Denisha Merriweather recently wrote about her schooling experience in The Wall Street Journal. She was in fourth grade, and she hated school. She was held back twice, disliked going to school and thought she would end up as a high school dropout. She grew up with her biological mother but moved around a lot, which took a heavy toll on her grades and enthusiasm for learning. In her own words, “learning had become a nightmare — a punishment for being a child.” Denisha’s story is not a unique one. Unfortunately, there are kids in all 50 states who resent education. Some of these negative frameworks are out of the government’s control, but I would argue most of it is due to an educational system stuck in the 20th century and bogged down by bureaucracy. We all know education reform is desperately needed, but no one, especially our elected officials, is ever willing to confront the problem.
In the last 15 years, the federal government has tried to fix education but has failed miserably every time. Former President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act, but over a decade later, we have nothing to show for it. A study done by Stanford University in 2013 found if the goal of the act was to close racial achievement gaps, “There is no evidence that NCLB-style accountability has led to any substantial narrowing.” National standardized testing that creates a culture of teaching to the test has failed and will always fail.
President Barack Obama has had his own take on education reform with his Race to the Top program, which permits grants to states that adopt performance-based evaluations of teachers, embrace standards like those in Common Core and allow for the expansion of charter schools. While Race to the Top is relatively new and statistics regarding its success are scarce, many of its provisions have been tried and failed in the past. Critics from the Democracy and Education Journal contend the plan focuses on high-stakes testing and accountability with a track record of disappointment, creates a false savior in charter schools and hurts minority students.
The commonality between Bush’s and Obama’s crack at education reform is the mandates came from the federal level. How can we possibly believe that a one-size-fits-all policy from D.C. politicians and bureaucrats can magically fix all our education woes?
Let’s try something new. Since the Department of Education was created in 1979 under President Carter, we have spent more than $1.3 billion to improve test scores and children’s learning ability, but according to the National Assessment of Education Progress, test scores have flat-lined. In 1971, the reading test score for 17-year-olds was 285 out of 500. In 2012, the score was just two points higher. In 1973 the math score was 304 and only inched up to 306 in 2012. The Department of Education has proven to be a waste of money and needs to be eliminated.
But we can’t stop there. More needs to be done, including discussing teacher unions. The unions represent the greatest blockade to education reform as they focus solely upon raising members’ wages, growing membership and stopping the implementation of performance-based pay. We have all these leaders, lawyers and politicians protecting teachers, but who is protecting our kids?
At the same time, unions’ opposition to such things like performance-based pay is understandable because scores from individual students could be lowered due to problems at home. This past week, Kyle Schwartz, an elementary school teacher in Denver, had her students complete the following sentence on a notecard: “I wish my teacher knew…” Some heartbreaking responses included “Sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom is not around a lot.”
Education reform is tricky because not one person or organization has the answers. But it’s time we come together and insist our leaders make it their No. 1 priority on every level of government. It’s important for students like Denisha Merriweather, who later took advantage of Florida’s tax-credit scholarship program, went to private school and would eventually graduate from the University of West Florida. Let’s fix education so that every child, like Denisha, can love going to school.
Nick Eagle is a UF economics and political science senior. His column appears on Mondays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 4/20/2015]
