I recently attended a group meeting with our state representative (a novice legislator) in a town hall setting. It was a strictly limited one-hour meeting in the middle of a weekday, scheduled and announced four days before the event, so the modest audience鈥攑erhaps 40 people鈥攚as mostly gray-haired and non-threatening. Nobody was carrying a sign.
VanderWall tried to capture the narrative thread, right out of the chute, by talking about automobile insurance for the first 15 minutes (clearly, a topic he knew well)鈥攂ut finally, someone raised their hand and broke into his monologue with a question about charter schools.
His legislative district is largely rural, with about two dozen school districts, most of which are small, some with graduating classes under 20 students. Education funding in Michigan is not based on property tax鈥攖he money follows the student to the school they choose. These are the kinds of towns and counties where a charter school pulling 100 kids out of local public districts would be devastating鈥攖o programs, to resource allocation, to community loyalty.
You鈥檇 think the legislator would know that. He lives here, after all.
But no. Vanderwall said he 鈥渦sed to think鈥� that charters could upset the public school ecology, but since he started working at the statehouse, he鈥檇 met a family whose son had some special interests that could only be met by a charter. So he鈥檇 changed his mind.
I wondered if hanging out with other legislators in his party, and being visited and feted by 鈥渃hoice鈥� lobbyists, endemic in Michigan, had anything to do with this change of heart. I wondered how many times he would tell that story鈥�"I met a family..."鈥攃ompletely unaware that he was elevating the needs of one child over the needs of an entire district filled with children whose parents were counting on the public school to meet their needs.
Can we trust policymakers to make beneficial decisions for schools? Can we rely on their deep understanding of the issues, their moral compass, their desire to craft policy for the common good?
Of course not. The system is too warped by pay-to-play interests and shallow thinkers to believe that lawmakers have the general citizenry, their constituents鈥� well-being, in mind. What they have in mind is getting re-elected. Due to strict term limits, that can only happen twice for VanderWall, before he has to start thinking about running for the state Senate, the go-to career path for state representatives who get term-limited.
Sometimes, state legislatures go completely off the rails with bills that seem, at first glance, to be well-intended. I am fascinated by what鈥檚 happening in North Carolina, as
On its face, this lowering of class size seems like a good thing, and just in the nick of time, as in high-poverty districts. But, as any school superintendent could have told the legislature, it鈥檚 not as easy as it looks.
North Carolina districts will need to come up with an And that doesn鈥檛 even cover all the new teaching spaces needed for these smaller classes. , as the new law mandates smaller classes, but no enrichment opportunities.
A temporary seems to be the current stopgap solution, turning the what-happens-now discourse into a public spat between the schools and legislature (Why did superintendents wait to tell us this was a problem?) and partisan forces on either side. Parents, meanwhile, have organized vigils to keep art, music and physical education in place.
Here鈥檚 the interesting thing: All of this was entirely predictable. If North Carolina policymakers really cared enough about the education of children in their state Teacher qualifications go down. The quality of facilities is diminished as schools scramble to find new spaces. Poor schools still lag behind, although there may be a small uptick in early childhood literacy scores.
Churn, churn, churn. Years of disruption, as school administrators try to follow state policy while keeping the best interests of their students and available resources in mind.
Most public school districts determine class size through a cooperative process between teacher associations, local boards and school leaders. Is it always ideal? No.
But inserting state laws about class size has upset the local control principle, the idea that people on site, doing the work, are best positioned to make decisions.
Here鈥檚 what I wonder: Which lobbyists and advocacy groups came up with this class size law?
What were they really aiming for: Statewide disruption? The appearance of 鈥渃aring about the kids?鈥� Better test scores for 6-year-olds? Taking power and control out of the hands of local boards and teacher unions?
What heartwarming stories about small classes were telling?
Can we trust policymakers to make beneficial decisions for schools? What do you think?