The Pendulum Must Swing

I'm not in favor of the one-way political discussions now underway: we need to address the deficit, to be sure, but it would be nice to see a more balanced discussion pitting tax increases against cutting programs. I think much of the cutting now underway, particularly in Congress, provides cover for the right to neuter those government programs not of their liking. The relatively trivial cost 'savings' from ending government support to NPR comes to mind as does ending funding to Planned Parenthood.

These programs may well have outlived their usefulness, who knows. But don't tell me this is the way to balance the budget. The focus should be on the big ticket items such as defense and the entitlement programs. The one thing not being discussed is higher taxes, not even returning tax rates to the levels that existed over the two decades preceding the Bush tax cuts. That's simply not in the cards: the Republican majority was elected to cut spending and protect the tax burden.

The pendulum has to swing. Services need to be cut and the people need to feel the pain, such as it might be. If the pain is bearable than we have done the right thing by curtailing government programs. Public support for addressing the budget deficit via higher taxes as well as slicing programs will coalesce only if the pain is too great. It may take one or possibly even two Congressional elections before the will of the people is accurately reflected in Congressional decision-making. One thing seems to be certain, however, there will be change.

The Weakest Link

The media has been rife with stories explaining the technological safeguards that were or were not in place in Japan. At the same time we are informed about the extensive measures taken in the United States to preclude an Atomic accident to include training site mock-ups of nuclear reactor control rooms.

The extensive steps taken to limit the likelihood of disaster are comforting but they do not address the real problem – human error. Reporting from Japan indicates that the reserve power generators, which would have keep the reactors cooled, failed because a worker failed to fill up the tank. Bereft of diesel, the generators shut down and water was not pumped into the reactors. Simply put, the problem was human.

If memory serves me right, human error was also responsible for the Chernobyl disaster. At Three Mile Island, it was determined that operator error played a major role in allowing the coolant to escape.

The logic is inescapable: human decision making is the weak link in any solution. Technological prowess, at the end of the day, is ultimately dependent on the quality of the human element. Perhaps, then, the media should be focusing on the quality of the American workforce employed in nuclear facilities. What are their pay scales? Do they take IQ tests? Are there limits on the numbers of hours worked.

In a world that is increasingly characterized by the widespread application of advanced technology, it is well worth remembering that some things never change – the potential for human error. With this in mind we may well question the utility of employing highly technological solutions, which essentially compound the damages that can be done by those few humans who remain in the game.

Be Careful of What You Wish For

Across the nation teachers are under siege. Elected legislators and governors seek to reduce teacher compensation by eroding collective bargaining rights and holding firm on salary increases. Concomitantly, they are taking a meat axe to other educational spending, including substantial reductions in the number of teachers at a time when student populations are increasing. Classroom effectiveness has been under increasing scrutiny for several years, with calls for a thorough housecleaning of ineffective teachers on the one hand, and plans to first measure and subsequently tie teacher pay to some standard measurement of student performance on the other. One can only conclude that American citizens feel that teachers are not making enough of a difference in the classroom to justify the current level of oversight and funding.

The status held by teachers was far different when I was attending school. In the 1950s and 1960s -when fewer than ten percent of all Americans had graduated from college- teachers were viewed as a highly educated professional class. Classroom discipline issues were less of an issue, in part because parents had little tolerance for misbehavior in the classroom: parental respect for teachers was mirrored by student respect. America had its share of ineffective teachers, to be sure, but these were seen as the exception rather than the rule. This paradigm has been turned on its head. Today we extol our few super-teachers, and look for ways to instill these attributes in their less capable peers. Overseers look for ways to ensure a minimum acceptable level of teaching performance.

Part of this change comes from the increased focus on equating education with student performance on standardized tests. Surprisingly, however, the teachers we remember as special were those who made class interesting, treated us with respect, made us feel that we had the ability to succeed in life, and motivated us to perform at our best. The content of our learning took second place to the context. These characteristics don’t lend themselves to testing, however. It seems we have come to equate what is important in the classroom with what we can measure rather than what may really matter.

Young men and women enter and remain in the teaching profession because they are excited by the challenge of making a difference with America’s children. They recognize that the job has been made more challenging by standardized testing and larger class sizes, but they seem ready to take up to the challenge. Those who remain in teaching do so because of the positive feedback they get from their students. It doesn’t take much imagination, however, to foresee a substantial shift in attitudes of current and future teachers regarding the net benefits of teaching. It has become a thankless profession characterized by hyper-critical oversight, increased workloads, a decline in public appreciation, and reduced remuneration. We may be in the process of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Cutting education is not like closing a state park during the week, or reducing government fuel subsidies to the needy. In the latter cases, impacts are immediately felt and subject to quick adjustment. The combined impact of our current onslaught on the teaching profession will not be felt so quickly. It may take up to a generation before its impact is clearly understood. In the rush to balance our budgets we may find that we have been penny wise and pound foolish. In our relentless pursuit of academic rigor we may find that the qualities we shoved aside in the interest of test performance are the very ones that make all the difference.

Charter Schools and the American Way

The North Carolina general assembly is all about increasing charter school opportunities for North Carolina students and their parents. As the story goes, charter schools provide parents with the opportunity to better align their child's interests with educational opportunities. Moreover, charter schools put pressure on regular public schools to improve performance. How can anyone argue with this win-win scenario?

I would subscribe to this scenario if charter schools, which exist because of public funding, are subject to the same rules as regular public schools. Specifically, regular public schools are responsible for instructing all students who appear at the school house door regardless of age, emotional baggage, educational qualifications and the like. In marked contrast, a student failing to make the grade - academically or behaviorally- in a charter school can be dismissed - returned to their local regular school.

The subtle benefit of an all inclusive public school system is that schools mirror real life. Students in public schools reflect the full range of racial and economic diversity present in the larger population. Their experiences better prepare them for effective adult participation in American society. Public schools served as the spoon that blended the racial and ethnic differences in America's melting pot approach. The quality of public schools may have been monitored by the parents of certain segments of this society, but their oversight applied to the entire school population. School boards, elected by the entire population, were expected to respond the needs of all societal segments.

Fast forward to a world populated by charter schools - public institutions of learning that have been effectively'privatized'. Students have to compete for admission and those who 'fail the grade' are returned to the public school system. Good teachers will naturally be attracted to such schools, in part because of the curriculum offerings and, in part, because of the knowledge that problematic students tend to be weeded out of the charter school environment. Worsening public school environments only feeds the pressure to create additional charter schools. With no ceiling on the number of schools the process will likely accelerate; the public school system will ultimately become the home base for those students who are unable to enter or maintain their enrollment in a charter school.

Students who are favored by intellect, self-confidence, and financial security are going to do well in any environment. Moreover, they set the example, albeit imperfectly, to fellow students as to what is possible in this country. These same students - via their positive academic participation-- also serve to improve the learning environment for all concerned. In this regard public schools tend to mirror society. Charter schools, in fulfilling their promise, erode this core dynamic.

Hard Choices Require Mutual Respect

A storm had thrown the Mayflower well off course- to the uninhabited west coast of the Cape Cod bay. The Pilgrims realized they had free reign in choosing how to structure their lives together in the New World. Their compact to one another – to which all subscribed – was to abide by the will of the majority as long as each had a say in voting on the Colonies laws. Their individual acceptances of majority will was facilitated by the recognition that all were in the same situation: there was no social or economic stratification among the Pilgrims. In short, there was no wealth to fight over.

Fast forward almost three hundred years. The United States had become the most powerful and richest nation in the world. It had evolved into a society where the distribution of income had become highly skewed, more so that at any time since the days of the robber barons of the late nineteenth century. Class struggle – long a scourge of any democracy- has moved front and center in public policy debates.

Paul Krugman speaks to this dynamic in his 13 January New York Times op-editorial –A Tale of Two Moralities. One side, he notes, believes strongly that “society’s winners” should be taxed to pay for a “social safety net” for all citizens. They effectively subscribe to the socialist tenants prevalent throughout Western Europe. Other Americans are equally strong in their conviction that citizens have the right to keep what they have worked hard to earn: they view “taxes and regulation” as “tyrannical impositions on their liberty”. Krugman points out, correctly, that there is no middle ground in this debate.

This class warfare was far less fractious in the past, in part, because the Republican Party was more moderate in its outlook than it is today. More importantly, past Administrations were able to simultaneously address needs of both factions. President Reagan substantially cut taxes without reducing the safety net: President George Bush cut taxes substantially while increasing Medicare and Medicaid coverage. Both did so by using America’s credit card to partially fund government operations. The consequence of this continued deficit spending has been the steady rise in U.S. indebtedness.

We can no longer have it both ways. The annual deficits from programs instituted but not funded during the Bush years have been exacerbated by the current Administration’s spending to first stem the economic downturn and subsequently to facilitate economic recovery. At this point America has effectively reached its credit limit. Although we probably cannot afford to constrain debt growth immediately, we must come to grips with disconnect between tax collections and government expenditures.

Our democracy is faced with making some fundamental choices regarding what we stand for as a nation. Unlike the past, there will be real winners and losers in the current debate. Those who cling to a relatively flat tax rate may be faced with absorbing substantially higher tax burdens. Those who believe in a central role for government in ensuring minimal levels of health care and personal income may be faced with substantial reductions in government support. Substantially cutting US defense and homeland security spending only mitigates this dilemma. Something and someone has to give.

Harsh choices require all of us to heed President Obama’s plea for an end to the vitriolic animosity that has become part and parcel of our national debate. The health of our democracy will depend, in no small measure, on the ability of the political ‘winners’ to be sensitive to the deep-seated values held by the ‘losers’. By analogy, those factions that do not get their way in public policy debates must accept that such losses are a natural outcome of the democratic process.
In our democracy, each citizen is equally entitled to their view of the proper role of government. This fundamental legitimacy should not be denigrated no matter how ‘irrational’ or ‘irresponsible’ their views may appear to others. Politicians espousing programs that go against one’s personal views are not ‘misguided’or a‘threat to the country’. They are simply representing the views of the electorate.

Failure to acknowledge the legitimacy of differing views threatens the vitality of a democracy that started some three-hundred years ago when one hundred and two men and women combined to form a government based on equal participation in decision making and the shared recognition that each individual owed their allegiance to those decisions that were agreed upon. A tenacious clash of values is part and parcel of the democratic process, but so too is the recognition that everyone is entitled to an equal say in the matter regardless of their views. Democracies are sustained, not by policy outcomes, but by the process by which these outcomes are reached.

Management 101

For the last decade I have taught high school students government and economics. The previous thirty years were spent in service with the Central Intelligence Agency, holding a number of managerial assignments of steadily increasing importance. As Director for the CIA’s Office of Training and Education I administered the design and delivery of a wide range of managerial training.
In both careers I was responsible for subordinate productivity – adults in my previous life and students in my current one. Getting workers to perform well is one tough assignment. Boosting worker productivity has been the subject of countless books, business school classes, and professional seminars. Analogously, studies abound on the best way to improve student performance.
To my way of thinking, there are but a few core principles for enhancing worker productivity:
• Keep the supervisor-worker ratio at manageable levels: the supervisor must be able to appreciate the nature of each worker’s contribution and to develop individualized strategies to boost the productivity of each of his subordinates.
• Provide material incentives: the supervisor has to have the ability to match pay to performance. Pats on the back clearly help, but workers will slack off if hard work does not impact on weekly pay packets.
• Provide the supervisor with hiring and firing authorities: workers who fail to pull their load need to be replaced by those who will.
• Reward supervisors who boost worker productivity: promotions and bonuses should incentivize managerial best practices.
Having worked as a supervisor for over twenty-five years, I can attest to the importance of these tools, and to the difficulties of motivating subordinates when they are not in place.
Educational institutions are in the business of equipping young men and women with the various skill sets required to be productive employees in an increasingly demanding work environment. Classroom teachers effectively serve as first line supervisors. In recent years, these supervisors have come under increasing scrutiny -from politicians and educators alike- for the manifest failings in documented student performance. Most of the criticism has been heaped on the training and motivation of the individual teacher. Everyone seems to be seeking ways of cloning super-teachers.
Applying basic management principles to the educational environment may provide some insight in why it indeed may take a super-teacher to meet the current spate of student success criteria.
• Teachers are assigned two to three times the number of ‘workers’ to supervise as their counterparts in industry. Moreover, the ‘workers’ are adolescents or younger vice mature adults.
• Teachers have no say in the students assigned to them and no power to ‘fire’ those that were not willing to work. Teachers can’t even remove students from the classroom when they interfere with other students trying to do their jobs.
• Teachers are faced with meeting ever higher productivity targets – student test scores-- along with ever more time consuming performance measures that take time away from teaching the requisite skills.
• Teachers have no means to explicitly reward quality performance: students, they are told, had to be motivated by convincing them it was in their own best interest to maximize production. They could give productive students a shout-out or higher performance grade but nothing more.
• Teacher remuneration has nothing to do with their success in these endeavors: pay is based on education, training certifications, and longevity. Worse yet, productive teachers risked being saddled with a more challenging batch of students in the next cycle.
Any business would be hard pressed to succeed under these constraints. The situation becomes even more problematic when one factors in the uneven quality of educational administrators, often counterproductive parental involvement, and limited funds for improving the learning environment. Cloning super-teachers is oxymoronic: they are super teachers precisely because of their uniqueness. If education is to have its own Stakhanovite movement, it will first have to address the fundamental disconnects between today’s teaching environment and management best practices. At the end of the day, teachers lack both the tools and incentives provided to their business world counterparts when seeking to boost student achievement.

His Pledge of Allegiance

Bill Ordway wasn't much to look at - a rather runty and pock-marked young man from a mill town trying to be the first in his family to obtain a college degree. Self-effacing, athletic, and popular, Bill easily adopted to our college's social and athletic environment. Rooming across the hall from one another, Bill and I became close friends during our freshmen year, pledging the same fraternity.

Things were less sanguine on the academic front. Bill lacked the academic discipline required to compensate for his relatively poor high school preparation. Nonetheless, he would have likely completed college excepting for his need to maintain the C+ average (when C was the average grade given) required to keep his scholarship. Failing to do so, Bill left school in February 1966.

Dropping out of college in 1966 held severe ramifications for a young man. The war in Vietnam was ramping up, and many would mirror Bill's decision to volunteer for the Army's Officer Candidate School in lieu of the certainty of being drafted. Ordway was not in favor of the war but, like many of his peers, respected the allegiance he felt towards the United States government.

Bill was the first fraternity brother to serve in Vietnam. As an Infantry lieutenant operating in a highly contested region, he was constantly in and out of combat. His letters, albeit infrequent, described his wartime experiences in a detailed, matter of fact manner. Fraternity brothers would pause by the bulletin board outside the kitchen to read about his exploits, learning for the first time about spider-holes, ambushes, and booby-traps. I remember clearly the letter he wrote to me describing being in combat for over one straight month just prior to Christmas 1967.

His death in the field -a bouncing-Betty mine severed his neck- during the furious combat that followed the Vietnamese Tet Offensive, seemed surreal to all of us. We attended the wake, the service, and the military burial in the small central-Massachusetts cemetery in a state of denial: none of us wanted to face up the harsh realities of this war which threatened to become intensely personal for many who would graduate in the coming spring.

Bill Ordway died in the worst kind of war. Unlike WWII that proceeded and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed, the war in Vietnam was fought by men who didn't want to be there on behalf of an American citizenry that resented them for their allegiance to the United States government. There would be no free tickets to sporting events nor singling out for praise by their neighbors and peers upon their return from Vietnam. Their desperate need for some sense of acknowledgement for their year of horror and sacrifice was often replaced by derision and scorn. In the best of circumstances they were simply ignored.

As a high school teacher I daily pledge my allegiance . During these moments I often think of Bill Ordway and the other Vietnam veterans who honored their school-day pledges regardless of their personal feelings. The Vietnam conflict may have ended some 35 years ago, but the sacrifices of men like Bill Ordway remain undiminished in the eyes of those who knew them.