CLICHÉ DRIVES EDUCATIONAL THINKING IN AZ

posted by Michael Chihak

Doing more with less.

That worn-out cliché is the new mantra in American society, whether in our households, businesses or governmental agencies.

There are exceptions, of course: Hedge-fund managers, wall street brokers and big bankers still do more with more because they're gambling with other people's money. But that's a topic for another day.

For most of us, austerity is the byword. It's especially evident with the start of a new school year and more new approaches in Arizona to public education.

Specifically, doing more with less. Consider that state government is providing less money per student in Arizona than it has in more than a decade while at the same time pushing greater requirements on schools along with ideas to reshape and reform public education.

Few would argue that the educational system doesn't need improvement, even wholesale reform in many aspects.

Yet we must ask if the fiscal moves will reverse our societal philosophy of more than a century’s standing that we invest in public education as part and parcel of our national fabric. Public education has claimed a high place in society and has been a key driver of economic improvement at nearly all levels.

Now come new ideas: Do more with less; do more individually and not collectively; do for yourself and let others do for themselves.

These shifts in thinking are having an impact on American society and specifically on public education.

Political leaders in Arizona are espousing ideas that would fundamentally alter the public education system by spending less and less on it, by letting individuals decide how the money for their children's education should be spent and, basically, by moving toward privatization.

Is it the right or wrong direction? That doesn’t matter, because it is the direction Arizona is headed.

Whether you agree with that move or want a public education system that stays public, you need to get in on the conversation.