Column 54 for September 17, 2000

A last minute change of plans. I had planned to write this column about the "other" public school financing which parents and grandparents know so well. Fund raisers. But that will have to wait for another week or two.

Two articles from CNN.com news today on the Internet have particularly stirred me. The first, by the CNN Boston Bureau Chief, Bill Delaney, is captioned "U.S. Teachers start new school year in hot seat." Yup, I can relate to that.

You have to understand, teachers are at the bottom of the education food chain. We are the ones who have to "sign off" on everything from handling bodily fluids to child abuse reporting. The "buck" stops with us, while those in positions of authority get us to "sign off" on everything to limit their liability. We have no one left to pass the buck on to. Easy marks for politicians (like our lame-duck governor) in search of someone to blame.

The political rallying cry has been, within both parties, "improve education." Sam Morris, a fifth grade teacher in Massachusetts, says, "My mother even bashes me." Ms. Morris goes on to say "I mean my mother loves me, but she says, ‘Oh, the teachers are the fault of this and the teachers are to blame for that.’" Where does the public get this idea? See the last sentence in my previous paragraph. And so many of you believe them!

Another fifth-grade teacher, Mary Callahan, says, "We’re certainly not in this for the money or the glamour. And to be spoken of so negatively…you feel like a political football." She continued, "It does, in this climate, give people sort of carte blanche to let us have it, basically." The CNN article concured, "Along with the verbal criticism that may come their way, teachers also face the prospect of school violence, leading them to argue that their critics don’t fully comprehend all the responsibilities that come with the job. Such new responsibilities come with an average salary that is $23,655 less than what similarly educated workers make."

Not only our politicians, but also statistics can be very misleading. "Gallup Poll: 61 Percent of Americans Dissatisfied With Quality of K-12 Education." Whew, that’s a pretty damning statement.

But now listen to Frank Newport, the Gallup Poll Editor in Chief. "…I think we have some reasons for that… First of all, we asked adults nationwide, whether or not they had kids, no matter their age, just: Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the quality of education for K-12 students in the country today? …Last August 47 percent of Americans were satisfied, compared to 36 percent a couple weeks ago. Now, why is this? Well, we think this is based a lot on perceptions, and it could be because both of the presidential candidates have been hammering home problems in education that they think they’re going to solve if their elected, that maybe more Americans are saying to themselves, geez, we must have more problems nationally because I keep hearing about them."

Mr. Newport continued, "Now, here’s a fascinating phenomenon to us who do polling for a living. This is the comparison between the 36 percent who are satisfied nationally, and parents. Very interesting here. We isolated just those Americans who are parents of K-12 kids and we said, ‘Are you satisfied with the quality of education your kid is getting?’ When we asked that, it’s all the way up to 78 percent." Big difference!!

The Gallup Poll finds the same situation when they ask people to rate Congress versus their own congressman, or when they rate health care versus their own doctor. Why is it, when it comes to election time, that we seem to start believing our politicians and their challengers? Get a grip, and let’s not let these folks do our thinking for us!

Peace. tomiswho@mindspring.com