OPINION: Our children’s education:  Not a matter of finances, but philosophy

By Todd E. Brady

Columnist

The national government cannot do the job of an individual teacher who understands and is compelled by the vision of why he teaches and a love for the student he teaches. 

As students pack their backpacks and prepare to come home for the summer and as graduates throw their mortarboards into the air, districts throughout the nation are now bracing for teacher and staff layoffs after the consequences of the Covid pandemic aid package.

At the time (between March 2020 and March 2021), Congress authorized $190 billion for K-12 schools.  This largest one-time investment in education was about six times what is normally received during the year.

When schools were masking up and shutting down, it was commonly accepted that remote learning was not as effective as in-person instruction, but now we are reaping the obvious results of that less-than-effective approach.

A June 2023 report from the National Assessment of Education Progress revealed that math and reading scores for 13-year-olds declined several points after the pandemic.

Only 20% of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act were required to be used to “address the academic impact of lost instruction time.”  Other expenditures included backfilling budgets, purchasing HVAC units, buying students laptops, purchasing masks and cleaning supplies, and more.

The Renaissance writer Niccolo Machiavelli was first attributed with the quote, “Never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis.”  The government certainly did not waste the Covid crisis.  That was then, but billions of dollars later, here we are.  Now the Piper must be paid.  I am afraid that America is not paying the price with the money of its budget, but with the minds of its children.

Obvious to us now should be that education does not follow money.  It especially does not follow government money.  You can throw exorbitant amounts of money at schools and their administrators, but nothing replaces the caring, face-to-face, life-giving encounters between a teacher and student.  As former Executive Dean of the College of Education and Human Studies at Union University, Tom Rosebrough and his colleague Ralph Leverett say in Transformational Teaching, “Education is less about information and more about inspiration.”  Education must be more than “…the transfer of facts from the teacher to the learner.  We must expect students to be equipped with skills and attitudes that will prepare them to face new challenges.”

As a secondary education major in college, a former University professor and administrator, and the father of five children, I would suggest that the tremendous work of education is a work where teachers and parents work hand-in-hand together.  The home is the foundation of what occurs in school.  The school reinforces and builds upon the learning that a student receives at home. 

Could the Covid-induced loss in learning which we are seeing across the country be a direct result of the fact children stayed at home—homes which provided neither the foundation nor the reinforcement of learning which the teacher was seeking to facilitate?

Now that we are on the other side of the Covid debacle (At least I hope we are.), it is important for us to remember the words of German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas.  “Democracy requires of its citizens qualities that it cannot provide.  Politicians can conjure an exalted vision of a prosperous, healthy, free society, but no government can supply the qualities of honesty, compassion, and personal responsibility that must underlie this vision.”

Todd E. Brady serves as Staff Chaplain and Advanced Funeral Planner at Arrington Funeral Directors.  He and his wife, Amy have five sons.  You may write to him at tbrady@afgemail.net.