What would be better for Tennesseans in general than to have economic success, making us all able to support a good standard of living and happy lives?
In speaking at the Chattanooga Rotary Club on Thursday, state Sen. Andy Berke of Chattanooga emphasized the importance of success in personal education to achieve those goals.
He likes to talk about education because it directly affects the young in kindergarten through the 12th grade, in our community colleges and universities -- and all of us for the rest of our lives.
Yet, Sen. Berke lamented, there are too many students who drop out of college. Why? Often, it has to do with the fact that their K-12 accomplishments have not been sufficient for them to "keep up" in college. And that, of course, limits success.
It takes money for schools at all levels. We don't want to waste it -- or our youngsters. Educational success is more likely with good student motivation, parental support, and dedicated teachers and principals inspiring students in sound courses. College grads, of course, usually make more money and have a better standard of living than dropouts.
We spend a lot of our tax money for education. We need to get our money's worth. Sen. Berke wants "90 percent" of education dollars to go into classrooms -- and produce good results for our students.
He's right in suggesting that getting our youngsters off to a good start is very important for all of us, personally, and for the economic opportunities of all Tennesseans.
The Graduation Summit and Senator Berke's focus on the issue were excellent, but if the only result is to look at money for public education it will be simply another failed enterprise. What became clear over the course of the day is that each successful child had a key individual who believed in them and encouraged them to believe in themselves and the value of learning.
What our community most lacks is a culture of learning and literacy where a wide range of opportunities to discover and pursue new ideas are encouraged and every citizen believes in its value. In looking at our history of educational success and high literacy whether it be the Great Awakening under Jonathan Edwards in our country, or Sequoyah's alphabet and the Brainerd Mission for the Cherokees, or even the sense of excitement about a new world generated after WWII, the key was that people felt the value of what they were doing down to the marrow in their bones.
I seriously doubt that trimming the "fat" of learning as play in libraries, museums, arts, and private & personal discovery in an exclusive focus on classroom instruction is going to change anything. What came out clearly from the graduation summit is that we have turned school into a conveyor belt of explicit rules and expectations and lost many alienated children by the time high school has ended. Until the parents and legislators equate learning with opportunity and low social cost, and support a wide range of lifelong learning opportunities at any age, laying all the blame and funding on formal education is doomed to fail.
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