Breaking the Cycle

In America, success is defined by short-term business decisions…how quickly you can implement a plan that delivers a big monetary return. We are all familiar with those people who are revered for their ability to be able to do this: athletes, entertainers, entrepreneurs. Unfortunately for the rest of us, in each case it comes down to inherent talent that makes this possible. So how do we find worth in a society that reflects value in dollars? Some try to get-rich-quick playing the lottery and the market, while the majority of us work hard to achieve honest accomplishments that pay the bills.

Public education is the antithesis of what is valued in American culture. No no no don’t gasp or protest…I’m not saying it’s right…I’m just stating what we all know to be true. If American culture valued education, teachers would be paid well and students would be provided everything they need to be successful, as an investment in our future.

But look at the headlines over the past year:

• Public education is being depleted of resources as governors work to balance budgets in tight times

• Taxpayers resist further tax increases to fund education because the short-term gains are not appreciable

• Teacher unions lose collective bargaining rights in key states because of the perception they have over-reached in the past and that they continue to be run by self-serving leadership

• Educators are vilified as the problem with public education because the system pits student performance against teacher performance

• Thousands of teachers lose their jobs across the country due to budget cuts, with profound long-term implications for our workforce while addressing short-term economic realities

It’s a three-cornered-conflict…three powerful forces pitted against one another:

Resources are shrinking, our culture continues to look for short-term wins, but our long-term prosperity depends on investments we make now.

My question to you is this: is American public education, by definition, doomed to be under-valued and under-resourced because of the culture in which it subsists? Or are there ways to re-think education that could produce short-term wins that add value that attracts new resources and then greater investment? I know this is hard to even conceive given our career-long experience as educators, but this is what the cycle would look like:

 

I’m not here to tout possible solutions. I’m simply asking the question. What if the equation is this quantifiable, rather than speculating on grand visions of sights yet unseen? If you could plug in one short-term investment to start kicking this cycle into motion, what would you come up with? It may be as simple as this.