Change we can’t believe in

Dennis Theobald

In his first major speech on education since becoming U.S. president, Barack "Change We Can Believe In" Obama has called for teachers’ pay to be tied to students’ performance and for more "innovative" charter schools throughout the United States.

Why should we care?

Well, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once said that Canada’s relationship with the United States could be compared to that of a mouse sleeping beside an elephant. "No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast . . . one is affected by every twitch and grunt." Folks, the elephant is about to roll over.

Obama’s endorsement of merit pay and charter schools will comfort and encourage those who constantly seek to introduce these destructive measures in Canada, despite the fact that they have been discredited time and time again. So, once again, teachers in this country will have to explain that merit pay schemes are based on a false understanding of what motivates teachers and that wherever such policies have been introduced they have usually driven schools to narrow instruction, exclude borderline students and otherwise manipulate the system to generate rewards.

Once again, we will have to explain that the establishment of charter schools does not enhance education, particularly where programming choice already exists in the public schools. Deregulation that encourages the formation of charter schools diminishes equity and reduces accountability to taxpayers and the larger community.

What is particularly annoying about Obama’s plan for education is that this would-be "education president" is touting the virtues of performance incentives and deregulation in education at the same time as he is desperately trying to clean up the multitrillion dollar mess that resulted from a decade of performance incentives and deregulation in America’s financial sector. What makes the president believe that a model that has failed so spectacularly in the private sector would work any better in the nation’s schools?

At the bottom of all this is crass politics. Teachers’ unions in the U.S. have long been supporters of Obama’s Democratic Party and, frankly, Obama figures he can take their support for granted, no matter what ill-conceived education reforms he chooses to impose upon them. And he’s right—America’s teachers are not likely to find many friends in the Republican Party. Still, their representatives were left sputtering, trying to find some good news in this announcement. It seems that Obama has decided to throw teachers under the bus (an expression widely used in official Washington) in pursuit of an education policy that might generate some bipartisan support and provide political cover for other aspects of his stimulus plan.

What Canadian teachers should remember is this: there is nothing as indestructible as bad education policy. It just keeps coming back and back again. And teachers can’t count on even the most progressive politicians to be their friends. Constant vigilance and continuing political engagement are essential if teachers are to protect their interests and the interests of the students they serve.

I welcome your comments—contact me at dennis.theobald@ata.ab.ca.