Criticizing schools is an ugly part of elections
Some candidates in this election season say our schools are a failure. Perhaps they think it’s good politics, or maybe they actually believe it.
It is, like most heated rhetoric during an election, absolutely wrong on the facts and used to pit people against each other. It is also a terrible thing to say about our communities and their future.
What company will want to move an industry to a place where the schools are a failure?
It is also an insult to the thousands of hard working teachers and students in Alabama’s schools. They certainly do not believe they are failures, nor should they.
Alabama has one of the most productive workforces in the country — as competitive as any throughout the world. Alabamians generate high value for an hour’s work.
We have become the second state in the nation for the number of autos built, just behind Michigan. We have a strong industrial base, with a growing tech and bio-tech sector and a strong agricultural base. We have suffered like everyone else in the recession, but we are poised for strong growth in the future, and our well-situated workforce will lead the way.
The vast majority of people who work in Alabama companies and industries come from our Alabama public schools. A workforce this productive could not come from institutions that are failures. Our schools produce good workers, and they provide opportunity to tens of thousands of young people. They prepare thousands for college each year.
This is not to say there aren’t things we can and must do to advance our schools. In this election year, an honest discussion of our education system would highlight areas of improvement, especially overcoming the tough effects of severe budget losses.
Such a discussion would also highlight the efforts currently being made that promote progress in our schools, and there are many.
Over the past decade, the Alabama drop out rate has been steadily going down while test scores have been going up. We saw improvement in math scores and better success in science. And most importantly, we saw the largest gains in the country in the all-important elementary reading scores. When children stay on grade level for reading early, they do better later, and such jumps show that things like drop out rates will continue to go down in the future.
This progress didn’t just happen; it took hard work in the classroom and some homegrown education reform.
The Alabama Reading Initiative was able to spread proven research-based teaching practices that help struggling readers and help overall school performance. It brought new books to schools, and got faculties to collaborate on reading success. After a decade of building, we were able get it into every school in 2007, and its success speaks for itself.
We then created the Math Science and Technology Initiative, which is modeled on the reading program. It has now grown to almost half of all schools, shown tremendous success, and it is hoped that it can be expanded as funds allow.
Just last week it was announced that Alabama leads the nation in Advance Placement test gains. In just one year, the number of students who take and pass an advanced placement exam jumped more than 18 percent, double the national average. Passing an AP exam qualifies a student for early college credit, and predicts future success.
The reason so many more Alabama students are taking and passing an AP exam is because so many more schools are able to offer these advanced courses through distance learning. We were able to invest in technology in Alabama schools, building one of the nation’s most efficient distance learning systems in ACCESS, and now even the smallest rural school can offer advanced chemistry or art history.
We still are behind the nation in the number of students taking these advanced courses, but we are catching up and making impressive gains. Alabama schools are headed in the right direction.
They are by no means failures.
Our schools have suffered two years of proration and cuts of up to 20 percent, yet they still make gains. They have done more with less, and we should honor their work, not tear them down to score cheap political points.
Johnny Mack Morrow is a state representative for Franklin County. His column appears each Wednesday.
