Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has been vocal that education is the civil rights issue of our time. I couldn't agree more. Our country was predicated upon the fundamental idea of equality, yet in every state in the country we provide poor children less of everything we know they need to be successful.
Our ongoing attempts at closing the proverbial achievement gap through various policies and practices, while necessary and generally well intentioned, have not adequately addressed vast gaps in opportunity and resources. Left unaddressed, these gaps will continue the disparate academic outcomes we witness along racial, economic, language, and ability lines.
I will be introducing the Fiscal Fairness Act and the Student Bill of Rights Act, both of which are designed to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to address this.
Resource equity, a serious obstacle to improved student achievement, has been offered as justification for avoiding the difficult choices needed to raise student achievement and ensure students are held to the same high standard. We need advocates for equitable resources to show courageous leadership and make institutional changes to give all students a fair opportunity at success.
Stories of low-income students and students of color attending schools with ineffective teachers, inadequate and insufficient textbooks, materials and technology, and a curriculum that lacks the rigor we know is critical for success -- particularly in this ever-changing global economy -- are all too common. Simply demanding more of students, teachers and schools, without the necessary increased capacity and access to high-impact resources, will not create meaningful systemic change.
Providing a more equitable education for our children is not merely our moral imperative. This is an economic and national security necessity. In 2009, McKinsey & Co. demonstrated that the nation's current academic achievement gap is akin to a permanent economic recession. Economists have also shown that raising achievement for the nation's lowest performing students would add $2.3 trillion to GDP. Recent reports show the effect low educational attainment and the achievement gap have on the military's ability to draw on the diverse talents of American young people.
I am re-introducing the Student Bill of Rights, a bill that ensures students have access to the educational resources they need to be successful in school. Specifically, the bill focuses on access to (1) highly effective teachers, (2) rigorous curricula, (3) early childhood education, and (4) instructional materials including educational technology, all of which are essential for students to meet ambitious academic standards.
While Title I funds are intended to give schools with large numbers of low-income students the added resources they need to succeed, loopholes and weaknesses in the statute prevent these funds from effectively reaching the students they were intended to help. This is why, in addition to the Student Bill of Rights, I will be introducing the Fiscal Fairness Act.
The Fiscal Fairness Act strengthens Title I by requiring districts (1) spend at least as much per student from state and local funds in Title I schools as non-Title I schools before receiving federal dollars, (2) count and report all school-level expenditures, including actual teacher salaries, and (3) report per-pupil expenditures and make the information available to educators, parents and community members. Current law directs districts to exclude differences in teacher salaries based on years of experience. This ignores the all-too-common concentration of less experienced and lower paid teachers in high-poverty schools.
While the current economic crisis and long-ignored budgetary missteps leave local, state and federal governments facing unacceptable cuts to basic services, we know that the economy is recovering and the revenue will return. We must ensure that every dollar is spent wisely and that we are building a broad and lasting foundation for future prosperity. We must never allow economic circumstances to become an excuse for lowered expectations, however, reforms aimed at increasing student achievement will not last without a conscious effort to provide educational opportunity to all students on an equitable basis.
The Fiscal Fairness Act, and the Student Bill of Rights will help fulfill the promise that we have made to our children that anything is possible, especially when we provide them the educational tools essential for their success.
Follow Rep. Chaka Fattah on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ChakaFattah
Research Center: Achievement Gap
Editorial - Civil Rights in Education - NYTimes.com
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The fundamental problem with our education system is the mono-cultural teacher workforce. America's teachers are 90% White. Only 1 in 4 teachers are male -- and less than 2% are Black males. In 45% of our schools, there are no minority educators on the staff at all.
Education is tied to culture. We need a teacher workforce that matches the diversity of the students they're teaching.
"(1) highly effective teachers, (2) rigorous curricula, (3) early childhood education, and (4) instructional materials including educational technology, all of which are essential for students to meet ambitious academic standards."
And the 45% of schools having no minority staff at all feels to me to overstate an admittedly unequal representation of minority educators in our schools. Can you direct me to a source for that? Meanwhile, I will pursue that info on my own. Thanks.
You mean like in the movie "Stepford Wives" ?
I'm sorry to reach these conclusions. But, I'd feel worse about myself to state something I didn't believe true.And, I want to clarify a point.Nothing says IQ is destiny.Inner city black kids may have to work harder than,say,inner city Chinese kids to produce good results.But they can do so.And,we should give them every chance that's reasonable.But spending money on something like this takes money away from after school hs tutoring etc.
I doubt if a member of the Congressional Black Caucus really wants money taken from Denver and given to Boulder even though it is unfair that the students in Boulder are short-changed.
The school my Grandchildren go to gets $3,000 per student, yet they have a graduation rate of 97.3%. So it is obviously not money that is the problem.
The parents and Grandparents pick up where the state and federal governments leave off. If the school needs something, then we get together and purchase it for them. Then again, there is heavy parent and grandparent involvement in all levels of education, from preschool on. We don't have an alternative school for kids who don't want to be there. How much money in these inner city school systems go to build alternative schools?
One is never going to alleviate poverty, no matter how much one tries, nor is the playing field ever going to level. We need to understand that, and just get over it.
You would be a lot better off getting rid of Race to the Bottom. Seems like Obama for all his talk about how he doesn't like standarized testing is making sure a billion dollars is being kept in the budget that he has given away to the Republicans. Last time he threatened to veto a budget that did not contain his privatization plans under the DOE if you want to help starving schools concentrate on getting some money to teachers and kids not test manufacturers and charter school operators.
Because that's what's going to happen. They'll just lower everyone's salary to that of a first year teacher. Or maybe if they're generous, third year teacher. With never a possibility of a raise except for maybe cost of living every few years. A lifetime of a stagnant salary with no possibility of advancement.
And you're going to pay teachers with a masters or doctorate the same as those with only a bachelors.
And being National Board Certified will be meaningless. Well, since you're going to revoke funding for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (the teachers equivalent of the AMA or Bar Association) I guess that goes without saying.
And you really think this is going to attract the brightest and best math and science majors to the teaching profession?
Really?
Good luck with that.
(Pennsylvania. Isn't that the state with the 'bagger Governor who made a corporate CEO the financial Czar and gave him the power take over any public agency and negate any contract? Oh, yeah. I so think anyone from Pennsylvania has all the answers.)
How, imagine 1 new teacher is $30k, and 1 experienced teacher is $60k. Imagine a 50/50 mix of new to experienced for sake of example. The average would be $45k per teacher. So, if you have 10 new teachers in School A, and 10 experienced teachers in School B, using the Average, the school spending would be identical. BUT! Using Actuals, you can see that 1/2 the spending is going to School A. Typically, the poorer schools are Title 1 schools, and school districts are mandated to spend Federal funds over and above usual spending. By using averages, the school districts divert funds intended for Title 1 schools. Rep. Fattah is proposing to close this loophole.
Bravo to him for doing it!
Hope that helps.
Not all schools get Title I. Title I is only for those with a large population of free and reduced lunch students. Locally the district is finally raising the title I qualifications from 45% (which almost all schools have) to 75% (which would finally support the schools it was intended for. Of course it won't go into effect until 2016 and by then the title I funds will probably be so reduced the needy schools will get exactly what they have been getting.
BTW when I was paid out of title I I was an experienced teacher with over 25 years and two masters degrees. At a school in a poor neighborhood with a 90+% free and reduced lunch status.
So I think Rep Fattah is pretty much full of it. And that goes for Marguerite Roza too.
Schools don't get teachers according to how much money they have divided equally. They are staffed according to how many students they have. You get one special ed teacher for every 10 special ed students. You get one regular teacher for whatever subject for every 38 students (in middle school). Number vary according to grade level. P.E. teachers usually teach classes of 60 so that the core classes can lower their class sized to 32-34.
I'm very aware of how schools work. Fattah isn't.