I predict that we will soon see a dramatic shift in education away from national and state control towards local control. Over the last 40 years, big government has taken over education. This has caused teachers to lose their voice. Teachers used to develop lesson plans and decide what and how students would learn. Then federal and state standards began to encroach and dictate the curriculum. Laws like No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) have ushered in programs like Common Core and Social Emotional Learning (SEL). Teachers continued to lose control. Today, the MICIP system is being implemented by the State of Michigan. Although MICIP strives to take even more control away from teachers and parents, it won’t be long until teachers and parents regain control of the school system. It’s already starting to happen.
In Virginia, Glen Younkin ran for governor on a parental rights platform and won. Just over the bridge in Spring Lake, parents voiced their concerns over sexually explicit content available to children in the school library. In the end, the board voted in favor of parental rights. Spring Lake parents spoke up and were effective. Although there is a nationwide power struggle for the control of the educational system, the momentum is swinging in favor of local communities. This will allow parents to have a say in their child’s education and enable teachers to make the educational decisions for which they were trained.
As big government has taken over education, school boards and school administrators have learned to answer to that government, rather than their communities. After all, these government entities provide a significant portion of the budget. The two charts below show the revenues for GHAPS from the school year 2021-22 (top) and 2022-23 school year (bottom). While approximately $17 million was generated from local tax payers, approximately $49 million came from state and federal funds in 2021-22, and further increased to $55 million one year later. Reading these numbers, it is obvious who is in charge of education.
This shift in education has not gone unnoticed by teachers. The 2018-19 Staff Perception Survey asked teachers what barriers they saw that prevented them from being more collaborative with course and grade level colleagues. The answers teachers gave to this question show the impact big government has had in the classroom. Overall, the answers show teachers lack autonomy and have a frustration with the centralized control of education. Seven teachers responded that their colleagues were unwilling to collaborate. Other responses included teachers not getting to choose what is meaningful, an unwillingness to make any “real” changes to benefit students, and too many pressures from curriculum expectations… balancing, planning, and analyzing data, not being allowed to be involved in team meetings or team decisions, not being invited to content area meetings, and personal agendas from other colleagues that may not be best practice and/or what is best for kids.
In Grand Haven the shift in control of the education system seems to have resulted in nearly all grade/subject level curriculum being selected by a curriculum director who is advised by committees comprised of teachers. The committees are often hand-selected and teachers who are not invited to serve on these committees ultimately have little say in the curriculum they are expected to teach. Here are some specific comments from the 2021-22 Staff Perception Survey that show this feeling from GHAPS teachers.
“We can spend thousands bringing in outside help, or elevate and empower teachers in our district to share what we are doing well. I know NOTHING of what colleagues outside of my department are doing to impact student success and culture building.”
“I feel very connected in my building. I feel there is disconnect between buildings, and the ESC is not present in our building.”
“I think our leadership at the ESC needs to be a bigger presence at our buildings and with our staff and students. We need to build relational trust between leadership members and those who do the work with kids and families.”
Although State Standards, Common Core, and the MICIP System have all resulted in reduced local control of education and increased state and national control of education it won’t be long until this trend is reversed. Parents and teachers will soon have their voices back.