A Strange Feeling That No One In Power Really Cares About Education

It is a strange feeling.

You’ve probably, like me, felt it the last week. I’m sure you’ve felt it multiple times the last few years. And, even years before (if you are a veteran educator), there has been this lingering feeling that no one seems to care about education any more in the United States.

30 years ago, America was the leader in quantity and quality of high school diplomas. Today, our nation is ranked 36th in the world.

All together, America’s public schools have lost at least 1.2 million students since 2020, according to a recently published national survey. State enrollment figures show no sign of a rebound to the previous national levels any time soon.

It’s not just the kids that are leaving, teachers are as well, for many different reasons.

Teacher quality is one of the most significant factors related to student achievement. In the U.S., 14% of new teachers resign by the end of their first year, 33% leave within their first 3 years, and almost 50% leave by their 5th year. The National Education Association this February released a nationwide survey of teachers in which 55 percent said that the current school environment is pushing them to plan on leaving the profession sooner than they’d originally planned. Unlike years past, teachers acting on their frustration aren’t just those new to the profession and feeling overwhelmed. Nor are they necessarily veterans who’ve taught for decades and are on the verge of retirement.

And, while we can’t point to funding as the ONLY reason, it may be the simplest data set to look at to make sense of that lingering feeling that no one cares.

According to a detailed report and study from The Century Foundation: The United States is underfunding our public schools by nearly $150 billion annually, robbing millions of children—predominantly minority and low-income children—of the opportunity to succeed.

A wide-ranging and rigorous body of research makes it clear: spending matters in education. More specifically, greater investments in schools translate to improved student outcomes, and these outcomes are more pronounced and significant for low-income and minority students.

Across a range of metrics, U.S. students score lower than students in other developed nations, and these outcomes vary significantly along racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines. At the same time, state- and district-level data show wide variation in educational spending across the country. Some school districts and states spend vastly more per pupil, and pay educators much higher wages, than others. Not surprisingly, variation in education spending largely overlaps with variation in student outcomes. In general, where states invest more in public schools, students tend to achieve higher scores and perform better.

To calculate exactly “how much” more spending is needed, TCF partnered with the nation’s leading school finance expert, Bruce D. Baker, Ed.D., of Rutgers University Graduate School of Education, to develop a first-of-its-kind national cost model study. Our model estimates what it would cost for students to achieve national average outcomes on reading and math assessments by 2021 for every school district in the country, more than 13,000 in total.

For the majority of school districts in the country (7,224 in total, serving almost two-thirds of public school students, or more than 30 million children in total), bringing students up to the nation’s current average outcomes requires greater public investment, enough to fill what we call a “funding gap.” The remaining districts currently provide funding at or above what our model estimates is needed to achieve average outcomes, and thus have no funding gap.1

Funding doesn’t fix all the issues we are seeing across the board that are leading to the stats shared. Without a plan, more money doesn’t help make schools safer, more inclusive, or better learning environments for the kids that need it the most.

Yet, without funding it’s almost impossible to continually do what teachers and educators are asked to do every single day.

A recent article put it like this:

Test scores are down, and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards, and children are crying on the couches of social workers. Anger is rising. Patience is falling.

For public schools, the numbers are all going in the wrong direction. Enrollment is down. Absenteeism is up. There aren’t enough teachers, substitutes or bus drivers…

Public education is facing a crisis unlike anything in decades, and it reaches into almost everything that educators do: from teaching math, to counseling anxious children, to managing the building.

As an educator I’ve lifted my hands up in frustration too many times in the last few years wondering if anyone cares about education any more, if anyone is looking at the big picture, and if any one in power actually wants to do something about it.

As a parent this last week hit me hard. I was reminded of the Tom Murray quote, “Every child in your classroom is someone else’s whole world”. That goes for all the people working in our schools, not just the kids. We have to treat them, protect them, and support them as such.

This week I reached out to my elected officials with specific actions they can take to support the kids and adults in our schools. But, I’m still here left with that lingering feeling, does anyone in power really care about education, and in turn, do they really care about our future? Only actions will quell that feeling, it is long past time for anything other than showing where you stand as an elected official. In the meantime, there are millions of kids going to school, and thousands of adults supporting them every single day—and they are all someone else’s whole world.