- because that gives them an excuse for low student achievement -- but in truth these teachers do not want parents and members of the community in their classrooms.

We wouldn't need the United Way or any other outside organization to round up voluteers -- if educators followed the basic guidelines of effective teaching practice which heavily emphasize community involvment.

[sawyer0413]

02:17 PM on 04/02/2011

Really? Let's look at some issues that you may have overlooked in your post.

One, before a volunteer can be allowed access to children, you need a background check. There are unsavory people eager to gain access to children, and you need to protect the students. Even with background checks, there seem to be a continual stream of stories of volunteers that have slipped through the background check system. This raises liability concerns for the school systems, which means they spend more on liability insurance to cover themselves. Perhaps "free" volunteers aren't precisely "free".

Two, after the background check, you have to ask if a volunteer is qualified. What are they going to do, and are they going to do it in a way that doesn't cause harm. Perhaps they are going to drive students. Ooops, liability concern for chaperones driving. Perhaps they are going to volunteer to assist teachers. Ooops, they lack the qualifications, and if some student is disadvantaged, liability all over again.

Three, assume they pass background check and are qualified, they still need experience. Like any job training, this means that a teacher in a real life class has to train them to be a volunteer. In many cases, notes go out to all the parents of a class announcing the volunteer. This gives the parents the right to object. After all, if the teacher is spending time teaching the volunteer, they aren't teaching children. So, the students are losing to train the volunteer.

[poeticjustice4all]

11:48 AM on 04/03/2011

We've already heard these lame excuses. As student achievement continues to drop -- you continue to offer up the same old BS.

You're oh so concerned about volunteers not being qualified -- but when it comes to teachers qualification, you have nothing to say. When the issue is teachers abusing children, you're willing to protect them and justify their abusive behavior by blaming "bad parenting," poverty, divorce and MTV.

Nobody believes your nonsense about volunteers causing harm to students -- because you don't care about kids being harmed every day in every way by full-time teachers.

[sawyer0413]

02:17 PM on 04/02/2011

Four, after background check, qualifications check, and on-the-job experience, how long does the volunteer continue to volunteer? The school system has invested a lot to get to this point. They need to get payback. Typically, volunteers don't last all that long.

Now, I am not saying that community involvement is bad. In fact, it is vital. But often it is portrayed as a supplement to teachers. Those are actual teacher aides, and they are professionals in their own realm. The kinds of volunteers that connect a school to a community are seldom the kind that supplement teachers. Just an FYI.

[Roxee]

09:08 AM on 04/02/2011

If volunteers could do the job, why do teachers need a university education. I want my child taught by a teacher. Just exactly what are our tax dollars paying for. I thought it was for schools, healthcare, roads and utilities. Now all, or most of these things are privatized our tax dollars are just subsidizing businesses and paying politicians to give them our money. Crazy diesn't begin to describe how ridiculous things have gotten.

[progressiveteacher]

11:44 PM on 04/01/2011

Another great idea - how about one million volunteers to help those overworked doctors. My husband works in video games and people have been pitching him game ideas for years! I'm sure they would be happy to volunteer! And how about all of those state, municipal and government employees creating infrastructure, running parks, libraries, saving lives, fighting fires, stopping drug runners - volunteers could do those jobs as well. And banks - I'm sure we could create a volunteer corps to process loans, or at least foreclose on the increasing amount of properties due to the lack of jobs being created because everything really can be done by volunteers! I'm sure Wall Street could be run by volunteers, or at least by those people who bet, um, I mean, invest on-line. Let's rename the US Volunteer nation - we're already volunteering most of our tax money to "help" the middle east - the ultimate volunteer effort!!!!

[progressiveteacher]

10:46 PM on 04/01/2011

Hey, I have a great idea - how about parents turning off the tv, computer, iphone at home, spending time with their kids, going to the library and letting me do my job for which I am paid and well trained.

[6p023E23]

09:46 PM on 04/02/2011

I admire you. a side question. do you seriously thing ALL teachers are really competent to teach. being a progressive tell me genuinely what do we do with he junk in the school system?

[gravity defiant]

12:05 AM on 04/03/2011

You're referring to human beings as "junk," aren't you? Disgusting.

[maninal2]

09:22 AM on 04/03/2011

obviously the teachers you had missed the mark

[Myrdin Thompson]

10:07 PM on 04/01/2011

I know a group of people who have been actively transforming education for the betterment of students for over 113 years...the PTA. Maybe the UW can connect volunteers in partnership with PTA...why does it have to be a "new idea?"

[umbrarchist]

09:28 PM on 04/01/2011

Wouldn't it make more sense to help educate kids than help the schools? Are we operating on the assumption that the only education comes through schools?

Why not create a National Recommended Reading list? The majority of books are crap.

Try these:

http://www.heroturko.org/ebooks/901357-stan-gibilisco-teach-yourself-electricity-and-electronics-fourth-edition.html

http://www.amazon.com/Screwing-Average-man-richer-poorer/dp/0553129139

THE TYRANNY OF WORDS—Stuart Chase
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,759006,00.html

Netbooks come with 250 gigabyte drive now. So if we create a 100 gigabyte education pack to load on the computers a kid should be able to do a lot even without Internet access..

[Shelley Gordon]

09:11 PM on 04/01/2011

Forgive my cynicism, but is this the plan for public education? Replacing teachers with volunteers? Let me think. . . Hey teachers, work for free or we will replace you with people who will work for free?

[Fernando Villamar]

10:25 AM on 04/02/2011

No. The plan for public education is to eliminate it as it has no business existing except as the propaganda arm of an out of control government. In a free society, individuals can choose to associate in any way they wish and no group has the right to use force directly or through the manipulation of the government to prevent those free associations. That means that if I want to volunteer to cut my neighbor's lawn, that is between me and him and his gardener cannot go to the government or the union boss and demand that my neighbor continue to pay the gardener for services my neighbor no longer voluntary wishes to contract.

[maninal2]

09:23 AM on 04/03/2011

Rand was fiction. Your ideas have no legitimacy in a civil society. Go to Somalia and see how well your ideals work.

[Shelley Gordon]

11:21 AM on 04/03/2011

Thanks for the admission! Are you one of those people hoping for the end of days also? The America you envision is tiny, ugly and without viability. How ugly your vision is. Go to an island, live off the land, work for free.

[bbbbmer]

07:57 PM on 04/01/2011

Nice thought, but if one dime of this fund and effort is handed to a charter school or to Michelle Rhee's 'StudentsFirst' deceptive corporate right PAC, there will be HELL to pay...

I do not trust UNITED WAY....

[veteran teacher]

10:28 PM on 04/01/2011

Neither do I.

[maninal2]

09:23 AM on 04/03/2011

United Way funds the corporate strong arming of employees nationwide for "their" charities

[Katniss]

07:56 PM on 04/01/2011

I believe that volunteers WOULD help in the city I live in, because there's so much poverty. Over the weekend, I met with a woman who runs a kindergarten readiness program with an aim to help the children of low-income parents. I will help sort and distribute donated books that they give to families, do story hours in public housing projects, stuff like that. I know it can never replace what teachers do in the classroom, and I'm not naive enough to think that it can. But maybe it can help change the climate a bit, and maybe it can help some kids be more ready when they get to the classroom to succeed. Literacy is a huge problem in my area, and I wanted to help. I always vote for pro-education candidates, but sometimes I'm in the minority, and sometimes they lie to get in.

Trained educators are definitely what's needed, and better school funding. I'm not an educator, but I value education, and I didn't feel I could just sit around while the community did nothing to help close the gap for lower-income kids.