With Tennessee student achievement assessments in the bottom quarter nationwide, community leaders are calling for more involvement from parents and teachers in students’ lives.
“The school system has failed. That’s what I see; that’s what I know,” said Antonio Hines, student government president at Chattanooga State. “If you don’t have anyone to push you, if you don’t have anyone to ask you questions, you can be smart but you can still fail.”
Hines enrolled at Chattanooga State after he recently lost his job. He wanted to set a good example for his kids, so rather than accept unemployment, he went after an education.
Hines said he didn’t actively try to get involved with student government, but his natural inclination to reach out to people had such an effect that many asked him to take up the position. If more teachers reached out in the same way, he said, fewer students would leave high school unprepared for today’s technologically-advanced jobs.
“Why can’t you get a student who’s sitting way in the back of the classroom? Why can’t we go back and touch that student?” he asked. “If you do not go out there and try to better yourself with higher education, you will push a broom. That’s what our public education system is pushing out.”
About 60 locals showed up Saturday to hear how they can help improve schools from Chattanooga Organized for Action, the Hamilton County Democratic Party and Education Association leaders.
“If as many people showed up to a school board meeting, it would be mutiny,” said Josh McManus of arts, economic and cultural development nonprofit CreateHere. “We have every ability in this room alone to make a huge difference.”
Sharon Vandagriff, president of the Hamilton County Education Association, said parents and community members need to be more involved in education and the state already has the dedicated teachers needed to see improvements.
“That’s pretty obvious from the fact that so many of us have stayed around for so long with such low incomes,” she said. “I’ll guarantee there are teachers out there who can make a lot of money in another field, because there’s excellence out there.”
No concrete steps to make that difference were decided Saturday, but organizers said just sharing information made the discussion worthwhile.
“A lot of people here are really antsy to get into action,” event organizer Joda Thongnopnua said. “I think we’ll have a lot more people at meetings.”
Vandagriff said she hopes more people will get involved – it could be the only way to effectively change education.
“While people are out there searching for the magic bullet to fix their schools, we know that solution is already there,” she said. “We can’t do it alone. We have to demand excellence in our schools.”