A Dialogue About Public Education
– Lynn Shaw
The hosts of the State of the Nation show on TNT Radio are clearly on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me. This did not dissuade me from accepting an invitation to appear on the show as I felt that it could be an opportunity to have an informative dialogue about the public education system. The resulting conversation probably did not change any viewpoints, but at least I was able to introduce some concepts that should be universally important, regardless of one’s location on the political spectrum:
Bryan ‘Hesher’ McClain:
That's right. It is a conversation that we have to have and we have to have it ongoing, especially when it comes to what's going on with schools, with education, and with the kids. It's one of the worst things. You know, I, as, as a full-fledged adult, I'm okay with whatever they want to do to society. Right? I'm, I'm not okay with it, but I can deal with it. But when I see the cultural manipulation being aimed specifically at education, specifically at kids, when they start building things into educational programs to do with identity politics, I don't care what piece of culture war, identity politics it is, it's not meant for children. It's a form of indoctrination. It's a form of assault and abuse flat out. We're going to be joined by Carl Petersen right now and this is a man that has had to fight for services that his kids deserve. Carl, welcome to State of the Nation. I'm here with Lynn Shaw. I wanna thank you for joining us and telling us your story today.
Carl Petersen:
Thanks for having me.
McClain:
All right, well, that's probably a good place to start. So, for anyone that's unfamiliar, why don't you kind of give us your story?
Petersen:
Sure. So I, I'm a father of five. My triplets are my youngest and two of them are on the autism spectrum. I'm their stepdad, so I came in when they were about six years old. And so I kind of was kind of thrust into a situation that was already in progress. And at first, I started participating in their IEPs, which is how the District determines what services they're gonna get, and kind of sat back and kind of trusted that the right things were being done. But then as we started to have questions, I kind of learned how to poke at the system a little bit. We ended up getting a lawyer and suing them because their teachers were agreeing they need certain services, and the district was saying “no.”
So we ended up at Beudry, which is the Los Angeles School District's headquarters, high up in that skyscraper and sitting in a conference room for two days. And at the end of those days, I turned to my wife and said, “Somebody's gotta fix the system.” And she said, “What about you?” So my next step was that I ran for school board and took on the system. I didn't win, but I got some credibility. Then I ran one more time after that. And right now I cover the district in my own blog.
Lynn Shaw:
You know, Carl, that's an amazing story and we're always recommending that when anybody says to us, “What should we do?” Get involved in your school, no matter how tough it is, as a parent, a concerned citizen school board, get to know the teacher, and ask for the curriculums. It's your right as parents.
I have a couple of questions for you. A couple of weeks ago, there was a big walkout of all the teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. What came of that? Because all I could deduce from that, it was just sort of so the teachers could get more perks and raises as opposed to what they were kind of framing it as, you know, cafeteria workers, part-time workers. What's your take on all of that? And do we ever think we'll see a day when the government will get outta the education business altogether? And what do you think?
Petersen:
So, in that walkout; it was the cafeteria workers who actually went on strike along with the special education aids and the bus drivers. They're the ones who actually went on strike. The teachers honored the picket line, basically.
It was a strike that shouldn't have happened. In the end, the workers got exactly what they were asking for. It was just a Superintendent who had dug in his heels for who knows what reason because he ended up caving on everything. As far as the teachers, they just did sign a contract and along with their pay raise, there were other things that were important to families; smaller class sizes being the biggest of them all. That's something that's been fought for for years and years because basically when class sizes are too large, students don't get the attention they need to be successful.
Shaw:
And let me ask you something. How do you think American schools and students compare to European and Asian schools and what's the difference? Because I feel like in our American education system today, very sadly, it's simply modified childcare. We are falling behind across the United States. What's your opinion on this?
Carl Petersen:
That gets into a whole other subject of testing and what they base this “falling behind” on. We've become, in this country, I think too enslaved to this testing industry, which is basically what it is. The same companies that are running these tests are the same ones providing the textbooks. So you just get into this cycle where you have to buy the textbooks to make sure the kids do well on the test. And, what is the test for? When I was a kid, we also took standardized tests, but it was something that the teachers used as a tool. It's like, where did you need help? Now it's, we're gonna judge how well the school is, how well the teacher is performing. So it puts pressure on the kids then because if they don't perform well, then the teachers get bad marks. The school gets bad marks. So instead of being this thing that's just supposed to evaluate the student to see where they need help, it's become this whole other thing. And, I personally opted my kids out of those tests, which you're allowed to do in California as a parent.
McClain:
Let me throw this one at you before we gotta let you go here. We've talked to a number of people about this and we've heard a number of opinions and one of the ones that stuck out in my head, I can't remember which guest it was, but somebody said, with regards to teachers getting these raises, they were completely opposed to it. Not because of the idea of it, but because of the performance of the teachers. You know, they were very critical of teachers demanding more money at a time when, you know, we've seen such a decline in the outcomes of education, particularly in Los Angeles.
Petersen:
Well, if you look at where performance is at in L.A., the performance that you're judging, basically depends on where you live. The more affluent the neighborhood, the better the student's doing. So when you say that the schools are failing, are you just taking what specifically the school is doing or what society is doing as a whole? If a kid from the inner city has a parent who has to work several jobs and, you know, can't really help with the homework or guide their kids, they're not gonna do well in school. So you're asking the teachers to do a lot more than teach, you're asking them basically to be society and cover for a lot of those things. So I have a hard time blaming teachers per se. Let's face it, teachers don't go into the profession to be rich. They go in because they want to help kids.
McClain:
Right? Yeah. I hear you. It seems to be a very complicated issue for sure. We're about out of time here my friend. We're gonna have to take a headline and let you go, but we would like to stay in touch. Carl, can we have you back on at some point? And also where's the best place for people to follow you? Is it on Twitter? I see you have ChangeTheLAUSD.com as well. So give us any final thoughts and shout-outs to where people can follow you.
Petersen:
Twitter is also @ChangeTheLAUSD and on Facebook, it's LAUSD Parent Power.
McClain:
Thank you. Excellent. Okay, well, we'll be in touch.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.