After spending time at the Republican convention in Tampa and the Democratic convention in Charlotte, I needed to decompress, so I headed to Montana where I am now sitting on a hill watching a herd of deer graze in the meadow below. These deer have no funny hats on their heads, buttons on their chests or noisemakers in their mouths. They seem peaceful and, as best I can tell, nonpartisan. I’m a little jealous.
I was fortunate to speak with lots of smart and interesting people at both conventions, but I’ve decided the most intriguing speaker, other than Bill Clinton, whose speech seems to have ended the suspense over whether President Obama will be re-elected, was Daniel Barnz, the director of the new education movie, Won’t Back Down. Barnz spoke after a screening of his movie at both conventions. Each time, he expressed bewilderment that his movie is being attacked as anti-teacher and anti-public education.
Even before the movie was released to the general public, AFT president Randi Weingarten sent out an open letter accusing Barnz of “using the most blatant stereotypes and caricatures I have ever seen.” She asserted the movie “is divisive and demoralizes millions of great teachers,” although she neglected to explain how these millions of teachers could be demoralized by a movie neither they nor the general public have seen.
Barnz comes from a family of public school teachers. He wanted to make a fictional movie about teachers and parents working together to improve a struggling school. His sin, at least from Weingarten’s perspective, is that the teachers and parents in his movie saw freeing themselves from the control of the teachers union as essential to their improvement efforts.
Barnz’s fantasy of a community of empowered teachers and parents working collaboratively to raise student achievement, and Weingarten’s vitriolic response, illustrate the power struggle at the heart of today’s efforts to improve public education.
Most public education is delivered through school districts that are controlled by three groups: elected school boards, teachers unions and affluent/politically powerful parents. Low-income and working-class parents have little influence, which is why most state and national education reform legislation is focused on forcing school districts to address their needs.
Barnz’s movie outraged Weingarten because it depicted working-class parents and classroom teachers joining forces to take control of their school. If teachers and working-class parents across the country are inspired to emulate this effort, the power structure in school districts will be faced with the public education version of the Arab Spring. No one in a school district power hierarchy wants that.
Low-income and working-class parents across the country are being empowered by the expansion of charter schools, virtual schools, open enrollment, vouchers and means-tested scholarship programs. I’m not a fan of the type of school takeover Branz’s movie depicts, but the awareness and dialogue he’s generating will further inspire the teacher/parent empowerment movement that is transforming public education.
The deer have wandered off to another meadow; having that much freedom must be nice.
