What will save American education: funding or teacher preparation?

What is the answer for American education today? What will save American education: funding or teacher preparation? I think it is a little of both.

According to the presentation by Megan Harzar, school funding can be divided into three areas: instruction, support services, and capital outlay/expenditures. Megan described how school funding in Ohio works in the “Foundation Formula”. Ultimately, local school districts levy taxes at a rate that should provide enough revenue to fund a minimum education. Megan relayed that the state then supplements poor districts who may not reach this minimum educational level. This seems fair and adequate support to those districts who are financially struggling. However, Megan went on to say that “Foundation amounts rarely set in accordance with any realistic analysis of the actual cost of a minimum education”. What can be done?

This is where skilled professional teachers come in. Yes, teachers need to be paid sufficiently in order for them to survive, but I believe that truly gifted teachers who strive for professional success are not in it for the money. These teachers can take the minimum educational resources available to them and teach quite effectively. As I stated in previous reflections on a student’s educational success, I don’t believe that money is the overall answer to whether a poor school district will succeed academically. Society needs to change, and all the money in the world could not turn inadequate schools around. Perhaps, quality teachers and role models might help bring some of these children around. Tennessee statistician William Sanders, disputed before the metropolitan school board in Nashville, January 2001, that there was a connection between poverty and low student performance. He said, “Of all the factors we study—class size, ethnicity, location, poverty—they all pale to triviality in the face of teacher effectiveness”(Noll, 2009).

Three key points as to why teachers cannot be effective facilitators of learning were mentioned in the EdWeek article “Teacher’s Work: Addicted to Busyness” written by Kirsten Olson. They are as follows: One, “external interruptions in the classroom dramatically reduce what one writer in the field has called ‘opportunities to engage intellectually with important ideas’.” Two, reluctant learners in today’s classroom are said to be placed as the critical priority for educators. Perhaps this is due to all of the accountability pressure placed on school districts and teachers. Third, according to Dan C. Lortie in his study of the teaching profession, “most educators have almost no day-to-day socialization or support for sustained attention to or focus on their own learning.” The article focuses on the fact that the busyness and demands of accountability and performance placed on teachers has caused the profession to lose meaning and focus. This conclusion may be exactly correct.

From my own personal experience with the school I placed my children in, money is quite scarce. Teachers, instructional tools, support services, and capital outlay/expenditures are funded by a minimal tuition. The school relies on fund raising events and donations as the means to making up the difference for expenses. This might lead you to believe that we must have poor teachers who could not get a job anywhere else, but this is farthest from the truth. The teachers employed at our school have chosen this educational environment to work in because of their own values, beliefs and career choice. I guess you could say that they feel called to a higher standard, so they are willing to sacrifice for less monetary reward. According to Frederick M. Hess, in “Break the Link” from Education Next (Spring 2002), anyone without proper specified teacher training, should be prohibited from applying for a teaching job (Noll, 2009). At my children’s school, we have several teachers who are not certified to teach and who have had minimal teacher training course work. I am thrilled with their teaching abilities, and would strongly disagree with Mr. Hess’ opinions.

Of course, who wouldn’t want more money to pay teachers adequately, and have more funds for educational resources, technology and special services? However, we must first ask ourselves what is the ultimate goal of education, and what is the bare minimum we need to help educate our young.