Lasting Improvements

Since the inauguration of President Barack H. Obama, the nature and structure of American education have elicited unprecedented amounts of discussion, debate, and dialogue. With the president’s policies beginning to take root, fundamental changes—most of which we support—have begun to shape our nation’s public schools and universities. Outside of the White House, however, a series of worrisome events and trends suggests that American education, even at the college and university level, is still subject to a climate of continued anti-intellectualism and a widespread distrust of the student enterprise.

In a general sense, we support the core of President Obama’s education initiatives: heavy on spending and tough on teachers. Specifically, we were pleased with his allocation of $4.35 billion to the “Race to the Top” initiative that gives states an immediate monetary incentive to monetary incentive to reform dilapidated public schools. As part of the broader American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Race to the Top—a small fraction of the total $96.8 billion allocated to the Department of Education under the stimulus package—is a wise investment. The program counters the influence of unions and defers to the longstanding autonomy of local school boards in order to implement policies those boards consider worthwhile. The program also introduces a bit of competition into the equation, as grants will only be awarded to a small percentage of the states that apply—a condition that can only benefit students as states attempt to find innovative ways to out-reform one another. So much for the charges of socialism so commonly hurled at Obama’s Washington.

In turn, our views on education at the national level have informed our opinions on the issues that confront local Boston schools. In April, for instance, when Superintendent Carol R. Johnson announced a bold plan to revamp 12 underperforming schools, we initially considered her proposal to be counterproductive; It essentially requires teachers to work extra hours without extra pay. Of greater importance, however, we ultimately believe that following union demands to eliminate all the reform measures would fail to improve the quality of teaching in Boston. In the coming months, we urge the Boston public school system to focus instead on implementing Johnson’s suggested pay-for-performance plan that—we hope—will show teachers that their performance is valued on an individual level, encouraging them to focus on improving their own work as best they can.

Looking beyond the implementation of the president’s policies, however, several troubling occurrences within the world of education this year have roused far too little attention. In Utah, for instance, a senator faced with the understandably daunting task of closing Utah’s large budget gap proposed making 12th grade optional in order to save the state around $60 million. Although we understand the magnitude of the financial pressures confronting Utah and other states, making the final year of high school nonobligatory sends the wrong message. It further devalues schooling in an age when public opinion has come to doubt the value of education qua education. Despite the necessity of budget cuts in a time of fiscal difficulty, the field of education should be protected at all costs.

On a related note, we were also concerned to learn that the University of the Pacific’s Distinctive Candidate Application affords students the opportunity to apply to college using a pre-filled application with no essay or candidate profile requirement. Again, in an age when the budget crisis has only fanned the flames of anti-intellectualism in the United States, this method of applying to institutions of higher education is disturbingly detached. After all, is a signature the only item an admissions office needs to cast a value judgment on a candidate? For the same reasons, the new practice of outsourcing higher-education grading to companies based in Malaysia and India is troubling; the imperfections in a student’s paper cannot be fixed like a technological glitch. These trends serve as additional evidence that the increasing commoditization and impersonality of education cannot be ignored.

Another issue faced the world of higher education this year in the form of unpaid internships. All too often, students must work without compensation in order to gain entry-level positions in various job fields, and we feel that this practice goes against the ideal of fairness by which employers should abide. After all, only a certain percentage of the population can afford to do an unpaid internship, perpetuating inequality. To best remedy this, we feel that the United States should eliminate unpaid internships altogether, except for those at non-profit organizations.

Finally, we were appalled to learn that local police devalued the work of our colleagues at James Madison University’s student newspaper, The Breeze. Allegedly, 926 photographs were confiscated from its newsroom to be used as evidence for a campus riot, an action that violated the integrity and independence of these journalists. Regrettably, we felt it necessary to reiterate the idea that student newspapers are respectable journalism outlets and should receive the coverage of the Privacy Protection Act of 1980. By the same token, we also regret that national newspapers have relaxed their coverage of higher education. This leaves colleges and universities responsible for publicizing their own achievements and findings to the world at large. In an age when education is so frequently discussed but also undervalued, unbiased and widely distributed reporting on these is issues should be a priority.