I am not a veteran, or even experienced, educator. My experience involves a few years of substitute teaching in the Las Vegas valley, instructing college-level art classes, a one year internship teaching elementary school in South Knoxville, and a summer of panic spent planning lessons and curriculum for my upcoming job as an art teacher in Oak Ridge. Further, I am an art teacher. I am not involved in standardized testing, am not subject to test-based teacher evaluation, and my curriculum is not a hotly contested item of public scrutiny (except, perhaps, as an authentic area of study). Finally, this post takes place at the beginning of a course dealing with exactly these subjects (I imagine this is a bit of a pre-assessment), so my thoughts are not yet defensible by theory or practice.
That said, here goes: the movement towards charter schools seems so sinister to me that it borders on conspiracy theory. The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act created an environment of high-stakes testing in which "reliability, validity, and content were not on the radar, eclipsed as they were by the larger issue of accountability" (Wexler, p.53). These tests, of course, do not measure authentic learning, but rather create an opportunity for outside influences to authoritatively state that schools are 'failing.' Conveniently, an alternative to public schools is available in the form of the school choice movement, that "appeals to values Americans have traditionally cherished- choice, freedom, optimism, and a latent distrust of government" (Ravitch, p.4). The school choice movement is a transparent corporate power grab masquerading as reform, and I can't help but see parallels between its astro-turfed origins and the most recent presidential election. I understand distrust of government bureaucracy, but I cannot fathom why that trust should then be placed in the free market in which "we apply capitalistic strategies to manage all our precious resources, from our children to the environment, and all our daily human needs and desires" (Wexler, p.60). I don't see a way out of this trajectory other than total rejection.
I don't want this post to seem too goth, so here is what gives me hope: my students are excellent resilient feral weirdos that I never get tired of interacting with. My peer teachers are well-educated, idealistic, and quick-witted enough to dance around the bureaucratic doom that surrounds them. I believe in art as a form of research, therapy, and as a primary site for empathy (and thus ethics). The community where I teach is a vibrant site of place-based exploration, full of natural assets, local artists, and involved families. I am excited to find an 'exit strategy.'
References:
Ravitch, D. (2013). Reign of error: The hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America's public schools. Vintage.
Wexler, A. (2014). Reaching higher? The impact of the Common Core State Standards on the visual arts, poverty, and disabilities. Arts Education Policy Review, 115(2), 52-61.
There are certain things that should be left to the free market, but education is not one of them. Quality education should be available to everyone no matter what background they come from. Charter schools and vouchers appear like a good idea, but they are hurting the public education system. It can sometimes be hard to enjoy the actual job of teaching when we struggle with bureaucracy. I am glad that you still find ways to give you hope. However, it seems that our public education system might be completely eliminated with the direction that our country is going in. We should enjoy teaching, but we also need to find a way to keep this from happening. What are your possible exit strategies? Are you referring to the local community?
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