A teacher's union organizer and an education reform lobbyist sparred last night in a wide-ranging discussion about the future of the American education system. The speakers, both Democrats, differed primarily over whether reforms should focus on improving the current system or expanding the use of charter schools.
Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, advocated greater flexibility and spoke against powerful interest groups that oppose major changes.
"There was a notion if you supported anything other than the status quo, than investing in the system as it is, you couldn't be a Democrat," Williams said. "The teachers unions are telling us not to have these conversations."
Patrick Crowley, assistant executive director of the Rhode Island National Education Association, argued that teachers are not the enemies and should not be blamed for systematic problems.
"It's not summers off and getting out at two o'clock," Crowley said. "The enemy is a lot of the policies that the people in power have always used."
The discussion, which was sponsored by the Department of Education, the Brown Democrats and Students for Education Reform, came ahead of a pending $800-billion federal stimulus package that will allocate billions of dollars to education projects across the country. Both speakers said they are hopeful that President Obama will bring positive change to the education system, but described a litany of contradicting views and opinions on what types of reforms are needed and which will be successful.
"Pick a study and I'll show one that says the opposite," Crowley said, in reference to federal and private studies of various types of charter schools. "Veteran teachers will tell you, every five years there's the next big thing. They're the ones that are still there."
Williams said the current system needs to be adjusted to provide good teachers with incentives, whether higher pay or greater choice, to take on difficult positions in the nation's worst schools.
"Those schools that nobody wants to teach in are the ones that get teachers straight out of education school," Williams said. "We should create an incentive system that allows teachers that are up for a challenge to go."
Crowley said incentive systems were unrealistic - no system exists to properly evaluate and reward good teachers - and shifting the most well-regarded teachers to the nation's worst schools will only exacerbate problems.
"Those teachers don't stay," he said. "It's always a white teacher and always brown kids. It's a TV movie of the week, and Hallmark doesn't get to set education policy."
Both speakers agreed that great inequalities exist under the current system and that the Democratic Party needs to be an advocate for serious changes.
"We should take the federal stimulus money and rethink how we fund education," Crowley said.
