Cook: If it's broke, don't fix it -- our school funding problem

At 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, schools Superintendent Rick Smith goes before the Hamilton County mayor and commission to present his budget, which asks for $34 million more to, as Smith puts it, make our public schools the best in the South.

It will be a tough crowd. Many are opposed to Smith's proposal -- funded perhaps by a property tax increase -- and, for the sake of full and democratic discourse and debate, their main argument needs to be heard.

It goes something like this.

We already spend $345 million a year on schools, with nothing spectacular to show for it. Test scores remain low. In some schools, freshmen read on a first-grade level. In others, many seniors aren't ready for college.

And what happened to the Race to the Top money? And iZone funding? Haven't we already spent enough?

Why throw even more money at something that isn't working?

David Cook

It's hard, honest logic, and very business-minded. If widgets aren't selling, why invest more money to sell more widgets? If schools aren't working with the money they already have, why should we pour more money in?

Call it the banking method of school funding. Money goes in, and we expect returns to come out.

And when they don't?

"Giving them more money is like flushing it down the drain," one friend said.

There is one large problem with this way of thinking.

It doesn't go far enough.

If we are going to withhold money from our public schools because they aren't performing well, then we had better muster up the courage to understand why.

It's not because of schools.

Or teachers.

Or kids.

It's because of our understanding of education. The whole system. The whole enchilada.

Look at the current landscape of schools, of what we consider normative and acceptable. Look -- closely -- at the backdrop out of which we expect performance.

We have 25 kids in a classroom, when we should only have 12.

We have coed classrooms, when single-sex should be the norm.

We have homework and grades in elementary school, when research shows it does little to no good. (One local private school is considering getting rid of grades entirely in middle school.)

We have classrooms without enough textbooks to go around, so we force kids to share, turning the beauty and power of book ownership into a tattered, hand-me-down experience and sending the cutthroat message that knowledge is scarcity, and that our kids aren't worth enough to give them their very own books.

We start our school days at horrendously early times, when research -- and common sense -- tells how detrimental that is.

We pay millions to corporations to create and administer tests to students that are protected like state secrets, thus giving the real classroom authority to a corporation. These tests? Teachers cannot even see them beforehand. Parents? We can't either. (Why is there no uprising over the fact we parents cannot hold in our hands the biggest tests our children take?)

We have little to no art and foreign language instruction in elementary schools, which is almost medievally behind-the-times and neglectful of the creative and spiritual side of education.

We allow our kids one hour of physical education a week -- do all schools have PE teachers? -- when research and common sense show that our kids, especially in the midst of an obesity crisis, need to move and sweat and run and play for at least 90 minutes each day, every day.

We live and die by testing scores, sending the message to students that education is about an eye-for-an-eye competitiveness, and refusing to allow teachers, especially in low-performing schools, the dignity, autonomy and space to teach at the speed and pace appropriate for the child before them.

If we really want to fix our public education, we fix these things. And many more.

Like quadrupling the number of school counselors. And promoting student-centered learning. Investing in the freshest and healthiest cafeteria food, while turning schools into health hubs, with dentists and nurses and social workers for students and their siblings.

And we hire the best teachers in the South, which means we pay the top salary in the South.

Doing all this would take a whole lot more money than the meager request Smith is making. Otherwise, we're squeezing blood from turnips, demanding more of our schools than they are capable of delivering.

County commissioners, are you willing to do all that?

County mayor, are you willing to go that far?

Until that courageous day comes, fund Smith's request. It's the least you can do.

Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook at DavidCookTFP.