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Dear Mr. President,
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Dear Mr. President,
As educators we find ourselves providing the service for which we have chosen as a life path. That does not mean that we have to agree with or not strive to improve the goals and precedents set in our career field. After embarking on an educational improvement quest I encountered a course of study, which made stating your concerns, seem valuable and purposeful! Why not speak up and try to improve our educational systems? Sometimes it only takes one voice of reason to start a movement of change.
October 7, 2002
Honorable George W. Bush, President
United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President;
I am an American citizen that had a dream, not a self-serving dream, but a dream for the advancement of our nation. My dream seemed to be coming true after many years of preparation and dedication, yet I now fear for the success of that dream. My dream was to educate America’s youth. Teach students to be the solid future citizens of America and to be successful in whatever life career they choose, competitive nationally, as well as internationally. I have chosen my vehicle for educating students through a charter high school. This is my version of the American dream, yet the possibility of this dream staying a reality wanes daily.
Being an educator in large urban traditional school districts for over twenty years is great training for the now existing American educational battlefield. During those twenty years of service I realized that my ability to be innovative and provide a better education for my students became stifled. Education was a victim of mediocrity in performance for the sake of uniformity. With the top-heavy management that schools utilize for the efficiency of business and financing they have become archaic in industry practices. Providing boilerplate education to every student also stifles his or her accomplishments! The history of school reform has indicated several revisited mistakes in current educational systems. Charter schools were the avenue to provide the competition to revive education. This was the initial intent yet, now we are being forced to conform to the same box as traditional education for the same uniformity issues. Educators do understand that home security is a primary priority in the United States, but shouldn’t our youth also be treated as a priority and trained in those skills that keep our country safe? Programs that have been instituted during your presidency like “No child Left Behind” are meant to assist our youth, but within charter schools it has placed us back within the same old education box we were created to out perform.
Sir, these quotes from your address “Remarks by the President on Parental Empowerment in Education” on April 12, 2001, prompted this letter.
“America's schools are increasingly separate and unequal. And that is
unacceptable in our great land. We must do more than tinker around the edges.
We must all come together and fight for real reform and real change. Effective
education reform requires both pressure from above and competition from below.”
“It's a people issue. And here's some ideas that I hope the Congress listens
to. First, I'm an enthusiastic supporter of charter schools. Charter schools
are beginning to change our understanding of public education, no question about
it. These schools are public, because they're publicly funded, and publicly
accountable for results. The vision of parents and teachers and principals determines
the rest. And the competition charter schools oftentimes provide can serve as
an agent to strengthen other schools. You see, you hear a lot of talk about,
well, we can't have charter schools or choice because some school is going to
be left behind. That's got it backwards. Excellence in neighborhoods means excellence
in another neighborhood. It means raising the bar.”
Mr. President, as educators we need your help to continue to raise the bar! The responsibility also falls on educators to provide you with information that helps you assist us in providing an excellent education for all youth.
Collaboration of educational institutions and distinguished educators are taking place currently on the national level. And I Sir, have had the privilege of sharing best practices and innovations with educators from across our great nation. This interaction consisted of educators from a variety of educational disciplines. “Politics of Education: Society, System, School and You” is an educational course that I have just completed. The course elaborated on the basics of education politics’ nationally, in school systems, and in their school focusing on the reform and leadership (or lack thereof) of bureaucracies operating in controversial environments. Many educators participate weekly in open discussions about their experiences in education.
As the Commander in Chief, it is important that you have an insight on how
your leadership is perceived or whether or not it is being effective. The following
comments are a small sample of these educators concerns about the current educational
environment in America.
“The education system is the learning equivalent of the cafeteria - spawning cultural and intellectual wars over what to offer year after year. When you try to satisfy a constituency so morally, intellectually, religiously, ethnically and ethically diverse with one educational process, you are setting up a recipe for real and perceived failure. Those who constitute the “elite” at any point in time are likely to be the recipients of the educational situation they desire most.” "In the end, the problem still exists: those implementing the changes have no ownership in the solution. Someone in a little office, probably in another city or state, made a decision affecting thousands, perhaps millions of children. The individual circumstances of students, teachers and schools are not weighed upon when making the decision. Educational decisions need to be made on a smaller scale." "Education reforms have the most impact when they promote philosophies that are in harmony with a broad array of values in other institutions. Education reformers may succeed at the front of a wave of change, but they will not endure if they remain disconnected from other political, economic, social or religious values.” "Although the investigation of the federal committee spurred the construction of many new schools in Hawaii, it also laid the seeds for an educational institution based on racism and the perpetuation of a low-paid working class. Charter schools could soon be in a position to break free of the political chains binding us to another evolution of mediocrity. We are ready to work to redefine education to include benefits for all children in the state regardless of ethnic, cultural, and economic status. Charter schools in Hawaii depend on the support of their parents and community." "This lack of consensus about purpose is an underlying issue, an octopus that extends its tentacles into every debate about public schools, spreading confusion and misunderstanding. If we are unable to agree on the purpose of education, on what public schools are trying to achieve, then we will not agree on the definition of the problems, will not achieve consensus on how to measure whether schools are working, and will be unable to generate a coherent plan for improvement." "It is not surprising, really, that these ‘old’ reforms have been imbedded into the fabric of our school, an urban school that serves a predominantly poor and minority population. When minority and poor and urban and school are descriptors found in the same sentence, more often than not, not too far removed are the basics, traditional, standards, discipline, and accountability. The most recent decree from President Bush, No Child Left Behind, is a new melody for the same old tune – in this instance, a conservative rhetoric of competition and quality." |
After interacting with professionals from educational systems across our nation, I felt it was in our best interest to provide pressure from the top down, as well as completion from the bottom up to address reform.
Property owners, who make decisions that are generally directed toward the
following goals, hold most national economic power.
• Obtaining the greatest satisfaction for the least cost
• Obtaining the most income with the least effort
• Keeping well informed
• Counteracting competition
Are these not the goals our nation wants for all the educational systems serving
our youth?
In a radio address by you, Mr. President, to the Nation on July 7, 2001, your
statements were as follows:
“My second working day as President, I sent to Congress the boldest plan
to improve our public schools in a generation -- a plan to raise educational
standards for every child and to require new accountability from every school.
This reform gives our public schools greater resources and insists on proven
results in return -- not just for some of our children, but for all of them.”
Why Sir, is there not equity in different standards for educational systems that serve our youth?
Mr. President, I hope my information and request for answers does not fall on deaf ears. If a diverse, qualified group of educators can assist in achieving your objectives in adequately educating all children, then please feel free to contact us..
Sincerely;
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Linda Downing
Charter School Educator and Concerned Citizen