The Work Goes On: The Dream Shall Never Die

What Are The Odds? 

Given that the Chicago Cubs came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series, and Iowa just defeated UM in football, I shouldn't have been as shocked as I was to have Trump win.

Rationally, I knew that, as described, the chance of Trump winning was about the same as a college kicker making a 38-yard field goal. I've seen that happen--not frequently, but also--not so infrequently. (I'm not a huge football fan--but I get called in to watch the replays of the big plays.)

So, the election happened.

And I should be happier than I am that two out of three of "my" candidates won the Ann Arbor school board election. Actually, I am very happy that Harmony Mitchell and Jeff Gaynor won seats on the AAPS board; and that Donna Lasinski won a seat in the State House, leaving open an AAPS school board seat, so another new person can join the school board (and, in the process, putting a dedicated education advocate in the state House).

But I would have given all that up for a Clinton victory.

I was at an immigration conference on Friday, and Rep. Stephanie Chang spoke. She represents Ecorse, River Rouge, and part of Detroit, and one of the things she said is, "We need more candidates running for office!"

I think she's right. So I am really happy that we had competitive school board elections in nearly all of our local districts. It takes a lot to put yourself out there--I appreciate that people are willing to do it!

I had forgotten, but even when candidates lose, competitive elections do some important things:

• draw attention to key issues
• allow candidates to refine narratives and see what catches attention
• running for "lower level" seats like school board allows candidates to learn the skills needed to run for higher office

One thing that I had also forgotten is that there are lots of roles for people who want to support candidates, but don't want to run for office. I had also forgotten that canvassing can be fun, especially if you are working with friends. I canvassed for Hillary Clinton in Ohio and Pennsylvania with old friends; made a new friend canvassing for Clinton in Michigan; and got a lot of exercise walking the streets for Hunter, Harmony and Jeff in some beautiful fall weather.

Now What?

The pressing question for me, now, is: what should I work on? Part of me thinks, "Why were you working on local education issues when so many "bigger" issues are more important?" Part of me thinks, "Work on things you can control and that have a chance of success."

Should I be working on climate change? the Dakota pipeline? civil liberties? reproductive rights? I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Even within education issues, the big question for me is whether we should focus on the short game or the long game. Let's face it--the short game is ALL defense, and it's much bigger than some of the issues that are important to me, like overtesting. [They are related, though.]

Some proposals I have heard are coming down the pike from the state legislature include attacks on teacher pensions and the use of specialized education accounts to pay for private schools.

The long game would be focused on things like ending gerrymandering; improving our Freedom of Information Act law; ending online charters and for-profit charters.

I still believe that our new local group Educate Ann Arbor; the statewide group Michigan Parents for Schools; the national Network for Public Education have a lot to contribute.

More Than Ever

For inspiration, I am sharing Ted Kennedy's 1980 Democratic convention concession speech, in which he says:

"the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." 

After we are done mourning--we've got work to do. So whatever you choose to work on? Choose something.
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Introducing...Educate Ann Arbor

Those of you who have been reading this blog for years know that this year, my youngest child is entering his senior year of high school! Where did the time go?

[Digression: He writes, too--follow the Community High School Communicator, people--it's got good stuff!]

So anyway, you know that I'm planning on phasing out my writing here as he phases out his career. (Or--I'm willing to "sell" this blog--for $0.00!--if anyone else wants to take on writing about our county schools. Seriously, maybe that's you.) MORE SERIOUSLY, I cannot do "this" alone.

So anyway, what I've been thinking about is the subject of "this": what comes next? I don't mean for me personally--I mean for the movement to educate people about our schools, promote transparent decision-making, support children and teachers, advocate for better school finance arrangements, oppose testing and the educational reform agenda...just for starters. These are not short-term issues; they require long-term attention.

Across the nation, people are organizing. Diane Ravitch helped establish the Network for Public Education.

Many thanks to Pete Sickman-Garner for the fantastic logo and to Meredith Buhalis for web site design.

Here in Ann Arbor, we are organizing too, and I'm proud to say that I'm part of the group that has established a new "organization," (it is so informal at this point that it is kind of a "baby organization") and a new web site, educateannarbor.org.

I am excited about our mission and our platform. It's a bit long, but hey--education is kind of complicated. I didn't know it at the time, but the platform very much echoes the platform of the Network for Public Education.

I'm posting the "overview" part of the mission below.

I very much hope that you will visit the web site and ENDORSE our platform. Eventually we will have a list of people who have endorsed the platform on the web site (which is why you have the option of "endorsing" anonymously--in case you cannot or don't want to be public). And eventually, this will not just be a small group of people with a vision, but a large group of people with many action plans.

Educate Ann Arbor is a group of parents, teachers, school staff, students and citizens who care about our public school systems and work toward educating our community about public education. We believe parents should have an active voice in their children’s education. We believe teachers are professionals and should be treated as professionals. We believe in teacher-driven assessment. We support the rights of teachers, paraprofessionals, and other school staff to unionize. We endorse community-driven decision-making. We insist the State of Michigan make school funding a priority.

Read the rest of our platform/philosophy here, and join us!


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