Public Education
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." - Matthew 22: 35-39
As we think about whether American society embodies Jesus' teaching that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, we need to be concerned about public schools, the primary institution where we have agreed to nurture and shape God's precious children. Public schools are our largest public institution, serving nearly fifty million children.
In the national conversation about public education, our role in the church is special. We are concerned about our schools as an ethical and public policy matter. How do they embody attitudes about race and poverty, power and privilege, and cultural dominance and marginalization, and how do disparities in public investment reflect these attitudes?
The United Church of Christ has spoken prophetically to name poverty and racism as among the primary causes of injustice in our nation's schools. General Synod 15 warned: "While children from many areas have comfortable schools with all the educational trimmings, poor and ethnic minority children often face overcrowded and deteriorated facilities, and a lack of enrichment programs or modern technology." General Synod 18 cautioned: "Because the poor and their children are disproportionately people of color, the educational inequities in our public schools reinforce the racial/ethnic injustices of our society." General Synod 23 proclaimed public school support - and advocacy for the same - as one of the "foremost civil rights issues in the twenty-first century." General Synod 25 called all settings of the UCC to do justice and promote the common good by strengthening support for public institutions and providing "opportunity for every child in well-funded, high quality public schools."
Featured Resources in June-July 2009
Ongoing: Looking for spirited discussion of major concerns in public education from the role of the "public" in public schools to whether we need national standards to the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind? Check out the Bridging Differences blog on Education Week's website... an ongoing conversation between beloved teacher, principal and education thinker Deborah Meier and education historian Diane Ravitch. Beginning many months ago, Education Week brought together these thinkers from both ends of the political spectrum. The exercise has truly bridged differences. These posts are always thought-provoking, often inspiring.
May 19: Schott Foundation for Public Education releases Lost Opportunity: A 50 State Report on the Opportunity to Learn in America, a startling new state-by-state analysis of public schools according to two primary indicators: (1) an opportunity to learn index that measures the odds of access for historically disadvantaged students to enroll in a high school where nearly all students graduate on time and are college ready, and (2) a school quality indicator---the percentage of each state's 13-year-olds who score proficient or advanced on the NAEP reading exam. Besides ranking the states, Schott concludes that students of color and poor students have access to roughly half the opportunity to learn of their more advantaged peers. The Schott Foundation has been a leader in advocating that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act address unequal resources, not merely test score outcomes. The report ends with recommendations for the federal government.
April 2009: Why High Stakes Accountability Sounds Good But Doesn't Work—And Why We Keep on Doing It Anyway, a powerful new report from the Civil Rights Project by Heinrich Mintrop and Gail Sunderman, with a forward by Gary Orfield, questions whether No Child Left Behind can be made to improve public schools and particularly those that serve very poor children. The report questions the validity and workability of test-and-sanction, accountability-based school reform.
Ecumenical conference, Transforming No Child Left Behind, indicts federal law...
Read full event report of Transforming No Child Left Behind conference. Speakers collectively proclaimed seven goals for the pending reauthorization of the federal education law:
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recognize that it is immoral to demand equal outcomes on standardized tests without equalizing the resources that create the opportunity to learn;
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address the generational educational debt of poverty and segregation;
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improve vulnerable public schools and turn away from blaming teachers;
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develop the unique gifts of each child, created in the image of God, rather than worshiping standardization;
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test children only in ways that improve instruction, measure real performance, and encourage exploration, imagination, and critical thinking;
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set a visionary and at the same time workable school improvement timeline;
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address economic and social issues outside the school day that impair learning.
Important JWM Resources
- Justice and Witness Ministries' annual resource, the 2009 Message on Public Education, lifts up the importance of schools to form each whole child, created in the image of God, in contrast to the test-and-punish philosophy of the federal education law, No Child Left Behind, that has dangerously narrowed the curriculum in schools serving America's poorest children. A second key article challenges us to evaluate justice in charter schools according to values of access, equity, and public purpose. If you would like additional printed copies for discussion in your congregation, please contact Jan Resseger (216-736-3711) or ressegerj@ucc.org.
- Public Education Justice---Where Do Charter Schools Fit In? This new resource from the National Council of Churches Committee on Public Education and Literacy will help you or your congregation learn about and reflect on the role of charter schools. Are children in your congregation or your community attending charter schools? Maybe you have been asked to serve on the board of a charter school. Perhaps your congregation is considering forming a charter school. What questions should people of faith be asking to explore the role of charter schools for the common good?
- Supporting Good Public Schools, a December 2008 Witness for Justice column, explores the recent spate of attacks on teachers as a strategy of some trying to get their candidate appointed Secretary of Education.
Updated Resources speak to delayed reauthorization of No Child Left Behind Act:
For additional faith-based resources on justice concerns in the federal education law and links to important resources from others, see our Rethinking No Child Left Behind web page.
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Empowering Schools and Improving Learning, a comprehensive 2009 blueprint for overhauling the federal education law, currently called No Child Left Behind. Over 80 national organizations have signed on this plan for improving the federal education law when the law comes up for reauthorization.
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Here is our 2008 Message on Public Education.
The following web pages on our site will help you explore public school injustices that need to be addressed:
Rethinking No Child Left Behind
Graduation Gaps
Equitable State Funding
A Civil Right
The Public Good
Language and Culture
Valuing Teachers
Religious Liberty
Worship Resources
