Before speaking to the Chicago City Club (the movers and shakers), CTU (Chicago Teachers Union) President Karen Lewis was asked: “Instead of corporate meddling, would you prefer that corporations sit on the sidelines and not try to help our schools get better?”
Karen replied with these words: “I don’t think they should sit on the sidelines. I think they should do what they do when they give money to the Lyric Opera. I don’t believe they go to the Lyric Opera, give money and then go tell the singers how to sing. I don’t believe they do that. So give your money –where’s Andrew Carnegie when you need him?– give your money and walk away, Buddies. Ya know, just leave it alone. When you don’t know something, don’t dilettante your way into it.”
Right on. It reminded me of a meeting I spoke at maybe 20 years ago with several business leaders in NYC. When asked what I thought business could do for pubic education, I replied. “Pay their taxes.”
That’s the short answer, even though I appreciated many small and a few big Foundation grants that helped “us” in the 60s, 70s and 80s. They came with some strings, but we found enough generous wealthy people to help us experiment with new ideas: teacher centers throughout the city for generating ideas and spreading good practice, school community service when it was a new idea, visits to college campuses when it an seemed absurd luxury for East Harlem 7th-11th graders, subsidizing staff retreats, making it possible for teams of teachers and parents to go to interesting conferences together, paying a researcher to do a 5 and then 10 year follow-up study of our graduates, etc. Not to mention Annenberg’s huge grant to experiment with a form of decentralization tied to accountability—which a new chancellor then turned down.
But 99% of our funds came from tax payers’ dollars. And should. And if rich people individuals and corporations would pay their fair taxes we could survive with less foundation-directed “experiments” and more experimentation that comes from the “bottom”—from parents and teachers designing and implementing the ideas that engage their minds and energies, with only broad public oversight with regards to financial responsibility, the promotion of greater equity and health and safety.
For Karen Lewis’ whole speech http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/11/lets-be-thankful-for-karen-lewis-hear.html
Filed under: 2012 Posts | 2 Comments »
Deborah Meier on Education 