Sign of the Times

My wife and I went into one of the local drug stores the other day.  Immediately as you entered the store there was a table set to the side and decorated with a large sign and box placed there to solicit donations of basic school supplies for one of our large public elementary schools.  I was sick when I saw this and realized, in that instant, our priorities are terribly misaligned.  When a community has to go begging to support the care of its most valuable resource, all is not well.

I was fortunate growing up where and when I did.  I went to two different elementary schools in two different states in two vastly different socioeconomic neighborhoods. Nonetheless, both were schools where a child felt safe and well cared for. Both were schools with buses at the ready to transport us on field trips to explore our community and its resources. Both were schools with clean rooms, hot lunches, abundant art and recreational supplies, and active PTA's. And, certainly not the least in significance, both schools existed at a time when our country and economy was growing. Cars, wash machines, Levis, Jantzen knits, Schwinn bikes, Timex watches, and Converse tennis shoes were all still made in the U.S.A.  America was large and productive; a positive force among nations and the envy of most. That was then, some 45 years ago.

Now it seems as if we have very little that remains of that great wealth and vitality.  Now we are struggling to succeed with damage control as our economy slows, people are without work, and the Federal budget is enough to have disgusted any working citizen from that previous era.  Many of our legislators are clamoring for more and more cuts in order to restore a balanced budget. As a consequence, many of the hallmarks of a great society, education, healthcare, care for the aged, are beginning to fall behind, left in the dust of the stampede for fiscal reform.

Seeing a box set out in a retail space soliciting donations for a public school points to a multitude of problems.  If we can't afford to support our public schools as safe places where our children learn, grow, create, and recreate, then we need to both reassess our priorities as well as reassess our methods of caring for these valuable resources.

It may be that the dollars simply are no longer available.  I have my doubts as to the legitimacy of that argument but I'll let it pass for the moment.  What we can restore is the community's investment in that resource.  For starters, if you have a child in public school you should have two jobs:  First, you should recognize you have the responsibility to support and encourage your child in succeeding at school.  It is the most important activity for a child between 5 and 18.  The child reaches to succeed in the endeavors the parent embraces. You don't have to be smart, but your kid does and they need you to validate the importance of an education. Second, I think the time has come for parents and concerned citizens to show up at the school and pitch-in. Landscape, custodial work, classroom assistance, supervision, tutoring; these are all activities that must become shared by the students, their families, and the community. It would be nice if we had the dollars to have buildings and grounds that are beautifully kept but, for the present, we are told we do not. So we must do it as a community caring for our resources.  This country has a long heritage in neighbors helping neighbors.  It's time to resurrect and extend this ethic to the benefit of our public schools.

One last item: If you have a child in public school you should have an obligation to show up and work for the care and keeping of that school and its students. If you have a child in private, parochial, charter or home school you can stay home of you like. But your tax dollars should go nowhere other than the public school. Tax breaks and financial credits to put children anywhere other than the public school, the common school, should probably disappear as we enter this era of austerity. The great resource that is the public school deserves our every dollar and every resource in an effort to restore the institution to its proper place as the cornerstone of the development of our youth. When schools go begging, children starve and the community as a whole is dying.

We live in a community with many challenges.  In some measure it seems we have been handed more than our fair share.  But we also have an opportunity to lead in these difficult times.  There is no use in standing back, throwing up our hands, and lamenting the loss of funding. I'm certain there are numerous public, union, and liability issues which would have to be engaged and disarmed in exploring this path to nurturing community ownership of the schools but that, too, is our heritage: Determined efforts to accomplish great things in the face of difficult circumstances. In a time of failing investments, public education is an investment that cannot be left to fail