Newt Gingrich and Me: A Charged Moment at an Education Blogger Summit

Ed in '08, the Gates/Broad funded advocacy campaign, hosted the first-ever education "blogger summit" this week at the Hotel Palomar in D.C. You may wonder, what happens at an education blogger summit? Were there intellectual cage matches for snarkiest wit? Gold stars for citing the most stats in the latest Education Sector report on inequity in school funding?

Not exactly, but there were some lively discussions about the future of public education, agreement on the need to turn up the volume on education issues, and some really good brownies.

However, I'm pretty scared about some of the ideas being advanced on revolutionizing schools. There is a growing chorus of powerful, mostly right-of-center voices declaring public education a failed experiment. These voices (including keynote speaker Newt Gingrich) want a brave new world of schools in America. After all, test scores show the U.S. falling farther and farther behind her international competitors. Our teachers have failed us! We're a nation at risk!

I asked the first question to Newt, equating the bypassing of educators in crafting education reform to America's disastrous de-Baathification policy after invading Iraq. Some eyebrows were raised.

Here's where I was coming from:

It's safe to say we all agree that American public schools need drastic improvement. However, Gingrich and his ideological compatriots' wholesale slapping of the labels "OBSOLETE! FAILED! CO-CONSPIRATOR! on all public schools and everyone in them is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. This kind of dismissive rhetoric paves the way for ideologues to impose their will unchecked.

Newt called today's public schools a "monopoly of failure," tossing the blame for the decline of public education at "departments of education, schools of education, and unionized bureaucracy." In other words, everyone who works in or near public schools. Newt argued that people from any of his three culpable camps are inherently corrupted by their stake in the failed system, and will blindly defend that system to protect themselves.

This automatic dismissal of everyone currently within the struggling system feels parallel to the disastrous de-Baathification process following the US invasion of Iraq. Everyone affiliated in any way (even against their wills) with Sadaam's party was outcast from decision-making, or even a job. This exclusion of such vast intellectual and human resources was a calamity. Isn't labeling everyone within public education as corrupted "defenders of the monopoly of failure" a similar fiasco in the making?

Gingrich didn't acknowledge the parallel. He maintained the monopoly of failure must be replaced, and that any defectors from the monopoly to his camp would be welcomed with open arms.

Framing the debate on public education this way is dangerous. This puts public school advocates in the uncomfortable position of propounding change yet denying that all public schools are a wild west of zero substantive learning. It makes the "blow up the schools!" hawks look tough and the reformers who want to talk about nuance and incremental change appear wuss-like.

I'm not buying it. Public schools need help, but they don't need ideological, for-profit crusaders taking over. Teachers, parents, and principals have quite a lot to contribute to improving the system. You cannot effect meaningful, positive change on people via satellite. The stakeholders of public education (families, teachers, school officials) know the on-the-ground needs of students. By listening to and supporting those who are the lifeblood of schools, we can reap long-term benefits in our local communities and in the global marketplace.

Dan Brown is a teacher in the Bronx, and the author of The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.

Follow Dan Brown on Twitter: www.twitter.com/danbrownteacher

Comments

[azureblue]

Newt is trying to draw attention away from the fact that he and his cohorts have been trying to destroy public education for decades. they cut back, the de- fund, they refuse to pay teachers what they are worth. And now Newt thinks, after the right has ruined public schools, that we are going to listen to their cries of "oh it is a mess! Let's start over!" They messed it up to begin with.

Want to fix public education? The solution is simple: Put money into it. Fix the schools. Restore creative arts education and music programs. Pay the teachers. Bring the curriculum up to date. Buy new books.

Why on earth people think we can pay teachers less money than bus drivers and get well educated kids, is beyond me. Why pro sports figures get un holy amounts of money, when teachers have to pay for supplies out of their own pockets and eat sandwiches at lunch time because they are broke, is beyond me. Teachers are one of the most important groups in our society. They prepare our kids for the future.

Why do republicans hate our kids?

[river10]

The far right is in its death throes, so we'll be hearing from losers like Gingrich for only a little while longer. The attempt to turn America into a oligarchy has failed, though the collatoral damage is deep and wide. Educators are among the few sectors of American society who have kep their bargain with the people, and have stood as a bulwark against the radicals and extremists from the right. simply by doing their jobs and maintaining true to their mission. That a fool like Gingrich would be invited to speak, or to write (for Newsweek), is just a sign that this remains an open society----thank the public schools for that.

[realpolitic]

Newt is compromised when it comes to looking at real problems and real solutions because he is so ideologically driven. To find real solutions, one must accurately define the problem, Newt's severe ideology keeps him from doing that. Schools should have higher standards. We should start from there. Children perform better academically when they do not go to school hungry. Getting parents involved in their children's education would be a decisive victory. Newt would be to school reform what he was to bipartisan relations in Congress- a disaster.

[torrrep]

You apparently have never visited the Los Angeles Unified School District. More than 25% drop out rate and of those who remain only 48% graduate in 4 years. The LAUSD has more than 750,000 students in 8 mini districts that total over 600 schools. 42% of 10th graders pass the standardize testing requirements. Nearly half of the students can not speak English. You don't think this is a problem? Where is a parent to send their kid when 600 schools covering several hundred square miles are all controlled by one school district? Newt is right. You just don't know it.

[altohone]

What's up with Gates/Broad?

If every bridge an engineer built collapsed into rubble, would they be invited to speak at an engineering conference?

Is right and left more important than right and wrong?

Has "fair and balanced" replaced accountability and accuracy?

I'm spittin cheerios here!

[Producer1]

Gingrich has a lot of gall. This is a man who has been so wrong on so many issues that we need a calculator to keep up with him. Since the Reagan revolution of 1980 the Republicans have virtually been in charge of whatever funding there is for education and try as they might they can't kill it. Why, you ask? Because when properly administered public education actually works and has for 80 of the last 100 years. Republicans can't stand any progressive programs that do work (and most of them do) so they try their best to strangle them so that they say "See, these programs are expensive and they don't work." It's a form of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

The rise of the American middle class was aided in part by millions of children benefitting from good public education. Unless we go back to those principles today's children and tomorrow's citizens are going to be wholly lacking, and that's not good for anyone.

[frankwopc]

Exactly. It is government intrusion since 1980 that has led to massive failure in public education as schools are required to follow the latest (and usually fleeting) "idea" imposed upon them by legislatures hopelessly addicted to the "business model" that schools are factories, and students are "product." We have seen state governments mandate proficiency in algebra and other conceptual studies, regardless of the intellectual development of students, when not everyone is ready for conceptual comprehension at the same age (state and federal legislators themselves come to mind). Also, the corporate model is killing American business -- why on earth would we think that a good thing for schools to copy? If there is a "monopoly of failure," it is more properly assigned to legislators, corporatists, and idealogues.

[Robert5181]

The issue central to the debate revolves around the purposes of school. People like "the salamander' jump on one purpose of school (testing) and use this to prove that schools are failing. If you walk into a modern public high school you will see people from many cultures learning to speak English, students with disabilities will be in the classroom learning the material, others will be taking AP courses preparing to attend the best universities in the country, others will be working to improve their skills in sports, music, art and theater and all of the students will be learning about the basics of our democracy which includes working with people from different races. Each one of the groups represents a purpose of school. Perhaps the most important' purpose of school is to provide everyone the opportunity to move through the social classes so that a child on welfare can enter the middle class in a profession.

[hopeless277]

This is just another try at privatization. Their only goal is to create a caste system in this country. It is already happening. Those born at the bottom have far fewer options than those born to the rich. The obscene amounts of money individuals in this country control is a threat to our very way of life. Perhaps if they paid their fair share in taxes, they wouldn't have to hide behind walled communities like scared little children.

[oncethere]

Perhaps, if we made Defense Department spending as accountable to the Govt. as we do Pubic Education---and Community Mental Health---then we can begin to have a reasonable dialogue with Repubs.

[UVRayburn]

Republicans want the public school system to fail. They know that a good education stifles religious bigotry. Republicans know they cannot legally control the culture of a public school. Republicans can only spew their religous lies in private schools and they were losing to many children to the truth in public schools. That's the truth in a wingnutshell.

[scottknick]

I have also run into Newt at education events. His rhetoric is useful, because it helps us see NCLB for what it was meant to be -- an effort to destroy the notion of public education.

Many both within and outside of education have been puzzled the the unrealistic expectations built into the act. One forgets that as originally proposed, NCLB was supposed to include a voucher system that would allow students at schools not making AYP to take their chunk of the public school budget across the street to a parochial, christian or private school. The idea was to make sure that as many schools as possible qualified as "failing," leading to a massive transfer of tax dollars to non-public schools. But that voucher scheme did not pass, so while students in failed schools have the right to move, in most districts there's nowhere to go.

At any rate, Newt and his ilk don't see education as a societal responsibility and are looking for ways to privatize it. Thus "No Child Left Behind."

[punch]

everybody knows Newt is a corporate hack. the guy is a joke, everything he's supported has been a failure. if you look at his audience their all north of 70 with couple of nuts mixed in

[AsaNisMasa]

They want to eventually eliminate free public schools...then only the rich will be educated and the rest will be their serfs. History repeating?

[Live4literacy]

Not only do we teachers now the on the ground needs of students, we also know how and what to teach. Unfortunately, NCLB has tied everyone's hands. It's all about the one test score per year that all students and schools are judged by and real teaching and learning have gone out the window. This has always been the goal of the conservati­ves...make schools look bad so they can suck the money out of public schools and put it into private hands. Look around you, how many people do you know twho have graduated from public schools and are doing quite well? Our schools here in Broward County do an amazing job of educating and graduating our students. I have been shouting about this for years...ask an educator how to improve schools. We know what we are talking about. How is it that people who have never taught seem to know what's so best for schools? Newt is a blowhard and knows nothing about educational theory, practice, and curriculum. He probably is clueless as to child development, developmentally appropriate curriculum, and balanced literacy models. Does he even have a sense of the complexity of teaching 25 different kids all who have various needs, deficits, backgrounds? If you need an intelligent, educated and dedicated teacher, call me, I'd be glad to participate.

[StudentThinker]

Exactly. The imposition of simplistic, standardized models across the board by ideologica­lly-driven bureaucrats who know nothing about education has CREATED many of the problems public schools currently face. Education is about people, not test-scores. As if one's personality and intelligence could be boiled down to a 4-digit number.

[UKThom]

Here! Here! I'm a US-trained teacher working in the UK system, and I'm witness to the Massive Standardized Tests, and the effect on the classroom environment. This is NOT what we need in US classrooms!

It's months of revision, question drilling, skills drills, syllabi directed towards the tests, and a sense of flat despair in many classrooms (esp. in those where the kids are not of an upper ability).

It's a shamble, all in the name of data and numbers which are tied to funding and status.

In the end, kids are the ones left hurting, and teacher's don't have enough bandages to fix it all.