Public Schools Matter!

So I mentioned in this post how I came to read Reign of Error:  The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools.  I loved this book for many reasons.  There is so much that I want to say about it!
When I finished reading it, I wrote to my school board director and suggested that the board read the book together.  The reason I did this was because last fall, our teachers exercised their right to strike, as they had been working without a contract for two years.  It made me pretty angry that the school board thought nothing of paying lawyers $100 an hour but yet didn't value our teachers.  Now the board has changed, and an agreement has been reached, and so I hope we have more pro-education members on the board, but I feel that this book really has some important things to say about how important teachers are.  Indeed, my school board director said that a pro-teacher book would be "preaching to the choir" so that was good to hear.  I am blessed to work closely with the teachers in our district and am in the schools quite a bit.  I see how hard they work.  I know how much they care.
Just last night I talked to a teacher who, along with another teacher, was taking their Life Skills high school students, the next day, to the musical production that our middle school was presenting.  Last night was a Friday night.  The next day then, being Saturday, is a day off for teachers, right?  Not for these ladies.  They love their students.  They care about them, deeply.  These are the kinds of things that the school board might never know.  But they should.  And so that is one of the reasons why I loved this very pro-teacher, pro-public education book. 
Ravitch rips both the Bush and the Obama administrations for their teach-to-the-test education policies.  No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are very alike and not very helpful.  Attacks on public education come from both the left and the right. 
It makes me wonder, and you know I love a good conspiracy theory, if it isn't true that the powerful, are all in bed together and really don't want our children to succeed.   Now I am a nut, I know that!  But man...I wonder if there isn't some truth to the New World Order when I learn that "liberals" and "conservatives" both promote policies that are contrary to the good of the regular Joe and Jane! 
Ravitch talks about what would make a difference in bettering education:  prenatal care, early childhood learning programs for example.  Now, who, who, who, who can argue with that?  Policy makers, that's who!  So you have to wonder...why? 
What a difference it would make if ALL mothers-to-be had quality care before they give birth, if all children had access to free and quality early childhood education and enough to eat, a safe place to sleep! 
That's the answer, man.  So why, why, why, do we end up instead with things like NCLB and RTTT?  Why! 
It's weird, isn't it? 
The only thing that I didn't really agree with about Ravitch's book was her complete criticism of Teach for America.  And that is personal, probably, because I know some brilliant young people who work for Teach for America.  But I do agree that it takes more than six weeks to make someone a teacher!  It's just that she sees TFA as complete invaluable.  While TFA does need to be changed in some ways, it does have a lot of value.  I just don't think she gave it a fair shake.
The bottom line is this:  teachers are the most important people in our country, next to parents.  Teachers need to be valued as such.