Jon Bridge introduced the day’s featured program speaker, Don Nielson, as an alumnus of Ballard HS, UW, Harvard MBA, an author, UW lecturer, and committed advocate for focusing on student outcomes in public education.
Don Nielsen knows a thing or two about public education, having served on the Seattle School Board for eight years, he traveled the U.S. studying America’s public education system and now is a Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute http://www.discovery.org/and Chair of the Institute's program on public education reform. Don is a former Seattle #4 member, who may be rejoining in the future.
Why it is time to rethink school? “The education system in the U.S. is broken,” he began, “with COVID as a disaster for the economy and certainly a disaster for our children as the achievement gap has grown as a result of two years’ essentially on hiatus.” Suspension of school during the pandemic has increased mental illness, teen suicide, with drop-outs up, attendance down, and crime is up.
He said the education system was broken long before COVID, and that the education system was really never designed to educate every child. “Although the U.S. produces some of the most educated students in the world, 25% of children in high school will drop out before graduation, and many could not qualify for community college or the military,” he said, “with 70% of our children not getting the education they need and that’s been going on for decades – making the U.S. 23rd for education worldwide.” The outdated school calendar has become part of the culture of American society.
The common school education system started in the 1800s when the U.S. was an agrarian society. The school system aimed to educate students 6-14 years of age in the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with an academic year of about 180 days – children worked on farms during the summer months. The system hasn’t changed much since then.
“The current system is an unregulated phenomenon -- mandated by law to send your children to school, or the school you are assigned unless you chose a private school,” he said. “You have no choice largely because of a monopoly called teacher unions that focus on adults (teachers) and not children –teacher unions control the narrative.”
For any meaningful change, he says, it starts with the state Legislature that controls 60% of the school budget, with 30% from levies and 10% from the federal government. The state controls money and certification laws with 1,400 teaching certificated colleges in the U.S.– with 23 such colleges in Washington State offering teaching certificates.
“The system is Inefficient and ineffective as the state certifies teachers, approves curriculum and provides money with no consequences for non-performing schools,” he said. The teacher unions have focused on adults and not the children. He advocates choice for parents vs. having a school assigned by a school district. “Private schools focus on the customer or parents because parents are making the choice to send their children there; and they are paying a price,” he said. “We need to rethink the way we finance education by giving parents a voucher that can be spent at the parent’s school of choice – private, charter or public school.”
He is looking for one state that will take on their education system, and to rethink schools. While supportive of charter schools, his objective is to rethink public schools. A ‘right to work state’ that is not dominated by teacher unions; where passing legislation to create districts of innovation, an institute for educational leaders would improve outcomes, focusing on children and their success.
President Jimmy called the meeting to order promptly at 12:30p at the Westin Hotel and online via Zoom, followed by Don Murphy leading Rotarians in John Lennon’s classic 1969 antiwar anthem,‘Give Peace A Chance’, accompanied by Jevon Powell on the guitar. Jamie Mendez delivered the day’s inspiration about our purpose and passion at Rotary – contributing to others with a broader shared meaning for our greater mission. Inspiring hope in our community and abroad.
President Jimmy directed Rotarians to the website to view the club’s recent statement denouncing racism, then introduced pinch-hit-Sergeant-of-Arms, John Steckler, and Monthly Member Spotlight Chair to introduce 28-year Seattle #4 Rotarian, Bob Johnson as this month’s member in the spotlight.
“Do what you love for a living, and you will never do a day of work in your life,” John began as he described Seattle native Bob Johnson’s family legacy in dentistry. His success as a dentist came from his oral surgeon father, dentist uncle and more than 2,500 hours of continuing dental education. Bob is focused on his dental practice, his wife Linda of 35 years, and two grown children, one of whom is a dentist. Bob has stayed active in Rotary, serving on the Community Service Committee, and attending Rotary to meet others not associated with dentistry.
Program Chair, David Fain, came to the podium to promote next week’s meeting featuring Seattle Times Publisher, Frank Blethen, who will speak about the survival of democracy without local journalism, the value of preserving a local free press, independent journalism, and family ownership.
President Jimmy concluded the meeting by describing his three phases of life: preparation – dependent learning fundamental skills; vocation when we become self-supporting with one or more jobs and contribution when we retire or resign from full-time employment to explore our next steps…more freedom to choose what we are going to do with our time. Rotarians inspire hope.
Thank you meeting reporter Pete DeLaunay!