I think we’re fiddling while Rome is burning. I think we are not doing anything about the way-too-large percentage of Americans who aren’t even graduating from high school. And never mind a diploma — some recent literacy statistics indicate that more than 20% of Americans have real functional literacy problems.

It’s a matter of national security and prosperity that we fix this. We cannot afford to carry up to 1/4 of our population on everyone else’s back and expect to maintain our competitiveness or to continue to innovate our technology.

Neither can we continue to blame parents, families, teachers or students for the failure of this percentage of the population to attain a basic level of education. It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. It’s not working the way we’re doing it now. We have to do something different.*

We have to spend some real resources on dramatically improving our educational system. We can’t afford to let anyone else fall behind what seems to me to be a low standard in the first place. Honestly, I can’t figure out how the current high school diploma qualifies you to do a whole lot. Don’t all jobs beyond running a cash register require some kind of additional training, if not college? I think we’re really woefully lacking in technical training and literacy around here. We’re not giving students the math and science they need, the computer technical literacy that progress requires. We are not training our citizens to lead. We cannot allow people to fail any longer. On the left side of the aisle, people like to blame circumstances for educational problems….poverty, for instance. On the right, they’re more likely to blame the individual, the schools and the parents. I reject all of that. I want to hear people saying, it doesn’t matter why you haven’t succeeded before, but it’s our job to help you get there, Susie Student and Larry Learner.

I tend to think a lot about literacy and computer skills because I’m in that industry. But honestly, I think the energy issues we’re facing are just as critical. We have to be serious about creating sustainable energy sources that can power an ongoing technology revolution. It’s going to require a more educated citizenry and a government that supports research and investment in innovation.

We can all see what we’re doing instead. If you want to spend your time bickering about health care or Social Security or earmarks, well, I guess you can go ahead. But I think you’re missing the point. We have to change the game, because shuffling the pieces on the existing board leaves us losers. “Fixing” health care doesn’t fix the bigger problems. And dramatically cutting government spending may warm the hearts of fiscal conservatives, but it’s knee-jerk, not well-planned.

*Please don’t misunderstand. I am not intending to criticize anyone in the education field. I think our problem is much higher up the food chain. We’ve thrown scraps at educators for decades and blamed them for failing to produce a feast. We have to dramatically change the way we as a country prioritize education.

Photo credit: Truthout.org

So much so that for years, I’ve taunted friends who moved to Williamson County when their kids turned 5. [It's a real phenomenon.] Talked about how white-bread our southern neighbor is. How these friends were giving up, taking the easy way out.

Yet now, I am trying hard to figure out a good reason to stay in Davidson County, and I’m having trouble coming up with one. I’m just going to put this out there in hopes that you can help. Tell me where I’m wrong.

No one would argue that our education spending is anemic. In fact, it’s pretty good. But we have a student population with significant challenges in our county’s public schools, challenges which require greater funding. We have a high English language learner population. The poverty rate among Davidson County public schoolchildren is dramatically higher than the county’s rate, because so many middle and upper class families aren’t in the public schools. Last year’s budget woes eliminated real classroom teachers, not just theoretical teaching positions. While I am sometimes encouraged by Dr. Register’s work, I see too many daily examples of poor decisionmaking in the Metro schools to remain heartened for long. And, I have a 5th grader, a 4yo and a 6 month old. So this remains my personal problem for at least 18 more years.

Right now, my family lives 1 1/2 blocks outside [OK I'm biased; the 10yo is a proud graduate] of the best elementary school zone in Davidson County. We were in the zone when I bought the house — that’s why I bought it. Zone changed the next year. I am not even remotely comfortable with what I’m hearing or reading about the school we are zoned for, though I do still need to check it out in person.

A larger problem is that our family is too big for our house. Our 3 kids are spaced just so in gender and age that it would really be best for each to have his or her own bedroom. And in our hip, urban neighborhood, homes with 4 bedrooms are still awfully expensive, even in this economy. For several years now, you’ve been able to get more house for your money in certain parts of Green Hills and definitely in Bellevue, and that’s still the case.

And so for a while, I thought we’d just have to move to the southwestern part of the county. It’s not hip nor nearly so urban, but still not too far out, and we’d get the house our family needed. In a good school district.

But lately? I am trying to wrap my head around it, but I think it makes more sense to move to Brentwood. Here’s why:
* Good schools. Period.
* Good housing value for the dollar is available in some parts of northern Williamson County.
* I don’t hear any bitching in Williamson County about spending on parks and schools. From the outside, those “amenities” of the community seem to be highly valued by a large part of the population.
* They aren’t talking about mortgaging the city or county’s future on a convention center that is difficult to demonstrate the concrete value of. No doubt making it even more difficult to spend on parks and schools in the future than it is now.

There are some downsides, for sure. I’ll be a political minority, but I get along with most everyone. I do know all my elected officials here, and that is nice, but when the awfully smart folks I vote for aren’t able to stop these fool-headed actions by others, I guess that’s not doing me a lot of good, is it?

Sorry if I sound kind of depressed about this. I’m not really — I’m annoyed. Annoyed that housing prices are so high in this neighborhood I love. [It's happened since the local school opened and was immediately so wonderful.] Annoyed that our Metro government is so obsessed with this convention center. Annoyed that my realistic choice is moving so far away.

Most importantly, this 20-minute video of Geoffrey Canada, president of the Harlem Children’s Zone, talks about how we must think about these issues in new ways. Why the same kind of thinking that created these problems won’t fix them. And where to begin.

Video of Geoffrey Canada is from the 2006 Gel Conference.

I believe wholeheartedly in the concept of public education — that we should be educating everyone to the best of their abilities, and that part of the education is learning about people who aren’t just like you. Nashville has so many private schools it’s crazy [again, another story], but in most of the ones I know, you won’t find much diversity. In the few [typically either the really expensive or the really cheap ones] that do have diversity, you find ethnic/cultural diversity but not socioeconomic diversity, though that’s not universally true.

I continue to believe what I learned growing up in a public school system, though. My county had two high schools, one large one covering most of the county [which I attended] and one small, covering one small town. My high school was about as ethnically and economically mixed as you can be in a small rural county. I came from an upper middle class home — my dad owned a business in town — and I went to school with a few kids far wealthier than I, and many other middle class kids, and lots of poor kids. About half the kids were black, half white. A few kids from other ethnic backgrounds. Mostly but not all Christian.

And I learned far more than math, science, literature and history. I learned a lot about how poverty affects people. Had I gone to a private school in the next county over, I could have easily lived my entire childhood in a small town without really seeing poverty close up. Instead, I went to school with kids who didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing. I remember my shock at learning about a classmate’s humble living conditions, and how it changed my perspective on her.

Well I could ramble on all day about that sort of thing, but the main point is, I think having a great public education system makes it easier for us to understand each other — never mind the benefits of an educated citizenry and workforce.

But when an educational system isn’t actually educating — well, that’s a problem, no? When the 9yo was ready for kindergarten, we looked seriously at several private schools, unwilling to sacrifice her education for our principles. But we were lucky to have a wonderful, new public school open in our own neighborhood that year. She’s been well educated the past several years in a warm, loving environment, surrounded by kids from most any ethnic and economic background you could name. Absolute perfection.

Would that I could say the same for the rest of the Metro schools. Test scores are abysmal in much of our public system, but particularly in several of our large high schools. Speaking of large, our high schools tend toward the enormous side. Never mind large class sizes — when you put 2000 students together in one building, it makes it very difficult to serve the needs of individual students.

I believe many of the problems of the Nashville schools to be the result of years of disinterest on the part of the middle and upper classes. Nashville itself has around a 13% poverty rate. Nashville public schools have 70% of their students on free or reduced lunch. Even if we accept that the Census definition for poverty is a somewhat different measure than qualifications for free/reduced lunch, the disparity is clear. Our public schools today are largely educating only the poor. And they have the political clout and resources that go along with that.

Not to say they don’t have money. The school budget for the current year is $621 million, out of a $1.6 billion Metro budget — almost 40% of what Nashville government spends. In 2006, the Census reports that Tennessee school districts on the whole spent about $6,900 per pupil — 48th in the nation in per-pupil spending. In the current year, Nashville is spending more than $8000 a student — much closer to the national average than the rest of the state.

Now, I can tell you all kinds of reasons why I think we should be spending even more, but I think we could also be doing much better with what we have. I’m most disappointed in the lack of leadership from our school administration and our school board over the past few years. Here’s what I’m waiting to see:

• A plan that will ensure each student is prepared for the college of his or her choice. I heard a magnet school principal earlier this year explain that she was working to prepare students for Tennessee’s public universities. No offense to our public universities — but if our magnet schools aren’t encouraging their students to shoot for Ivy League and Ivy-League quality public universities, what the hell is going on? Today, finances will certain dictate most college applications, but if you’re qualified to attend a top school, you are on a better path for success no matter what school you actually attend. The admission requirements for Tennessee’s public universities just aren’t that rigorous, folks.
• A plan that will ensure kids who don’t want to attend college are ready for technical and career training to help them succeed in the information economy.
• A plan to ensure parental and community involvement in every school in Davidson County. Many kids can see for themselves that no one cares if they succeed or drop out.

What is our school board doing? I’m not really sure. There’s a lot of focus on hiring a new director. I think part of the problem is the school board works on a policy governance model — meaning, they approve new policies and set goals but don’t actually do anything about day-to-day running of the schools. That’s the director’s job. While I agree that in general, this may be a sound operating principle for a board, I see the Metro school board often hiding behind this paradigm in practice. It seems to me that the way the Nashville school board views policy governance, it’s easy to shuffle responsibility from one party to another.

I want someone to stand up and take responsibility for the students in this district, and for giving the community a reason to support the schools. If our city continues to believe our schools are failing, they most certainly will continue to fail.

First, take note of these items:

• Read Metro’s proposed policy (PDF). It’s six pages long and very specific.
• Standard attire has been well researched by academics following recognized research practices. Unfortunately, in its report to the board, the SSA committee appointed by Metro misrepresented the results of Dr. David Brunsma’s study. Brunsma’s study proves that standard attire has no effect on achievement or behavior (PDF).
• Metro has made a big deal out of its parent survey related to SSA. The SSA committee–and several board members–are placing faulty significance on the results of this telephone survey. The survey was completed BEFORE Metro’s committee released the actual policy. Not one person voted for the proposed policy, since it wasn’t out yet. So don’t believe anyone who tells you that a majority of parents are in favor of the policy.
• Finally, the Tennessee ACLU completed a legal analysis (PDF) of the proposed policy. The policy opens Metro up to several litigation liabilities.

None of this makes any sense. Our Metro Board of Education is considering implementation of a policy that’s already been proven to have no impact on education or student behavior. Why?

I know it’s not because some in the community would rather see students dressed neatly than teach them to read. ["Look, all dressed alike! They're all so cute."]

I know it’s not because anyone really thinks wearing a polo and khakis will stop a student from bringing a weapon to school. ["Oops! No more hoodies....wherever will I hide my handgun??"]

Certainly it’s not because banning jeans will stop kids from teasing and bullying. ["I used to make fun of you, but now that we're both wearing khakis, let's just be friends."]

Perhaps it is because, even subconsciously, implementing this policy can make us feel successful as a community.

And perhaps it is because we can. Adults can often impose their will on children. However, I don’t see many adults advocating similar policies that would affect them. ["Let's make all homeowners in Metro plant red geraniums in the front yard, and keep their yards mowed to 1.5" exactly. That will make the neighborhoods look nice, and criminals will be motivated to become productive citizens."] Not only is that ridiculous on its face, it’s the same argument being used by proponents of SSA. Dress the children up, dress them alike, and school will be better.

Clothes won’t make students study. Clothes won’t feed a child breakfast before school or dinner at night. Clothes won’t help with homework. Clothes won’t make kids like each other or be nice to the short kids. Clothes won’t get parents to the PTO meeting. Clothes won’t teach a child to read or stop the gunfire outside the bedroom window at night. Clothes won’t stop your parents from divorcing or your grandmother from dying or get your mom off drugs.

Maybe it’s just me, but here’s what I want to happen Tuesday night. I’d like the school board to address this frivolity for the waste of time and resources that it is. I’d like them to say to the 74,000 students in their care:

We’re not going to allow anyone to waste further time on policies that feel good but don’t make a difference. We’re not going to allow adults to trample on your rights as American citizens, either. We know you don’t have a lot of time: In a few short years, even today’s kindergarteners will be on their own.

So we’re going to devote every bit of energy, every resource and every dollar this board controls to ensuring you receive the best education we can humanly provide. We’re going to ensure you can read, write, calculate and think critically. We’re going to ensure you are prepared for further study or for training in your chosen profession. We’re going to make sure your school building is safe, with working heat and air and clean water. We’re going to get the smartest, most caring teachers anywhere, and we’re going to give you enough of them so you get the attention you deserve.

When you need a reading tutor or study help for your AP exam, you’re going to get it. When you need advice on college applications, you’re going to get it. When you struggle with a learning disability or have trouble fitting in, we’re going to be there. When you need help with family issues, health problems or anything else that interferes with your education, we’ll find a way to help. Because our covenant with the children of this city says that we’ll prepare you for the complex world we live in. We know that’s possible, and we believe each of you–all 74,000 of you–brings unique talents and experiences to this world that we will need in the future. We know you don’t have time to waste, and our city can’t afford for you to be less than your best.

I get that I’m an idealist on such matters. But if we can’t think big when it comes to education, there’s not much point in bothering, is there? Education is about striving for an ideal. So, come on, school board. Meet me in the middle. Throw out this policy and let’s educate our children.

What to do: Contact the school board members now.

I am so not a lawyer. But when I read the proposed standard school attire produced by the Metro Schools’ committee, I thought I saw several legal liabilities for Metro that would be created if this policy were adopted. See my earlier post.

Turns out the local ACLU agrees (in a much more meaningful assessment than my off-the-cuff comments) in this PDF of a letter it sent to all Metro school board members, detailing specifically several areas in which the proposed policy is legally unsound. Never mind that the proposed SSA policy is based on faulty research [No empirical evidence exists to indicate that standard attire promotes student achievement or positive behavior--get the history here], but if this policy is adopted, taxpayers could be on the hook, defending lawsuits against this poorly conceived idea.

P.S. Whatever your politics, I stand by the assessment of the ACLU by Michael Douglas’ character in The American President: "This is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights." I think I need to renew my own membership, come to think of it. Done.

There’s simply no evidence to hold up any of those assertions. None.  Worse, the vast majority of children in our public schools already act right, don’t bully and focus on their studies. Why on earth would we implement a policy that will affect them and will have no effect on students with negative behaviors and attitudes?

There are a number of surveys demonstrating that parents or school administrators prefer that children dress alike, because it gives the right impression. Hey, if there’s something to stop a teenager from joining a gang, I’m all for it. But I suspect there we’ll have to get into root causes — not how they dress.

Y’all, children’s brains are working from the moment they’re born. My 7yo understands fully [without my explaining a thing--I have tried really hard not to discuss SSA with her much at all] that the clothes are a shell and have nothing to do with the person inside.

This is what I love: When SSA proponents say, Since that’s true, let’s have them all dress the same.

No. No. No.

Children are people with human rights from the moment they’re born. They certainly must learn, and must be taught, many things as they grow. But when adults bully and exert undue influence — children must follow the rules because those are the rules! because we say so! — over the lives of children, instead of acting as gentle guides, kids see right through that. I would posit that children raised in such circumstances are more likely to look around for someone they can bully in return. But hey, that’s just my feeling.

I will therefore fall back to the evidence, which proves that SSA has no demonstrable effect on positive school outcomes. Therefore, it’s a waste of time for our schools to consider or implement. Let’s talk about real issues that can improve student achievement and the future of our society.

So last year, we had to fight off an attempt to "balance" the public schools’ calendar. Basically, that means shortening summer break and inserting additional breaks during the year. Now, a Metro Schools committee is recommending "Standard School Attire." Both efforts have been promoted by those claiming that they will increase student achievement. Sadly, the research bears that out on neither point.

First off, to explain the doublespeak: Metro can’t implement a "uniform" policy unless it provides funding for low-income families to purchase the uniform. Thus, we’re talking about "Standard School Attire." As the proposed Metro policy is written, that’s a legal technicality only; the proposed policy is as restrictive as any uniform policy you might write.

Metro began considering SSA in the fall, when Dr. Pedro Garcia, Metro Schools director, appointed a committee of principals, including one principal whose school already has adopted standard attire, to consider a district-wide policy. Only this year were parent representatives and a student added to the group, but by that point, much of the group’s work was done, and conclusions drawn.

The committee’s restrictive plan for standard school attire was released in March:

• AFTER it conducted community meetings to promote the concept of SSA
• AFTER a parent survey was conducted, to determine family support of SSA

Say what? They held meetings and took a parent survey, with no one knowing what the final product would look like?? Yep.

Of course, this committee was fairly balanced in its actual research: The February PowerPoint presentation it made to the Metro school board details very clearly the significant research proving that school uniforms have no effect on student behavior and achievement. The same presentation offers many individual testimonials and much anecdotal evidence that uniforms make schools better.

Given that, why the conclusion for SSA? You got me there. Yet at the end of March, the committee released its proposed policy. If you haven’t read this six-page document, stop now and read it before you go any further. It is a uniform policy in all but name.

And in particular, it seems girls will be more restricted in their dress. While they can wear capris, shorts, skirts and pants, the kinds of styles allowed are traditional male styles and girls won’t be able to wear many feminine outfits, never mind the latest fashion.

Who cares, you say? Students aren’t in school for a fashion show, but instead to learn. Exactly! Let’s teach students how to make wise decisions. With this policy, we’re telling them they can’t be trusted to choose for themselves, and that their personal style is of little value in the educational arena.

Of significant concern to me is the one-time cost to families to prepare for the implementation of this policy, should it pass. I’m sure many families are like mine, and they pick up clothing items up one or two at a time, when something goes on sale. I can’t afford to go out and buy my daughter a new wardrobe all at once. Even though she’s growing and changing sizes, we carefully budget for such purchases. This policy would be a significant burden to many poor and middle-class families. By the way, the Metro uniform committee suggests that local nonprofits will help cover this cost. Well, OK, and what will they have to stop doing in order to purchase uniforms for thousands of Metro students? I’m unaware of any local nonprofit with lots of extra cash sitting around, just waiting for a problem to come along.

But still, if SSA affected behavior. If it improved achievement. We’d have something worth talking about, wouldn’t we? I’m perfectly safe in saying that the students who violate the current dress code will violate a new one, and the students who manage to adhere to Metro’s existing dress code—which doesn’t allow sloppy or revealing attire—will follow a new one, too. Why are we talking about punishing students who are already doing the right thing?

And yes, I regard this proposed dress code as punishment. While school uniforms have been found to be constitutional, please don’t suppose that that’s because students have no rights of free expression. In fact, they do, though they are more limited than adults’ rights.

One of the Supreme Court’s most famous free-speech cases—Tinker v. Des Moines School District—concerned a high-school protest of the Vietnam War; students sued after being told they could not wear black armbands to class to signify their opposition to the war. [The students won.] Metro’s proposed policy is so restrictive that I could foresee several items which could open the school district to legal challenges, which students would have a chance of winning. The basic test applied in the Tinker case says we must ask, "Do the schools have a reasonable idea that the prohibited clothing would cause disruption to education?" Well, blue jeans don’t disrupt education. Neither do banded-waist shirts, or t-shirts with no collar and a big flower on the front. But the proposed Metro policy allows none of these. Get ready for your tax dollars to be used to defend a worthless policy.

I hate to assume that Metro can’t find anything better to do than to swap around the days students attend school, or fuss over what they wear. Here are some great things Bransford Avenue could better do with its time:

• Figure out how to prevent the next Antioch-sized infrastructure crisis.
• Figure out how to make students and parents in non-magnet schools thrilled with their educational opportunities.
• Figure out how to improve graduation rates, specifically at Maplewood and Stratford. These kids need a lot more than our sartorial suggestions.
• Figure out how to meet state requirements [and I would argue, moral requirements] that special ed and gifted students receive education appropriate to their needs.
• Figure out how to tell the public the great things are schools are already doing—and there are many successes every day—so that the next time the school board needs a tax increase, our children don’t get the shaft again.

If you’re still with me, thank you. This is a long one. One last thing:
Please contact all school board members to tell them that SSA is a bad idea that should be buried now so that the board can concentrate on real problems and opportunities. Don’t forget; the board takes up SSA at its April 10 meeting.

Want to help more? Check out the blog and Yahoo! group for parents opposed to this policy.