Dismantling Consolidated Power in Education

By:  Dale Weckbacher

John 8:32

“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

(ESV)

While the truth has a liberating effect, it can also be harsh revealing areas of our lives needing attention and change we may not want to do.  However, when we step back and look at the truth God is trying to teach us, we come to realize that even though the truth is harsh and pointing us in a direction we do not want to go, it is God lovingly correcting us.  While truth may not be politically correct, truth from the Word of God is always in our best interest and what we should adopt in our lives. 

Unfortunately, political correctness in education has diluted the truth and turned our once great educational institutions into indoctrination centers with an agenda of indoctrinating students into a liberal post-modernist and humanistic philosophy that goes against the truths of the Word of God.  Like what occurred in media, we have seen a consolidation of power in education that has facilitated this shift.  However, just as technological innovation broke up the once powerful consolidation of power in media, innovative technology has the potential of breaking up the consolidation of power in education but first we must break up the bureaucratic strongholds of education.

1)      Tenure – Tenure of university professors is defined as “an indefinite appointment that can be terminated only for cause under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency and program discontinuation.”  (1)  Its initial purpose was the protection of academic freedom insuring professors had the freedom to teach and conduct research without fear of losing their positions due to the subject of their teaching or research.  While academic freedom of teachers and professors to conduct research, and enrich the knowledge base in education is important, a blanket policy of tenure making it impossible to terminate ineffective teachers is harmful to students.  The striking down of five State laws governing school personnel decisions by the judicial ruling in Vergara v. State of California has begun the process of dismantling tenure.  Judge Treu ruled that “disadvantaged students were far more likely to find themselves in a classroom with an ineffective teacher than children from more affluent families.”  (2)  While the number of tenured teachers has declined to about 21 percent as of 2014, (1) a potential of 21 percent of educators becoming ineffective due to tenure can do irreparable harm to the education of thousands of students if they continue to teach ineffectively.  In other professions employees have the freedom to practice their profession but also understand they must continue to remain effective to keep their jobs.  Imagine if your doctor had tenure and there was nothing you as a patient could do if they were guilty of malpractice.  Part of breaking up the consolidation of power in education is weeding out ineffective teachers and replacing them with effective ones by giving schools the freedom to terminate ineffective teachers. 

2)      U.S. Department of Education (3) – The original Department of Education, created in 1867 had the purpose of collecting information on schools and teaching that would help the States set up effective school systems.  Since that time the name of the department changed to the U.S. Department of Education and became a cabinet position in 1980.  One of the current debates in education is common core a standard of uniformity that takes control of education from teachers and local governments.  (4)  This consolidation of power in the Washington DC bureaucracy means that a teacher in an inner-city school or a rural community more familiar with the specific educational needs of the students in their classroom cannot tailor make a curriculum helping their students and must instead implement an ineffective program like common core.  The real victim once again here is the student who fails to learn.  

3)      Teachers Unions (5) – The union movement dates back to the eighteenth century and the industrial revolution in Europe.  The most famous labor union in the United States is the American Federation of Labor, founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886.  (5)  While teachers’ unions initially supported common core, most recently they have begun to question their support.  (6) (7)  Once the realization sunk in that Common Core wrestled control of the classroom from the teachers these unions represent, they began doing what a labor union should do, protect the jobs of their members.  However, while teacher unions insist they have the best interests of children at heart, their insistence on support of seniority and tenure instead of a merit based system of teacher evaluation demonstrates their interest is primarily in their teacher members and not the students they educate.  (8)  While taking on the powerful teachers’ unions is a politically dangerous mine field, it is a field one can navigate as Governor Walker in Wisconsin demonstrated.  (9)  While teacher unions continue to support tenure and its consolidation of power to a few elite educators having no incentive to effectively teach students, inroads into the U.S. Department of Education consolidation are occurring with unions questioning Common Core. 

 While dismantling the consolidation of power in education will be difficult, the recent questioning of the viability of Common Core by Teachers Unions (7) (6) and even the decertification of teachers unions in Wisconsin demonstrate it can be done.  (9)  However, we must also explore the use of innovative technology just as occurred in breaking up the media consolidation of power as a means of further breaking up the consolidation in education. 

Home schooling is gaining in prominence in our society primarily driven by parents desire to provide moral or religious instruction to their children, concerns about the school environment, and dissatisfaction with the quality of academic instruction offered in traditional public schools.  (10)  Home schooled students scored among the 84^th to 89^th percentile on standardized achievement tests while their traditionally educated counterparts scored in the 50^th percentile.  This shows that quality education is deliverable without students needing to attend traditional classes in a classroom.  However, not every parent can afford to have one of their income earning parents stay at home educating their children. 

Online education was once something I believed to be a fad that would quickly go away as they graduated students having inadequate social skills.  However, enrollment in online education courses continues to grow along with the reputation of the quality of online courses.  (11)  Social skills are teachable through involvement of students in programs at religious organizations, sporting events, etc. so parents of students enrolled in these online programs should involve their children in these programs that develop social skills. 

Online education is beneficial because it does away with the need to construct expensive facilities for classrooms.  Without these expensive startup costs, more educational organizations can emerge increasing competition in education and just as we saw increased competition break up the consolidation of power in media, we could see a similar break up of consolidated educational power as well. 

Consolidation of power in the method of delivery of truth and education open the door for deception with no competition present to offer any contradictory views.  The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as added as insurance against such consolidation of power.  The freedom to deliver truth through media and education must continue for truth does indeed set us free (John 8:32). 

1. American Association of University Professors. Tenure. www.aaup.org. [Online] American Association of University Professors. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] https://www.aaup.org/issues/tenure.

2. Burke, Lindsey. How Teacher Tenure Hurts Students. dailysignal.com. [Online] The Daily Signal, July 5, 2014. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] http://dailysignal.com/2014/07/05/tenure-teachers-may-effective/.

3. U.S. Department of Education. The Federal Role in Education. www2.ed.gov. [Online] U.S. Department of Education. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html.

4. Classical The Difference. Common Core's Five-Way Power Play. www.clasicaldifference.com. [Online] Classical The Difference: Bringing Life to the Classroom, Fall 2016. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] http://www.classicaldifference.com/common-cores-five-way-power-play/.

5. Union Plus. www.unionplus.org. A Brief History of Unions. [Online] Union Plus. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] https://www.unionplus.org/page/brief-history-unions.

6. Simon, Stephanie. AFT union takes on Common Core. www.politico.com. [Online] Politico, July 11, 2014. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] https://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/american-federation-of-teachers-common-core-108793.

7. NEA. NEA President: We Need a Course Correction on Common Core. neatoday.org. [Online] NEA, February 19, 2014. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] http://neatoday.org/2014/02/19/nea-president-we-need-a-course-correction-on-common-core/.

8. Shumate, Sam. End teacher tenure. The education of children takes precedence over job security for adults. www.nationalreview.com. [Online] National Review, May 16, 2017. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/447697/teacher-tenure-unions-stop-putting-seniority-performance.

9. Chakraborty, Barnini. Wisconsin teachers union decertified in latest blow to labor under Walker law. www.foxnews.com. [Online] Fox News, September 15, 2013. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/15/wisconsin-teachers-union-decertified-in-latest-blow-to-labor-under-walker-law.html.

10. The Washington Times. HOME-SCHOOLING: Outstanding results on national tests. www.washingtontimes.com. [Online] The Washington Times, August 30, 2009. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/30/home-schooling-outstanding-results-national-tests/.

11. Lytle, Ryan. Study: Online Education Continues Growth. www.usnews.com. [Online] U.S. News and World Report, November 11, 2011. [Cited: November 12, 2017.] https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/articles/2011/11/11/study-online-education-continues-growth.