Education UPDATE: 1st in a Continuing Series
By A. Patrick Huff Ph.D.
AUSTIN Texas (Texas Insider Report) The people of America recently woke up to witness the independent spirit of the people of Great Britain. Despite the polls the people voted 51.8to 48.2 to leave the
European Union and chart their own path. What were the issues that the Brits were upset about?
The first thing I thought about the morning after was
we need a Brexit in education.
So much so they made a statement heard around the world?
There were many but the overriding issue was the people wanted the opportunity to control their own affairs again. Things had reached a boiling point with the people perhaps due to the immigration problems and they wanted out.
So the people spoke and now the world will be watching to see what direction they take. One thing you can be sure of though the direction they take will be their own doing not forced on them by the unelected governing body coming out of Brussels.
The first thing I thought about the morning after wass we need a Brexit in education. All of the seeds have been planted since the failures of
No Child Left Behind were forced upon the states. We have seen the vast overreach of the federal government through the last phase of No Child Left Behind when schools began to fail" in record numbers.
Now in the beginning of E
very Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) we are experiencing huge federal overreaches coming into the schools under the guise of community involvement. The ESSA will cement Common Core into every school in the land including Texas and ESSA will degrade the schools teachers and students with letter grades of A-F in the new accountability system. More on this later but my even mentioning this perfect example of governmental hubris makes my blood boil.
Lets go back to the parallels with the Brexit and our education system.
As mentioned the European Union has a governmental structure that is unelected by the people of the EU. This governing body dictates policies that all member states must follow. Can you imagine?
Would we here in America ever put up with a situation like that where policies are dictated without a chance for a dissenting vote or a pathway for appeal? Well we have just that type of governmental structure in education.
Here in Texas the Governor appoints the Commissioner of Education. The Commissioner of Education is in charge of the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The Commissioner is accountable to the Governor. The State Board of Education (SBOE) is TEAs governing body. The SBOE has 15 members who are elected from independent districts throughout the state.
The chair of the SBOE however and the one who sets the agenda for the SBOE meetings is appointed. The chair of the SBOE is accountable directly to the governor. That would all be fine if the people of the State of Texas and the teachers counselors principals and superintendents in all the various school districts throughout the state were happy with the system and felt they were being represented in a fair and just manner.
Educators and parents would be fine with the structure if they felt the students of Texas were getting the best of academic preparation through the curriculum and textbooks selected by the State Board of Education.
If Texas had an education system that developed young minds for critical thinking and exercises in logic so that they could go out into the world and be prepared for the challenges that lie ahead we would be fine knowing that the powers that be have the best interest of the children in mind.
If we the taxpaying public knew that our elected officials were appointing individuals that operated with the sovereign State of Texas in mind we would be confident in their decisions; if not we could vote them out of office. Thats how our representative form of government works right?
The reality is we have an education system run by an agency and a governor and lieutenant governor that currently does not act in the best interest of the children of Texas because they are not in control of their own system.
They do not provide for a system of education through the public schools that have the ability to provide the very best education that the independent school districts can provide for their communities because they cannot decide on their own what is best.
To make matters worse even if we the people vote them out of office and the new governor appoints a new commissioner and a new head of the state board nothing will change. This is because despite all the rhetoric about ESSA returning local control back to the states and independent school districts Texas and every other state in the Union is tied to the federal government and has turned
over the dictates of its governing education agency to the bureaucrats in the U.S. Department of Education.
The people of Great Britain stood up and let their voice be heard. Time will tell what direction this historic vote will take but what the people of Great Britain let the world know is we the people will decide our fate. Lets take note of this courageous stand taken by the Brits and tell our elected officials in one common voice:
- we want our schools back.
- We want sanity returned to the classroom.
- We want to decide what curriculum our teachers will teach.
- We want the teacher to be returned to their rightful place as the purveyors of knowledge in the classroom not a computer or some other digital device.
- We want our children to love going to school and learning for the sake of learning.
Thats all we want. Is that too much to ask?
Lets let our voices be heard. We need to say No to Washington D.C. and No to the United Nations. Lets have a Brexit in education.
A. Patrick Huff received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership in June 2014 from Prairie View A&M University. His Dissertation was entitled The Subjugation of Public Education in America: A grounded theory study into the domination of testing in public schools and the rise of charter schools. He is the author of the book The Takeover of Public Education in America: The Agenda to Control Information & Knowledge Through the Accountability System.
