Don't Let the Politicians Dumb Down Our Schools
The future of our
businesses depends on the quality of the current K-12 generation. We can't
afford to lower standards, as Chicago is trying to do.
EXPERT OPINION BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@HOWARDTULLMAN1
Say what you will about
the promises of new technologies, in our abundant optimism and eager enthusiasm
for the new, we often become so focused on the future that we forget the
fundamentals and the most important lessons of the past. Now's a good time to
take stock and make sure that we're putting first things first as we start the
new year. Nothing is more crucial than educating the next several generations
of our children -- and we're doing a fairly poor job of it.
Given the crush and
concerns of other problems, it's too easy to lose sight of longer-term
needs. We have to continue to deliver on the basic promises on which we've
built our country and our companies. Every major city suffers from continuing
crime and drug problems. Murders may be down statistically, but the day-to-day
robberies, muggings, and carjackings which deprive the citizenry of any feeling
of security and comfort continue to rise. In addition, we have some Northern
cities' resources being overwhelmed by the unanticipated influx of huge numbers
of migrants with little available housing or medical support for them. Finally,
and most critically, we see overloaded and underfunded K-12 education systems
in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Philadelphia that are consistently
failing to prepare students for college and viable future employment. Adding
tens of thousands of immigrants to the mix only stands to make conditions at
these schools much more difficult.
But if you think
education is hard and expensive, it's nothing compared with the ignorance we're
seeing every day in a growing portion - young and old - of the population. We
can blame Trump for the fraud and rotten messaging, but we own the problem of the
ignorance of the masses, which provides a welcoming home for the MAGA lies.
01:09
Millions of kids - the
backbone of the workforces of the next decade or two - aren't getting the kind
and quality of education that is essential to setting them up for success, both
in their careers and in their lives. And to be honest and selfish as
well, it's our businesses and institutions that will suffer alongside them as
they fail. All the tech in the world won't substitute for the well-trained,
passionate, and committed people that it takes to create and build new
businesses. Just as we need to aggressively support and promote the arts in our cities, we can't lose sight of
the other essential drivers of growth which will determine our country's future
success. And proper education tops the list for an informed electorate.
Remember: if horses could vote, there would never have been cars.
Colleges have reported
for years (even pre-pandemic) that incoming students were grossly unprepared
for the rigorous academic demands and that they required a year or more of
remediation before they could successfully manage their college experience. Employers
report that, in many cases, these education deficiencies largely persist
through the college years and result in socially promoted "graduates"
who can barely read or write basic business communications.
The only schools that
seem to be getting the job done are the private, charter, magnet, and selective
enrollment academies, which unfortunately haven't scaled. But they have
provided parents and their kids with a vision, a path, and the tools to get a
jump start on what it's going to take to compete in the global economy. These
are the experiments and the wins that we need to continue to build on and
expand in order to make sure the pipeline continues to turn out the talent we need.
But in Chicago, Mayor
Brandon Johnson has made another foul and foolish concession to his masters at
the Chicago Teachers' Union and set a horrid example for so many other cities
like New York, Detroit and Cleveland suffering from similar problems. He proudly
announced that he had set his minions at the Board of Education on a new
mission and directed them (before they are likely to be replaced next year) to
rapidly map a multi-year path toward ending of the city's charter, magnet, and
selective enrollment schools.
In a grossly
miscalculated and foolish attempt at achieving some fantasy of citywide
"equity," Johnson said he planned to emphasize the resurrection,
rehabilitation, and renewal of the city's shrinking and decrepit neighborhood
schools instead of building on the dramatic and documented record of consistent
academic achievement the selective enrollment schools have demonstrated over
the last several decades. The only true equity isn't killing the schools that
are doing a great job, it's providing even broader and more robust choices to
all the students and parents in any given city.
Johnson's plan is
apparently to lower the bar by getting rid of the best schools so that all the
students in Chicago can be equally ill-served and punished by the long-broken
public school system, which has been mismanaged and manipulated for years by the
teachers' union. This mope's foolish idea is to take steps to drag every
Chicago student down to the lowest common local denominator rather than working
to encourage the underperforming schools (and their staffs) to aspire to and
model the behaviors of the best performers. Aspirations, visions, and dreams
are just about the only things that are likely to motivate today's distracted
and disinterested students and pull their attention away from their devices.
Those extraordinary
schools like Walter Payton College Prep, Jones College Prep and Northside
College Prep in Chicago - many of which top the annual lists of the state's
best educational institutions -- offer ladders, incentives, encouragement, and
open-ended upside opportunities for students from underserved neighborhoods.
They are beloved by and sought out by thousands of conscientious parents who
were obviously not consulted about the abrupt decision to abandon these centers
of excellence along with the hopes of thousands of students and their parents
for a chance to secure a solid education for their kids and a path forward to
college.
When challenged about
previously promised opportunities for parental input, the arrogant newbie mayor
(who was a "teacher" for about four months before becoming a CTU
lobbyist) said that there was no need to consult with the parents because he "knew"
what they wanted. The fact that he knows little or nothing about almost
everything hasn't deterred him from screwing up every city program he's
attempted to change or revise. Most recently, millions of dollars were
squandered attempting to construct a tent city for migrants on property so
demonstrably toxic that Illinois's governor had to step in and shut the
knee-jerk program down before hundreds of parents and children were poisoned on
the site.
It's our job, and every
business builder and parent's obligation in whichever city they're located, to
stand up for excellence in our kids' education and demand parental choice in
the schools they attend rather than caving in and settling for mediocrity across
the board. Every school from the smallest neighborhood building to the
mega-academies in every city should move toward the best they can be and put
the kids' futures first. When I founded my first college, I stated then that
education is a business that's too important and too valuable to be left in the
hands of educators or politicians. That's still the case today.
