Stop Feeding the Beast

For too long there has been a systematic dismantling of public education. On one side of the coin we have educators and leaders strategically developing classrooms, schools, and districts as places that deepen learning, use tools of today, and engage students in rich, purposeful work. These folks are making every effort to ensure that education (especially public education) remains a relevant component, innovating within all of our communities. They are stretching the status quo, developing with authenticity, focusing on learning, and so much more. On the other side, we have folks that truly believe that public education cannot innovate. These stakeholders see public education as ineffective and are clamoring for the opportunity to prove their point. Too often they are supporting elected officials who set policies that lock public education down from truly innovating and they are continually chipping away at education as a right (not a privledge) in the United States. It is time friends to stop feeding the beast.

Even though education accounts for less than 2% of federal spending, the role and impact of public education is continually under scrutiny. What started as an effort to equitably educate the masses, has come full circle where too many want to lock down the educational experiences of our kids as purely academic in nature.