The Elephant in Portland’s Room

Caroline Fenn, Charles McGee and Doug Wells:

Monday evening, the Portland School Board will vote on a teacher contract that, once again, ignores the elephant in the room — Portland Public Schools’ failure to adequately educate low-income children and children of color. We encourage all Portland residents to read the contract and see what some would have us celebrate. School board members should explain what they’ve gained and what they’ve given up with this negotiation. The public deserves answers.
The district’s budget woes are real. But the bigger problem is that PPS time and again puts adult jobs and politics ahead of students’ learning and graduating. Our community and state pay a hefty price. With an overall graduation rate of 53 percent (31 percent for Hispanic, 44 percent for African American and 45 percent for poor children), our quality of life is being redefined right before our eyes.
On Dec. 20, the Black Parent Initiative, the Coalition of Black Men, Community & Parents for Public Schools, and Stand for Children asked the school district, school board and teacher association to eliminate barriers to recruiting and retaining excellent teachers and principals, and to better serve our students, in particular our students of color. Barriers exist in both the teacher contract and district policy. The Native American Youth and Family Center, Latino Network, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, the Hispanic Chamber and a number of civic leaders soon joined with us.

One thought on “The Elephant in Portland’s Room”

  1. There is alot of frustration on all sides. Teachers, even the best ones with experience, cannot get blood from a stone. As a society, we do not seem willing to seriously address and deal with issues of poverty and how that affects children’s learning before they put one foot in the school door.
    After a child’s foot enters the school, the burden, not just for learning, but for a child’s survival at times, rests with the school and more than likely the classroom teacher. Impossible situation.
    Bringing administrators and unions into the 21st century may be part of the issue. Excellent teachers, the Gates Foundation is learning, after spending millions of dollars, makes the difference. How many more millions of dollars will this foundation need to spend before they come up with another finding about the devastating effect on children in poverty and their lives and our lives? I can hardly wait for that earth shattering discovery.
    Blame the teachers, who often work in horrible environments for children’s learning and impossible classroom situations that often are spent managing behavior. No one wants a poor teacher in a classroom and systems/contracts in place ought not support that. But, a starting salary of $31,000 after 4+ years of education – how attractive is that to the best and the brightest? After 20 years, average salaries are around $50,000 – how attractive is that? Yes, some scream, there are those “fabulous” benefits after 20-30 years of working with 200+ children per week, from all walks of life. Not really. And, somehow it never gets mentioned about how much a teacher might spend of their own money on classroom expenses, or how much parents contribute through school fundraising.
    I mean, come on, what can you expect? Folks go on about how much the school budgets have continued to go up over the years. I wonder, given the poverty levels that exist in our schools, how much of the total school budget has gone to support these children’s needs along with the other categories of support needed for children.
    Yes, there are curriculum issues – this is not a teacher issue. They do not develop the curriculum in Madison – only given token say in many instances.
    And now, we have a Governor who says the State of WI is broke with a $59 billion budget, I believe. He helps the education system by cutting nearly $1 billion, putting a new education reading program in the Dept of Administration, does not lay out his idea for education. That makes no good decisionmaking or business sense at all. Don’t go through a process that is clear and transparents, jam your undeveloped and unchallenged ideas in a budget, screaming we’re broke. Folly and so, so simplistic. WI, our citizens, and our children expect and deserve better. Good for WI for wanting that.
    But, really, when will it truly be about the children?

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