Back-to-School Opinion-Editorial for the Editor
You may tailor this op-ed to fit your district and distribute it to your local media contact list to capitalize on the media’s interest in back-to-school issues this time of year. AASA grants permission to AASA members to use and reproduce this material, in whole or in part and by any means, without charge or further permission.
Month, Day, Year
The start of the professional football season serves as an unofficial back-to-school signal. Once again the {Name of School District}, as well as thousands of public schools across the country, are a hub of activity from sunup to sundown.
This year, more than in the past, there has been a barrage of negative media attention around how America’s public schools are “failing.” These critics of public education like to assert that academic achievement is stagnant, our kids cannot compete internationally, our schools are dangerous, unhealthy places or that vouchers are the silver bullet. Those who wax nostalgic about “the good old days of education” forget that the system was an exclusionary one that discriminated against children of color or those with disabilities.
When someone laments the fact that the nation’s public education system is not what it used to be, I agree with them and say, “You’re right! And that’s a good thing!” These advocates fail to acknowledge that our nation’s public schools are much better than in the past. For example, theNational Center for Education Statistics found that public school students do as well as or better than their private school and charter school counterparts. These findings extended to students from low-income families. Among students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, public school 4th graders outperformed their charter school counterparts in reading and math.
But American public school students are not just out-performing our private and charter school students, they are leading the world. American 15-year olds in schools with fewer than 10% of kids eligible for free or cut-rate lunch score first in the world in reading, outperforming even the famously excellent Finns. U.S. schools where fewer than 25% are impoverished (by the same lunch measure) beat all 34 of the relatively affluent countries studied except South Korea and Finland (which have very few poor students). U.S. schools where 25 to 50% of students were poor still beat most other countries in reading.
And, America’s public school students are outperforming their peers twenty years ago. High school graduates are enrolling in college at record rates and dropout rates are falling. More students are taking challenging coursework like calculus, chemistry, and physics and the percentage ofpublic school graduates achieving a grade of “3” or better on the Advanced Placement exam nearly doubled in the last decade.
Our nation’s public schools are also safer, healthier places for our students. Over the last decade (from the 1999-2000 school year), the number of schools reporting an incident of violent crime fell by more than 20 percent. Student smoking and drinking rates area also down from a decade earlier.
As a public school administrator, I am committed to closing the achievement gap that still exists in our district. {Give one or two sentences as to what measures are in place to do this}. Butthere is a reason that “public” appears in public schools. Without public support there can be no public school. To accomplish this worthy goal of universal high achievementrequires the political will, the financial resources and the educational capacity todetermine how best to educate every child. School, community, business and electedleaders must commit themselves to work together in providing comprehensive nutritionand health programs, early childhood education and ongoing support for families.
Finally, we all must stay focused on the real goals of education: giving students the tools they need to succeed in life and preparing them to be good citizens—in our democracy and the world.
I urge every member of {name community} to commit to ensuring academic success for every child in this district. Come to our monthly school board meetings, volunteer in a classroom, {insert local opportunities to become involved here}. There are so many opportunities to contribute to the success of our students.
We have an exceptional generation of children in our public schools today, and theyshould expect nothing short of excellence from all of us. I am committing the publicschool system to do its part and I look forward to working with parents, business and community leaders and our elected officials in making our public school district the best it can be. Stand with me in standing up for public education.
Back to School 2012: Telling the Good News ●Sept. 2012 ●