Dear President Obama:
I mean this with all respect. I鈥檓 on my knees here, and there鈥檚 a knife in my back, and the prints on it kinda match yours. I think you don鈥檛 get it.
Your Race to the Top is killing the wrong guys. You鈥檙e hitting the good guys with friendly fire. I鈥檓 teaching in a barrio in California. I had 32 kids in my class last year. I love them to tears. They鈥檙e 5th graders. That means they鈥檙e 10 years old, mostly. Six of them were 11 because they were retained. Five more were in special education, and two more should have been. I stopped using the word 鈥減arents鈥� with my kids because so many of them don鈥檛 have them. Amanda鈥檚 mom died in October. She lives with her 30-year-old brother. (A thousand blessings on him.) Seven kids live with their 鈥淕rams,鈥� six with their dads. A few rotate between parents. So 鈥減arents鈥� is out as a descriptor.
Here鈥檚 the kicker: Fifty percent of my students have set foot in a jail or prison to visit a family member.
For another commentary on Race to the Top, read 鈥淎n Open Message to President Barack Obama.鈥�
Do you and your secretary of education, Arne Duncan, understand the significance of that? I鈥檓 afraid not. It鈥檚 not bad teaching that got things to the current state of affairs. It鈥檚 pure, raw poverty. We don鈥檛 teach in failing schools. We teach in failing communities. It鈥檚 called the ZIP Code Quandary. If the kids live in a wealthy ZIP code, they have high scores; if they live in a ZIP code that鈥檚 entombed with poverty, guess how they do?
We also have massive teacher turnover at my school. Now, we have no money. We haven鈥檛 had an art or music teacher in 10 years. We have a nurse twice a week. And because of the No Child Left Behind Act, struggling public schools like mine are held to impossible standards and punished brutally when they don鈥檛 meet them. Did you know that 100 percent of our students have to be on grade level, or else we could face oversight by an outside agency? That鈥檚 like saying you have to achieve 100 percent of your policy objectives every year.
It's not bad teaching that got things to the current state of affairs. It's pure, raw poverty.
You lived in Indonesia, so you know what conditions are like in the rest of the world. President Obama, I swear that conditions in my school are akin to those in the third world. We had a test when I taught in the Peace Corps. We had to describe a glass filled to the middle. (We were supposed to say it was half full.) Too many of my kids don鈥檛 even have the glass!
Next, gangs. Gangs eat my kids, their parents, and the neighborhood. One of my former students stuffed an AK47 down his pants at a local bank and was shot dead by the police. Another one of my favorites has been incarcerated since he was 13. He鈥檒l be 27 in November. I鈥檝e been writing to him for 10 years and visiting him in the maximum-security section of Salinas Valley State Prison. He鈥檚 a major gangster.
Do you get that it鈥檚 tough here? Charter schools and voucher schools aren鈥檛 the solution. They are an excuse not to fix the real issues. You promised us so much. And you want to give us merit pay? Anyway, I think we really need to talk. Oh, and can you pull the knife out while you鈥檙e standing behind me? It really hurts.
Sincerely yours,
Paul Karrer
