Marcy Stamper of the Methow Valley News wrote a thoughtful article this week about the change in PTA leadership. Believe me, it was a complex story to pick up, and she did a good job presenting both sides of the issue.
I wanted to write a more personal article about why I’m leaving the PTA, what I learned and the challenges ahead. It is something that has consumed me the past two weeks. Even as I wanted to write other articles, my mind reverberated back to this. So, here is where I must go.
Education has long been a passion of mine. I was interested in a teacher strike in my elementary school. I didn’t have the depth of knowledge of how schools operated, but I was interested in how things worked. I was an observer.
When I came across an article on education, I read it. If it came up on a news cast, I didn’t change the channel. If it was on the radio, I didn’t take my key out of the ignition until the report was over.
There was no way I wanted to be a teacher. I saw first-hand the jealousy that results when one teacher produces better results than another. It puts pressure on other teachers to perform, and most teachers don’t like it. As a result, some of the most gifted teachers leave the public system for private schools where they get less pay and benefits, but where they feel more supported.
There is another systemic problem with education that has grown more and more obvious. Education is stuck in a 19th century model that does not meet the demands of a 21st century market economy. We know, for example, that math, science and engineering are gateways to socio-economic mobility. I saw this first-hand when I worked in a tax office that completed thousands of returns each year. I saw graduates right out of college make six-digit salaries, and those salaries increased with each decade of work. Moreover, companies in our own backyard couldn’t find enough of them. We handled returns for many clients with H-1B visas, and it hurt watching young adults wipe tables for foreign workers that were simply better prepared for a 21st century economy.
If we truly care about our youth and how they can afford housing in an area as expensive as the Methow Valley, we need to consider pathways to make that a reality, and we need to be up front and honest about it.
There is another end of the spectrum- vocations that are so specialized that they ignore broader educational metrics. I’ll give you an example. My daughter, who is in 7th grade, is taking Geometry II and Algebra I this year. It doesn’t come easy. She works at it. She told me she wants to be a baker. She loves baking. Her eyes light up and she gets as excited as if it were Christmas Day.
“And you’re still going to know math,” I told her.
Too often we set tracks for kids. If they’re on a vocational track, maybe they don’t need to know all the core subjects that those on the college bound track study.
I believe this is an abrogation of duty.
We have an obligation, as citizens and community members, to give these kids all the tools they need to be successful in life, whatever path they choose. That means knowing math without having to take remedial math post-graduation. That means knowing history, science, literature and the ability to communicate articulately in speaking and writing. There shouldn’t be a “track” for one set of students. These are skills that make us good citizens.
Washington State PTA’s 2024 voter guide, in a section entitled, Ensuring Graduation with a Meaningful High School Diploma, states “today and in the future more than 70% of Washington State jobs will require a post-secondary credential.”
Instead, our latest LBHS test scores on three core academic subjects: English Language Arts, Math and Science show results like these.
Foundational grade level knowledge, which our superintendent likes to promote, is out of touch with the realities of our economy now and in the future.
When School Board Director Judith Hardmeyer-Wright told me that test scores don’t matter, that a teacher’s evaluation is sufficient, it brought up another issue I encountered in my educational journey- most teachers have never left the school system. They graduated college or graduate school and went right back into the school system. For the most part, they never held a job that didn’t have substantial job security, guaranteed pensions or hired people that defended their interests. They don’t see what the 21st century calls for, and that is why we have a public educational system that is largely stuck in the 19th century.
We shouldn’t be elitist about academics. It would be phenomenal if all teachers would set an expectation, beginning in elementary school, that “our group will spend 9 months together in this classroom. Some of the curriculum may be hard and some may learn it faster than others, but we are all going to learn it. If one of you learns it faster than another, help your classmate so that we can all learn it together.”
That would turn a lot of things upside down, including segregating expectations for students by race or class or allowing prejudiced thinking about students’ abilities. Our schools have what they need. They have food, they have teachers, they have paraeducators, and they even have willing volunteers. Let’s close the deal.
But that would take leadership.
The school system is where it is for some of the reasons explained, but where is the PTA?
The PTA was founded to support children’s learning in the classroom through things like child-labor laws and free or affordable school lunches. The PTA continues to be a buttress, so to speak, to schools, supporting volunteering, extra-curricular activities, and school pride. Most of the PTAs I encountered as president of our local PTA work on fundraising. But throwing more money into a school system that is foundationally cracked isn’t going to help anyone except the adults who rely on that structure to continue. None of that financial investment is being passed down to students if they aren’t performing. We need to ask ourselves- does the school exist for the students or for the adults?
Volunteering alone isn’t going to help hundreds of students achieve college-readiness in core subjects (regardless of their paths.) Fundraising isn’t going to do much for a school budget that is $17.8 million this year with little to no oversight from the community that pays for it. “Support our schools” in essence means “don’t hold us accountable, don’t ask any questions, and give us more money.” This has been going on for decades.
Superintendent Tom Venable recently relayed his concern to the school board about the state operating budget for education falling below 50%. Public school students make up about 13% of the state’s population. Why is it so shocking for the state’s operating budget for 13% of the population to fall below 50%? Are we supporting education, or the system around education? Mr. Venable has declined to address the question.
Instead of looking at the root of the problem, the Washington State PTA looks at band-aids like “fully funding” education. Even when it was “fully funded,” what were we getting? The United States habitually falls behind other industrialized countries on tests of core subjects. With regard to our state tests, Hardmeyer-Wright told me some kids are nervous about taking them so they shouldn’t be forced to take them. This is very different from my educational experience, where testing was a requirement, not an option. Lots of kids were nervous. So what? When will we stop coddling and actually help students succeed?
In Washington State PTA’s latest legislative report, it feels like Groundhog Day. Legislative issues the PTA will be voting on in October include reducing gun violence; addressing the student mental health crisis; funding, inclusion, and support in special education; and more spending on education. As a local PTA, our core group was interested in what was behind these issues.
In a section on mental health, the legislative report doesn’t mince words: “Children and young people in our country are experiencing a mental health crisis,” followed by “Student mental health is a genuine emergency, and it is time we make this a definitive priority for our state.”
I agree. Perhaps we could start with what’s fueling this crisis.
Could our sex ed curriculum, which tells our youngest students that they can be anything they want, including another sex, have an impact on a vulnerable child’s mental health? Could telling 14-year-old girls that abstinence is something you can return to, sex is simply public health, just make sure to do it safely, contribute to mental health flair ups that result from inevitable break ups and bruised feelings? Do we have a curriculum that prepares students emotionally for what happens in a relationship? Is it okay to tell minors they can engage in adult behavior as long as they give consent when, as minors, they cannot legally even sign a contract? Does it make sense that Room One, which provides teachers for the sex ed curriculum, has a revolving door for kids seeking public health services such as contraceptives and abortions?
If the goal is for kids to have successful and meaningful lives after graduation instead of going to Room One, we currently have curriculum that hampers it.
Most groundbreaking of all, it wouldn’t cost hardly any money to change the curriculum.
Unfortunately, I don’t see leadership on this issue within our current school system. LBHS Principal Elyse Darwood did say during a recent school board hearing that she wants to change the culture of the school with regard to standardized testing, but there needs to be more involvement than this to turn the school around.
A wing of the PTA will continue with the parts the PTA is good at- volunteering and fundraising. Another wing has formed their own group to address the root causes of these systemic problems. A name for this group has not been adopted yet, but the next meeting will be Sunday, Sept. 22 at 12:45 pm in Lehman Hall inside Cascade Bible Church. If you are interested in these topics, please attend.
A presentation on our middle school’s sex-ed curriculum will be held in Fellowship Hall at Cascade Bible Church on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 6 pm. Three community members dug into the curriculum and will report their findings, 20 minutes for each grade, one hour total presentation, with the rest for questions and answers. Due to the graphic nature of some of the material, children are not advised.
