Poverty Underlies Education System’s Shortcomings
Here’s a letter to the editor in The Hill by Diann Woodard, president of the School Administrators (AFSA), the only national education union representing principals, assistant principals and school administrators.
The failure of our education system lies not within the walls of the public schools that serve children in crisis, but with the policymakers and policies in place that ignore the fundamental causes of low student achievement: unfair funding formulas, poverty and unproven education policies (“For America’s children, education outlook grows only dimmer,” Jan. 23, by Juan Williams).
Families are increasingly falling into poverty, experiencing a lack of housing and unable to provide adequate health care and nutrition for their children. These children need increased services, yet often do not receive them because of budget cuts, bureaucratic hurdles and gross inequities in state and local funding formulas.
Public schools welcome these children, for our doors are open to all. We do not hand-select the brightest, the ones with involved parents, or the students who will make us look good on half-hour media specials. Their time at school might provide their only stable environment, and we provide it with only a fraction of resources afforded to more affluent districts and private schools.
African American Delegation Arriving Now in Alabama
Brenda Loya in AFL-CIO Media Affairs sends us this from Alabama, where she will report on the delegation of African American labor and civil rights leaders as they investigate Alabama’s recently passed anti-immigrant law. Follow the delegation here.
With the passage of H.B. 56, Alabama has taken a huge step backward, into the 1950s. Today, an African American delegation of labor and civil rights leaders traveled to Birmingham, Ala., to help shed a light on what is seen as one of the harshest immigration laws in the country and how it invokes inhumanity reminiscent of the Jim Crow South.
The delegation will investigate first-hand the impact of Alabama’s H.B. 56 on the lives of Latino working families. National, state and local leaders will hear from the families directly impacted by the law, document the impact of the law on Latino communities, acquire a better understanding of the civil rights implications of the legislation and assess the impact of the law on workers and businesses.
Cooperation, Not Condemnation, Is Key to Improving Schools
Imposing a one-size-fits-all “business model of performance on our schools…is as ill advised as it is ill suited for solving the problems we confront,” says School Administrators President (AFSA) Diann Woodard.
In a recent Huffington Post column, Woodard says management techniques that amount to telling us, “Get in line and march,” are not the answer to improving the nation’s schools and student performance.
Approaches like these aren’t turnaround plans; they simply turn a blind eye to the reality educators must confront, especially in communities where poverty and crime are more pervasive.
Rather than glib condemnations, what’s needed is a new spirit of cooperation, one in which all the stakeholders in public education—especially school administrators—are consulted on solutions rather than being targeted for vilification.
Read her entire column here.
Woodard Tapped to Lead School Administrators
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Diann Woodard is the new president of the School Administrators (AFSA). She was elected last week by delegates to the union’s constitutional convention, in Washington, D.C.
Woodard becomes the sixth AFSA president and succeeds Jill Levy, who held the post since 2006. AFSA represents more than 20,000 school principals, assistant principals and other supervisors and education professionals in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Woodard says the union’s main goal is improving wages, hours and working conditions.
We want to gain the right to collectively bargain for those who do not have it. And we want to improve the contracts for those affiliates who have contracts…we want to help train leaders so that they can build and maintain strong local unions.
For the past three years, Woodard was the union’s executive vice president and has served as AFSA secretary-treasurer. The former assistant principal at two Detroit high schools says she first learned about unions and workers rights’ growing up in a UAW family in Michigan.
Educators Praise Obama’s Choice of Duncan as Ed. Secretary
The leaders of education unions today praised President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Arne Duncan, superintendent of the Chicago school system, as education secretary in the new administration. AFT President Randi Weingarten, Jill Levy, president of the School Administrators (AFSA), and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel said Duncan has shown genuine commitment to the key priorities for an incoming education secretary.
In a statement, Weingarten says:
There may be times when we will differ, but we believe we will agree fully that America’s students and teachers need an education secretary committed to focusing on real solutions for closing the achievement gap and providing every child with a rigorous, well-rounded education that prepares him or her for college, work and life.
