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Is the glass half-full or half-empty? It's all in how you look at it

Photo by Sandy Schaeffer

I learned a long time ago that I could tell the optimists from the pessimists simply by asking: Is the glass half-full or half-empty? It's all in how you look at it—an important point to keep in mind as we consider different perceptions of the state of public education today.

Me, I'm an optimist. And when it comes to public education, so are most Americans.

Most Americans give their local school—the face of public education they know best—a "B" or better. While they support standards and accountability, they also know that teachers are the key to quality—teachers who know their subject as well as how to teach. And they support paying teachers more even if it means raising taxes.

Most Americans favor other changes that would improve public education as well. Universal preschool. Small classes that permit individualized attention. Involved parents. Up-to-date textbooks and teaching materials. Schools that are in good repair and equipped with modern technology.

In short, the public and NEA are on the same page. We agree that the glass is more than half-full—public education is in good shape and getting better. But the powers-that-be in Washington see it differently. When they look into the glass, they see rock bottom.

With such widely diverging perceptions, it's tempting to think someone's picked up the wrong glass. But that's not it. The truth, my friends, is that we fail to see eye-to-eye because Washington is in the grip of ideologues who sing only one song: privatization.

They are driven by a market philosophy that assumes anything the public sector does, the private sector can do better. It's a popular song with the investor class, but doesn't do a thing for working people like us.

Like chameleons, the color-changing reptiles, the ideologues try to blend in. They cloak themselves in compassionate rhetoric—"leave no child behind" and the like—while laying the groundwork for radical change. And what better place to start than by undermining confidence in public education?

Other than the name, the so-called No Child Left Behind law is an ill-conceived piece of work. Instead of supporting the weakest link and helping the chain grow stronger, it seeks to batter the chain until it falls apart.

This year, one-fourth of America's schools were labeled failures for lack of "adequate yearly progress." Next year, there will be more. Already, parents are receiving notices that their children are being taught by someone who is not "highly qualified." Next year, there will be more. And, if the ideologues have their way, this will continue until confidence in public education is so shaken the people throw up their hands and cry, "Let the market decide!"

NEA is determined not to let that happen—and we're not alone. With 2.7 million teachers and education support professionals nationwide—roughly one out of every 100 Americans—we have it within our power to send the ideologues packing. We have it within our power to elect supporters of public education to office on the state and local level, as well as to Congress and the White House.

But NEA has that power only because of you—who you are and what you do. From the start, America's schools have been endowed with civic as well asacademic functions that instill a shared sense of purpose and bind our nation together.

America can't do without that any more than NEA can do without you!

NEA President Reg Weaver