When I went to college back in the mid 1980s I majored in Journalism. A stint as the editor of my high school newspaper had inspired me to take it to the next level. Besides, my math skills were terrible and I had no interest in business, psychology or architecture. I wasn't talented enough to major in art, music or drama.
My potentially obsessive interest these past few years with what goes on in public education is fueled by more than just the fact I and my family have chosen a different educational path and I like to keep up with how the other half lives. A lot of my interest has to do with the fact that we pay ridiculous amounts of tax money into the public school system.
It's also fueled by something a wise journalism professor -- a gritty award-winning newspaper reporter in a past life -- once told us in class. He was lecturing us on the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) and our rights as journalists to demand access to pretty much anything we needed in order to do our jobs.
"Anytime the public's money is being used, the public has a right to know."
Period.
It wasn't until many years later, after becoming a mother and researching not only the philosophies of education but the actual application of them that I returned to the aforementioned declaration.
If schools don't perform, if teachers cheat on test scores, if administrators deal drugs or lie about their credentials, if kids are mistreated, if parents are promised one thing but receive another, if kids spend 12 years of their learning lives only to emerge from the experience with the academic skills of a fourth or fifth grader, if good teachers leave because of crappy pay, apathetic parents, out-of-control students, then the public not only needs to know, it needs to care and it needs to act.
Anytime we are required to part with our hard-earned tax dollars, we have the right to know what we're getting for that money. Don't settle for the status quo if the status quo is mediocre, and don't be afraid to ask the hard questions.
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