Saving Face

This week the US House of Representatives voted to cut the food stamp program by billions and the squawking about welfare abuse is in the forefront. This reminds me of a time when I was in third grade and the teacher entered our classroom and it was very noisy. She promptly made us all write sentences as a consequence. Now we were not all talking but we all got punished. I often hear this same mentality when it comes to cutting welfare. "They're all gaming the system so we should take it away" seems to be the battle cry. I know there are people who do take advantage of the system but there is a good way to address it. 

The statistics show that very little abuse of the system actually happens, or at least that is caught. We all have a built in bias that if someone is getting something for nothing that there is some game being played. This isn't always true. The gap between the rich and the poor is widening and welfare and food stamp programs help some people stay afloat and prevents children from starving. Now I do agree there needs to be some assurance that people are not using tax payer dollars on drugs, but to assume that everyone on welfare does so is unfair.  It is reasonable to cut any waste but use the saved money for larger purposes. 

Let me offer two thoughts. Here's an idea, cut some money from welfare if you want but use the dollars to investigate and prosecute welfare fraud. Here's an even bigger idea: start a war on poverty. Do we realize how many of the societal ills we argue about can be cured by eliminating poverty?  Use savings to fund programs to help end poverty. The reality is that special interests won't allow that to happen. You see the vote that was just taken was not about how evil welfare is, it's about saving face with the republican base. Republican legislators will now have something to run on the next time around. It is not realistic that welfare will be cut that much or it will pass in a democratic senate. Deals will be made and the program will continue. The tactic of dangling social programs will continue as long as legislators want to keep their unproductive jobs. I've said it before, keep your eye on the ball people. 

http://m.cbsnews.com/storysynopsis.rbml?pageType=politics&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57603776/house-votes-to-cut-$4-billion-a-year-from-food-stamps/&catid=57603776

http://spritzophrenia.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/how-bad-is-welfare-fraud-in-the-usa/

Waiting For A Documentary

This is the start of my 7th year in administration. I spent five years in the classroom before I switched to the "dark side" and I feel I have lost the right to define myself as a teacher. I have accepted this but I will always accept the task of defending this noble profession. If you are one of the many that take on the life of being a teacher, God bless you. If you are a teacher because you needed a job or there wasn't that much math to take for that major, go find something else to do because we don't need you. 

That's not why I am writing today. Davis Guggenheim is the filmmaker that brought us the documentary, Waiting For Superman. I have always been very critical of this film. It plays the blame game with our public schools without considering outside factors that frame the actual problems in education. He slammed the teachers unions, slammed school districts ways of dealing with poor teachers even when those protocols were dictated by state law. Putting your child in a charter school seems to be the only answer. This was the solution given without reporting the fact that charter schools fail at about the same rate at public schools. I saw the film as largely irresponsible and a disservice to hard working teachers. 

CBS recently aired his latest work entitled "Teach".  This seemed to be a better effort to empower people to rally around teachers and the work they do.  Film makers followed four young teachers and chronicled their ups and downs in the struggle to help all of their students succeed. They put a real face on the effort teachers make and the time, frustration, and tears that go into being a real teacher. They even had celebrities show up and give shout outs to their favorite teachers. 

Despite this improved effort Guggenheim still is missing the mark. Teaching and learning is a complex science that requires an artist to pull off. What the film fails to address is the well documented phenomenon of the state requiring more of us but giving us less to do it with. It fails to address the institution of the American family that sends us our clientele. An institution that has changed and in some ways eroded since the last generation. The truth is there is no single point of entry to fix education in America. So the answer at the state and federal level is to regulate. Add more expectations and more rules. 

This tactic only skirts responsibility for those who help this problem continue. Telling you who to blame for a problem is how you win elections. Our kids and our country should not be dependent on politics but we allow it to happen. Maybe that should be the next film for Guggenheim. Make a film about where real decisions are made for schools. A place were a few are ruining the most noble task that local communities take on. 

If you would like to see more on the efforts of Davis Guggenheim and the Gates Foundation, visit www.takepart.org.