This editorial was originally published by the North Carolina News Schools Project and appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our February 22nd e-newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues.

President Barack Obama, in his recent State of the Union address, urged every state to set the dropout age at 18. The administration recognizes that allowing students as young as 16 to make that life-compromising decision is a policy that makes little sense. In a globally competitive world, pursuing advanced training beyond high school is no longer optional as it was for previous generations.

North Carolina education leaders have sought to increase the dropout age from 16 before, and should try again. It would send another signal to students, parents and others about the critical importance of staying in school and graduating. While this effort is significant, no one should believe that simply changing the state’s compulsory attendance age is sufficient.

Far more important than requiring students by law to stay in school is ensuring that school is a place they want to be, and helping young people understand that education is something they need. Schools must be engaging and challenging at the same time that they are supportive and personalized. In a word, they must be excellent.

Students must see the relevance in what they’re being asked to learn, and they must have opportunities to make connections with the real world they enter upon graduation. In this ever-changing economy, we must prepare our students for jobs that don’t even exist today, and we will do this only by developing new opportunities for students that reflect 21^st century realities. The latest dropout data for North Carolina, released earlier this month by the State Board of Education, provide fresh evidence that these kinds of educational opportunities are helping keep students in school. The dropout rate for Guilford County Schools has continued to improve and remains below that of all other urban districts in the state.

But focusing on the dropout rate doesn’t tell the whole story. While a student staying in school is certainly critical, those same numbers don’t tell us whether that student graduated, or was well prepared to tackle college classes, advanced training, or an entry level job. Those numbers don’t tell us whether a student demonstrates perseverance, knows how to use new information technologies well, or works collaboratively as a member of a high-functioning team in an environment characterized by constant change.

To prepare students for college and/or the career of their choice, Guilford County Schools (GCS) has focused on reshaping its traditional, comprehensive high schools and on opening different avenues to spur greater student success and engagement, including early/middle colleges, academies, and a new service-learning initiative. The district’s eighth early/middle college opened this school year and focuses on health sciences, and the newest early/middle college, to open this fall, will emphasize science, engineering, technology and mathematics.

The state’s graduation data provide evidence that these innovative approaches are making a real difference. In the 2010-11 school year, eight schools in GCS – all non-traditional high schools – achieved a 100 percent graduation rate, and nearly all non-traditional high schools had graduation rates above 95 percent. Overall, the district’s graduation rate has risen every year since 2006 and remains above the state average.

Not only are our schools working hard to keep students in school by keeping them engaged and well supported, they’re making sure that students understand there is no alternative to graduating and that learning is a life-long endeavor.

The kinds of results we are seeing in GCS are the sum of many parts – from hard-working educators to a supportive community united by a vision of educational excellence for all students. While GCS acknowledges the district’s low dropout numbers, we celebrate the thousands of students each year who walk across the stage, receive their high school diploma and enter the next phase with the confidence and skills to succeed and make a difference.

Ultimately, it comes down to setting high expectations and making sure that students are empowered with the skills, knowledge and strength of character to reach them. In this equation, age doesn’t matter nearly as much as the level of educational excellence our students receive.

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This editorial appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our February 15th e-newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues.

Too much of the public is missing from public education.

As a people, we recognize the economic value of education, but we under-invest in our schools, both financially and in terms of civic capital. With America’s students and schools facing unprecedented needs, and education budgets under enormous pressure, it is time to drastically ramp up civic investment in public education.

Our public school system — one of the great achievements of American democracy — is not just a service for the public to consume. It is a lifelong compact among Americans to continually renew our nation’s future, to be actively supported by all citizens, whether or not they have children of school age. It is vital to ensure a populace with the knowledge and skills to succeed in, and create, good jobs. Indeed, Americans view education as a core value as well as a key service, according to research by pollster Celinda Lake. So, what does civic investment mean, and why is it so important today?

“Take an informed interest, put in time, and get political,” the National Commission on Civic Investment in Public Education declared this year. It is essential for the American people to better understand the economic and civic costs of educational failure. While there are multiple challenges to creating an equitable system of quality public education, it will not be realized without the vigilant, knowledgeable and active support of the American people. They must demand and expect three things: educational excellence; accountability of elected officials and school leaders for quality education; and adequate financial resources for public schools.

Begin by being well-informed about what public education is — and is not — doing for our young people and our country. Citizens should learn what contributes to, and what hinders, a high-quality public education. They should carefully scrutinize candidates and education ballot initiatives and vote for ones that support and promote quality public schools. Civic investment means attending school board meetings and education budget hearings, and peppering elected officials — in person and in writing — with key questions: How do you plan to provide adequate funding for public schools? How do you support the goal of college-and career-readiness for every student? What do you think are the best ways to evaluate school and student performance?

This is already happening in some communities. But in a nation with more than 50 million K-12 students and 14,000 school districts, this kind of civic activity is essential for every community.

Active citizenship is critical because of the profound connections among education, the economy and our collective well-being. Poorly educated individuals fall behind in our society. Poorly educated nations fall behind in the world.

The corollary, as we see in many East Asian and Northern European countries, is that investment in education pays high dividends. As former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise said: “The best economic stimulus is a high school diploma.” An educated population means more rewarding, high-paying jobs, which pump money into the economy and build community strength.

Instead, we risk a vicious cycle of declining educational outcomes and declining economic fortunes. U.S. schoolchildren have fallen behind their counterparts in too many countries on too many indicators — math and science performance, timely high school graduation, knowledge of history and the arts, and in college readiness and matriculation.

At the same time, our economy has been stalled or going in reverse for too many Americans for too many years. The litany of economic problems is also familiar: anemic growth, joblessness, stagnant wages, too little productive investment, growing poverty, economic insecurity and rising inequality. The best long-term jobs and growth strategy requires that citizens speak out often, loudly and insistently for quality public education.

If we leave these educational and economic circumstances unchallenged, we will disenfranchise millions of children from the American dream, dilute our democracy and compromise our nation’s future.

It won’t be easy. State education budgets are being hit harder this year than at any time since the recession began in 2008. At least 46 states are reducing services, hitting children and the most vulnerable especially hard, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Thirty-seven of these states are cutting their K-12 education budgets this year — at a time when 1 in 5 children lives in poverty, 1 in 10 is without health insurance, and national school enrollment is up by a quarter-million.

The state funding crunch is likely to be made worse by the federal government’s fiscal problems and demands for budget cuts. The United States needs to get its fiscal house in order, but all budget cuts are not equal. Slashing education funding is a cut that just keeps on cutting. Educational opportunities denied mean foregone skills and knowledge, poorer career and life outcomes, and a weaker economy and nation for us all. If we choose not to properly educate our young people, we will suffer the consequences for generations.

Civic investment — being well-informed, voting, and keeping the pressure on officials to support quality education — is the alternative to public passivity. If we recognize that educational opportunity and success are foundations for a strong democracy and a thriving economy, we need to be engaged trustees of that most American of institutions: our public schools.

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This editorial appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our February 1st e-newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues.

I once worked for CMS Superintendent John Murphy who encouraged his principals to go out and beg, borrow and steal good ideas from other school leaders.  While Dr. Murphy was a maverick and not always loved by all, he instilled in many of us a desire to learn from others who might be implementing innovative strategies to increase student achievement.  After reading Kay McSpadden’s January 7^th editorial about Finland’s stellar educational reform efforts and State Board of Education Member John Tate’s recent white paper on Finland’s measurable and long-term success, I am convinced there are several obvious lessons for the citizens of Mecklenburg County to heed as we move forward with a newly elected school board and with hiring a new superintendent.

A historical perspective is in order here. In the 1970s, Finland realized it was almost solely reliant upon its timber industry, which would not be enough to achieve true economic independence.  They figured the most lucrative and sustainable way for the country to get ahead economically was to invest heavily in their people, namely the education of their children, from birth to college graduation. Their results over the past forty years are stellar and cannot be disputed.  Finland now has an incredibly well-educated and highly trained workforce that fuels an economic engine that is the envy of many nations. In fact, Finland has ranked four times in the last decade as having the world’s most competitive economy, and their 15-year-olds have the top PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scores in the world! How did they do it?

Lesson one: It takes time and a commitment of resources to truly turn around struggling schools.  It has taken the Finns more than 40 years to get where they are today.  Are we willing to forgo our American desire for instant gratification and reliance on the next political leader or superintendent to be our latest savior? I think not. In Finland, there are currently eight different political parties reflecting multiple political persuasions, but as a people, they are solidly united in their commitment to do right by ALL their children. Are we?

Lesson two is valuing our educators and treating teachers professionally.  After some 40 years of sustained effort and systemic improvement, Finland now recruits only the best and brightest college students to join its teaching force. Today, universities only accept 1 in 10 applicants to their highly selective teacher education programs. Once accepted, these future teachers undergo a challenging five-to six-year year course of study that, in the end, results in a master’s degree.  Once these rookie teachers leave the university, they are not thrown into the classroom to sink or swim alone, but rather they participate in a clinical year in the field with a seasoned mentor. Pay is another stark contrast among teachers in Finland and those here in the U.S.  If we were to compare 15-year teacher veterans in the U.S. with their counterparts in Finland, the Finns earn 102 percent of the average university graduate wage, whereas their American counterparts are earning a mere 65 percent. Ouch!

Lesson three is a decentralization of the curriculum. There is almost a complete decentralization of governance in the schools. In fact, the state only provides brief curriculum guides; the schools operate truly autonomously.  Teachers are provided adequate time to plan and collaborate with their peers, and it is estimated that the actual teaching load approximates to 60 to 80 percent of their American counterparts.  It appears the Finns pay their teachers well, hold them to high standards and they deliver.  Their teachers deliver a well-educated professional worker who will be a long-term taxpayer and independent countryman.  It should also be noted that their country is basically void of crime and corruption.

If we choose to borrow or steal some of these practices from the Finns, are we guaranteed to achieve the same results?  The answer is no.  If we continue along the same path of providing inadequate resources—hoping for quick fixes and undervaluing our teachers—should we expect different outcomes?  No.

While it has taken Finland almost four decades to climb to the academic heights they now have reached, we must look back to one of the most important first steps they took – elevating educational professionals through compensation, training and empowerment.  These are tools we can utilize here and now.  Let’s encourage CMS leaders to cultivate and allocate the finances to do so.

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This editorial appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our January 25th e-newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues. Please note the views expressed in For Your Consideration are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MeckEd.

Today you may believe that the realm of invention and innovation is left to large companies that have the money and resources for large scale investments into new technologies. The reality is that large companies while generally having the resources necessary for innovation are also many times burdened by bureaucracy and red tape. It is often hard for them to get things done. As a result, you might find it interesting that in many cases the most valuable widespread technology in use today was created by a couple guys in a garage.  A couple of guys who had a passion, no red tape, and perhaps very little money to get things done. That said, their passion and flexibility is what made them so successful. Let me give you some examples you might be familiar with:
1.  The airplane
2.  The personal computer
3.  The bicycle
4.  The telephone
5.  The light bulb
6.  The pneumatic tire …..

and I could go on. The reason for sharing this is that you have an opportunity to be the next Thomas Edison, Orville and Wilbur Wright,  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, etc.. It does not require you to have lots of money or to work for a big company. In many cases it requires you to have a passion and the technical knowledge to pursue your dreams. As it turns out, the more you learn the more likely you are to have these kinds of ideas. Wouldn’t you like to make that kind of impact on our planet. The key is to study hard and pay special attention to STEM related education. This will give you the foundation you need to write your own path and create your own success. Our country today is in desperate need of your innovation so please do not underestimate the value of your education.  We need the future leaders of our country to bring back innovation and imagination to our Country. You live in the greatest Country in human history, your ideas can be protected through Patent protection and most of all you live in a free society. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable this can be to you in terms of your own innovation. The table is set, it is up to you. What impact will you make on the lives of others?

I can’t wait to see!

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This editorial appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our January 18th e-newsletter and was originally published in the Charlotte Observer. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues. Please note the views expressed in For Your Consideration are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MeckEd.

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The following excerpt appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our January 5th e-Newsletter.

We often fail to recognize how well CMS is perceived as a public school district across the country; evidence of this recognition was a recent invitation from Memphis, Tennessee’s two merging public school districts.  Eric Davis, Pete Gorman, Arthur Griffin and I were asked to speak to an overflow crowd recently in Memphis about how CMS continues to lead the country in academic achievement and closing the achievement gap when compared to other urban school districts in America.  Below is a blog about our visit and how CMS has truly shown progress. I cannot help but remember the words to one of Joni Mitchell’s most famous songs, “Big Yellow Taxi” and how it pertains to our attitudes in CMS towards our school district: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone….”

The following excerpt is from the Eye on Schools Merger Blog:

Merger leaders want to spread message that it will limit disruptions at top schools
By Zack McMillin on December 13, 2011

While the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leaders spent a lot of time explaining the weighted formula it uses to allocate resources to schools — essentially, more money goes to schools with the most challenges, Shelby County’s schools merger Transition Planning Commission held a committee meeting before Monday’s merger forum in which it discussed ways to reassure parents at our more affluent, higher-performing schools.

That committee had members from the suburbs, from the city, from parents of children at elite private schools. School board member Martavius Jones, a key leader in Memphis’s drive to force consolidation by surrendering the Memphis City School charter, said the discussion focused on fighting speculation the merged district would force radical changes on the county’s top-performing schools: “It’s been my contention that for those students in (high-performing) schools, it’s going to be minimal disruptions. … I don’t think it’s anyone’s motivation to create mass chaos.” But Jones said the committee discussed ways to quickly get a robust message out soothing fears: “Without that, you can let people’s imaginations run wild,” Jones said.

Bill Anderson, now serving as executive director of Charlotte’s public-education foundation MeckEd, was unflinching in promoting Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s appproach. Anderson also served as principal in nearby Shelby, where his high school in 2003 was named one of the top 10 in America by Newsweek; Anderson was also in Shelby when it merged with the county school system there, Cleveland County.

“When you look at our district on an interactive map and you look at one elementary school in the inner city is getting about $10,000 a student and another school way in the suburbs in a more affluent area is only getting $5,0000 per child, that might rub some folks the wrong way. But our community is willing to have those very difficult and open decisions, that the playing field is not level and that some schools and some students deserve more.”

Anderson finished his point by saying: “We as a community and I think as a society and a country in general, have not accepted the fact that every kid is our kid. We still tend to think that there’s some kids that live over there, they are not our kids.”

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This blog post appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our December 13th e-newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues. Please note the views expressed in For Your Consideration are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of MeckEd.

On a recent school night, a group of teachers from the Memphis City Schools gathered for a screening of “American Teacher.” The documentary follows four educators who work twelve-hour days to support their students and three jobs to support their families.

The teachers in the room  know what that’s like;  those are our stories too. One of us has been teaching in the Memphis City Schools for nine years and has never not worked at least one other  job—teaching part-time time at the university, consulting, and until becoming a parent, a further twenty hours or more each week at Macy’s.  These experiences are more common than not.

Teachers have long contended that we’re undervalued for our work; even Secretary of Education Arne Duncan agrees that compensation reform is needed.  But a controversial new study by the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation argues that teachers are actually overcompensated. The authors assert that when fringe benefits and job security are taken into account, teachers make about 52% more than intellectually comparable workers in other fields (using scores on standardized tests like the SAT as measures of cognitive ability).

Based on this assessment, it sounds like we’ve got it made.  Indeed, every teacher has heard someone espouse the desire to teach because “it must be nice to have that summer vacation.”  We just shake our heads and laugh.  Good teachers, the kind we should want in our classrooms, put in a lot more hours and hard work than the barebones seven-hour day and 10-month year.  Effective teachers work long after the school day is over, tutoring students, planning for the next day or grading papers. Every great teacher takes work home, too.  And that summer vacation?  For most of us, there are summer jobs to supplement our incomes, or professional development paid for out of our own pockets in order to grow as educators and boost our students’ achievement.

At the Memphis film screening, teachers agreed that the primary problem with the current compensation system isn’t starting salaries, but rather the lack of long-term growth.  Indeed, this was pointed to as one of the primary factors behind teacher attrition.  As far as we’re concerned, the salary debate shouldn’t be about too much versus too little; it should be about how compensation levels are determined over time, and what can be done to reward professional growth and excellence in an incredibly challenging, demanding, and utterly essential field.  The teachers we should want in our classrooms are the ones who put in the hard work, not the ones who do the minimum, so we need a compensation system that encourages those excellent educators to stick around for the long haul.

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Marian Wright Edelman’s editorial appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our December 7th e-newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues. Please note the views expressed in For Your Consideration are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MeckEd.

Aristotle got it right when he said, “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.” Once upon a time America professed to believe in a strong public education system—at least for some children. And we still talk about public education as the great equalizer and pathway out of poverty but continue to fall far short in assuring millions of poor children, especially those of color, upward mobility.

As if children and families were not suffering enough during this economic downturn, many states are choosing to balance budgets on the backs of children and to shift more costs away from government onto children and families who have fewer means to bear them. That is a shameful trend in public education today. Even when students are in school, they’re getting less than they used to. Of the 46 states that publish data in a manner allowing historical comparisons, 37 are providing less funding per student to local school districts this school year than they provided last year, and 30 are providing less funding than they did four years ago. Seventeen states have cut per-student funding more than 10 percent from pre-recession levels, and four—South Carolina, Arizona, California, and Hawaii—have reduced per student funding for K-12 schools more than 20 percent.

These cuts have major effects on critical learning opportunities. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found funding cuts in Georgia will mean shortening the pre-kindergarten school year from 180 to 160 days for 86,000 four-year-olds. Since the start of the recession, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, and other states have cut funding from early education programs to help close budget shortfalls. New Jersey cut funding for afterschool programs. In a 2009 survey of California parents, 41 percent reported their child’s school was cutting summer programs. Cuts limiting student learning time are likely to intensify in the coming year. An American Association of School Administrators survey reports 17 percent of respondents were considering shortening the school week to four days for the 2011-2012 school year and 40 percent were considering eliminating summer school programs. Summer learning loss is a major contributor to the achievement gap between poor and non-poor children. Districts across the country are beginning to cut extracurricular activities and to charge fees for supplies like biology safety goggles or printer ink.

These education cuts come at a time when American education is in dire straits. The United States ranks 24th among 30 developed countries in overall educational achievement for 15-year-olds. A study of education systems in 60 countries ranks the United States 31st in math achievement and 23rd in science achievement for 15-year-olds. More than 60 percent of all fourth, eighth, and 12th grade public school students in every racial and income group are reading or doing math below grade level. Nearly 80 percent or more of Black and Hispanic students in these grades are reading or doing math below grade level. A recent report by the Education Trust notes more than one in five high school graduates don’t meet the minimum standard required for Army enlistment as measured by the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT). Among applicants of color, the ineligibility rates are even higher: 29 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of African Americans are ineligible based on their AFQT scores.

Children should be getting more quality instructional time, not less, to prepare to compete in the rapidly globalizing economy. Instead they’re being held back and provided less school days and hours by stopgap solutions to budget problems they didn’t cause. Too many adults seem to lack a moral, common, and fiscal sense context for making decisions about what to cut and what to invest in. The Children’s Defense Fund’s first publication in 1974 was on Children Out of School in America. We documented two million children not enrolled in school, including hundreds of thousands of children with disabilities. As we went door to door interviewing thousands of families in 30 census tracts for that initial study, we never thought to ask the question, “Is your child home today because her school is closed to help balance your district’s budget?”

At the Children’s Defense Fund we believe education is a basic human right and an essential tool for evening the odds for all children and promoting upward mobility for children left behind. Education gives you the tools to improve not only your own life but the lives of others and to leave the world better than you found it. How can we expect our children to create a better America if we don’t give them a good education? Cuts being proposed in Washington and in the states and localities around the country may be saving a few dollars on a balance sheet today—but they will cost us dearly tomorrow as a nation. How shortsighted we are. Where are our priorities? What are our values?

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This interview with Mary Nell McPherson, executive director of Freedom School Partners, appeared in our November 30th e-Newsletter.

“I really believe the way that Freedom Schools help us cross the lines of race and class in this community around things that are really important is so valuable.” -Mary Nell McPherson.

National research shows most children lose two to three months of reading comprehension during the summer months. One local organization is trying to combat this by using summer vacation to prepare children to transition to the next grade. Freedom School Partners is a nonprofit, privately funded organization that works in partnership with the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), as well as local churches, universities and corporations to offer a six-week summer learning opportunity focused around literacy for K-8 children in the Charlotte community who are most at risk of learning loss during the summer vacation. In 2004, the first CDF Freedom Schools program launched with 100 children, and has since grown to become the largest Freedom School Partners providers in the country, with 15 local sites—a few of which have a year-round afterschool component.

Freedom School Partners’ Reach

In our November 16^th e-Newsletter, we featured an article about CMS’ poverty rate, which is now 54.4%. This statistic shows there is a greater need than ever for Freedom School Partners in our community. “We always target either high-poverty schools or low-income neighborhoods. The programs are meant to be for children who are most at risk of summer learning loss, and they’re offered at no cost to families,” said Mary Nell McPherson, executive director of Freedom School Partners.

Typical Day at a Freedom School

To start each day off on a positive note, the program begins with Harambee—a pep rally featuring singing, dancing, cheering and chanting that ends with a community guest reader. “All of the singing and dancing and clapping and call and response is part of the researched model, and it’s part of brain development,” said McPherson. After Harambee, the day continues with two and a half hours of an integrated reading curriculum, which is built around the theme of “I can make a difference.” “It’s a tested, well-developed research-based curriculum and program,” said McPherson. The books, which the children can take home, reflect the ethnicities of the children (called scholars at Freedom School). In the afternoon, the children go on field trips and participate in other mind-stimulating activities related to making a difference.

Program Positively Affects Two Generations

College-student interns work with the children at a 10:1 ratio. “The interns are trained, not in how to teach kids to read, but how to help children love reading, because reading can take them anywhere,” said McPherson. The experience benefits both students and the interns, with some interns going on to major in an education field and even teach in an inner city school due to the confidence they received from their experience at Freedom School Partners. “For those young people to have a college student role model to look up to for six weeks is really powerful, and so we say we’re changing two generations of young people, the scholars and the college students. And even if they don’t grow up to be teachers, they’re going to be child advocates and education advocates for the rest of their lives,” said McPherson.

Results and Benefits of Freedom School Partners

Research conducted by UNC Charlotte has shown improvement in the children’s reading levels. “We’re looking at 90 percent success in defeating summer learning loss for kids… And that’s just the reading piece. There’s another really magical wonderful part of Freedom Schools that helps children believe in themselves,” said McPherson. Freedom School Partners has other positive, far-reaching effects as well on the community. “Education breaks the cycle of poverty,” said McPherson. She believes the Charlotte community is supportive of the program because they realize that education truly does make a difference.

The Future of Freedom School Partners

In a recent press release, Freedom School Partners announced their goal of serving 2000 children next summer and is looking into securing new community site partners. They also hope to work with Project L.I.F.T. in the near future. “We’ve got a really bold goal to try and get to 5000 kids by 2016, which is really aggressive growth, but it works and we need it,” said McPherson.

If you would like to get involved with Freedom School Partners or start a Freedom School in your community, visit www.freedomschoolpartners.org to learn how you can volunteer as a guest Harambee reading, volunteer in another capacity or find general information about the program.

These two perspectives on teacher salaries  appeared in the For Your Consideration section in our November 16th e-Newsletter. For Your Consideration provides an open space for individuals to voice their opinions on various public education issues. Please note the views expressed in For Your Consideration are those of the authors and do not represent the views of MeckEd.

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