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Why blog, Rolland B? You want to write about K-12 public education? You don’t even have an “Ed.D.” after your name, let alone a “Ph.D.” Are you out of your mind? Okay … OK … good question. But I have a doctorate from the University of Hard Knocks! I admit I am not a social scientist, a pundit, or a philosopher. I am not even a good writer … I’d rather speak than write. What I am is an avid student of U.S. history and contemporary politics – I had memorized Lincoln’s Gettysburg address when I was in high school in my former country – and I value and am truly grateful for the blessings of American democracy, having come from a country ruled by a conjugal dictatorship for two decades.

If I had not left the country of my birth at the time that I did, it’s quite possible I could have fled to the hills and become a rebel, taking up arms against a burgeoning dictatorship. Thankfully, one mid-November day years ago, Lady Liberty welcomed me into these shores with open arms, even gave me a green card right then and there.

But … back to your question, my friend. “Why blog, Rolland B?” was the question. I guess the philosophical answer is, I want to exercise my free speech rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights. The more practical answer is: I have something to say … I have something to contribute, and I will say it via my blog posts to share it with people who read my blog – no matter how modest my contribution might be.

The real reasons are more nuanced than that. Shortly after walking away from my CPA practice – where my small audit staff and I specialized in conducting the mandated financial and compliance audits of about twenty school districts located in three counties in Northern California – I felt that I had wasted a good part of my life. I judged myself as a failure – a colossal failure – in many ways … as a professional and as a family man.

Years before, instead of running for reelection or aiming for higher office, I chose to retire from public office and did not run for reelection. A year earlier, I quit evening law school … for the second time! Many years before, during the first year of my CPA practice, I entered law school at Western State University in Fullerton, Orange County, CA – and then quit after ten months of law schooling.

You see, when I quit law school for the second time, I was completely at peace. I concluded that all of Southern California would NOT slide into the depths of the Pacific Ocean if the name “Rolland B” did not appear ever on the roster of the California Bar.

Nine years after retiring from my CPA practice, it dawned on me that I’m still trying to find myself! Can you believe that? It is as if I have yet to set my appointment with destiny. A man – in the twilight of his life – is looking for something to do, a job with some meaning, a mission to fulfill … something with even just a hint of nobility of purpose.

Although my eleven years in public K-12 central office administration were satisfying, personally and professionally — I was an assistant superintendent, business services with a K-8 school district and chief operations officer with a large unified school district — it was my service as an elected school board member in a large suburban unified school district somewhere in Southern California that deepened and broadened for me my understanding of the challenges … and the opportunities … in the K-12 environment.

Now, the idea of blogging about K-12 public education and its role in American democracy … gets me feeling revved up and driven again. It gets the adrenalin flowing. The job of rookie blogger, writing about (a) K-12 public education, as its self-appointed cheerleader and (b) the all-encompassing topic of American democracy, as its self-proclaimed super-fan, could prove to be my belated and final calling.

As mentioned in the Home page, I plan to raise questions to stimulate discussions about America’s K-12 public education system and the important role it plays in preserving, protecting and defending the longest running experiment in democracy the world has ever known.

On this maiden blog post, I salute the unsung heroes and heroines of the K-12 public education enterprise. I’m referring to the millions of underpaid teachers and their non-teaching colleagues – including the office clerks, cafeteria workers, custodians, ground keepers, maintenance workers, school bus drivers and others – who help facilitate the delivery of critical instructional programs in public K-12 school districts across the U.S.A.

I must also salute the thousands of K-12 school district superintendents and their fellow central office administrators, including site administrators, for their leadership, for being in the frontlines of educating young people. I consider K-12 school district superintendents a special breed of professionals, leaders for whom I have utmost admiration and respect.

I also salute the thousands upon thousands of school leaders and volunteers with PTAs, PTOs and other booster groups busting their tails, in fundraising and other activities in support of their local K-12 schools.

Finally, I must address America’s school board members – people from all walks of life, of all hues and colors, of all political persuasions – who stepped up to the plate to serve on local boards of education. You are also called trustees! In a real sense, you are. Your constituents, with their votes, have entrusted you to become custodians of the futures of young men and women, upon whose shoulders depend the preservation, protection and defense of the longest experiment in democracy the world has ever known. Yours is, at times, a thankless job. At the same time, yours is a MONUMENTAL job. In your hands – and not in the hands of the political leaders in dysfunctional Washington – lie, in large part, the answer to the paramount question of whether “the government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth”.

In more ways than one, the work that you do as school trustees will influence, one way or the other, the caliber of future citizens you produce at high school graduation.

Which is to say, truly: Will Lincoln’s immortal words at Gettysburg find life, meaning and substance in the future adult lives of your high school graduates, because your educational system inculcated in them the virtues of core democratic values and constitutional principles while they were captive clients of the local K-12 system?

My future posts will touch upon the following key topics, among others:

• Purpose of Education: What’s the purpose of K-12 education? Beyond academics, beyond college and work preparation, the purpose of K-12 education should be, very simply, to prepare students to be good citizens in America’s democratic society. K-12 public education should be about more than academics. Have the words good citizenship, democracy and democratic society found some space in each and every K-12 school district’s MISSION STATEMENT?
• Inequalities in K-12 School Funding/Spending: Almost seven decades after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled “separate but equal education” was unconstitutional, a different form of unequal education has become the norm, in the form of serious K-12 funding/spending disparities among states, on the one hand, and among K-12 school districts within each state, on the other. How does this condition square with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?
• K-12 Merely a Federal Interest: K-12 public education has long been considered to be a local responsibility, a state function and a federal interest. Merely a federal interest, rather than a core federal responsibility! Is it desirable for K-12 education NOT being the national government’s responsibility – in the context of K-12 education’s critical role in preparing students to be good citizens who could be depended upon to help preserve, protect and defend American democracy? I contend that the federal government’s involvement in K-12 public education ought to be elevated from mere federal interest to increased federal responsibility…in the same manner that national security is, and has long been, a federal responsibility.
• America’s Underpaid Teacher Corps: How much longer will the United States allow hard working, under-appreciated teaching corps in the K-12 system to be woefully underpaid? What does that say about the value society places on the work of people into whose hands we have entrusted the critical task of molding the hearts and minds of America’s youngsters so that they become good citizens and responsible leaders of this nation?
• The Great Equalizer in a Democracy: Is there any doubt that in American society, K-12 education promotes equality of opportunity. For millions of America’s youth, public education is the only equalizer they have. It’s their gateway to participation in the nation’s economic life. Public schools have long been the backbone of our democracy, not just because they can train citizens, but because of what they say about individual worth and opportunity.
• The Case for Values Education: American democracy is in peril. Congress ought to pass a law mandating Values-Based Education – “values” being defined as consisting of CORE DEMOCRATIC VALUES and CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES – for implementation by all public K-12 school systems across the U.S.A. Inculcating in the minds of our youth America’s core democratic values is not just necessary, not just desirable, but an absolute imperative – if we are to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people” does not perish from the face of the earth.
• A Clarion Call for School Boards: If Congress does not act, local school boards and state boards of education must come to the rescue. School boards can embark on an organic crusade to create a renaissance in K-12 education by adopting and implementing (if they have not done so) a values-based K-12 curriculum with strong emphasis on inculcating America’s core democratic values and constitutional principles in the minds and hearts of their students.

More than any other institution in American society, school boards are well positioned to preserve, protect and defend the longest running experiment in democracy the world has ever known, in effect helping to “spread the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”

If I had the luxury of time, my blog posts would be two or three times weekly.  But because I’m busy running a small business which got launched just a few months ago, my blog posts would come out weekly, for now.

The purpose of this blog – my MISSION — is to raise questions and stimulate conversations about America’s K-12 public education system and the important role it plays, or should K-12 play, in helping to preserve, protect and defend the longest running experiment in democracy the world has ever known. American democracy is in serious jeopardy – having been undermined and threatened on so many fronts. Ample evidence from recent history has made it abundantly clear that American democracy is fragile and can be shaken to its foundation. In concert with other institutions of American society, the K-12 system is well positioned – and has both the challenge and the opportunity — to come to the rescue, to increase the chances that American democracy is preserved, protected and defended for the sake of our children and grandchildren and generations yet unborn.

Greetings, Mr. school board member, Miss/Mrs. school board member!  Glad we can talk!

“What is the purpose of education? This question agitates scholars, teachers, statesmen, every group, in fact, of thoughtful men and women,” Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in the 1930 article, “Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education,” in Pictorial Review, cited in Willona Sloan’s “What Is the Purpose of Education?” article for the ASCD Education Update, July 2012.

A report from Public Agenda by Rebecca Silliman and David Schleifer titled “WHERE AMERICANS STAND ON PUBLIC EDUCATION” is illuminating.  The report’s findings include the following:

“…Americans believe public education should not only focus on academics and college preparation but should also help students develop career and interpersonal skills and prepare them for citizenship and the workforce.

While Americans do most often cite academic preparation as the main goal of public education, half believe the main goal should be either to prepare students to be good citizens or prepare them for work…” (emphasis mine);

• “…Most Americans also believe it is important for K-12 education to teach students to be good citizens….Eighty-two percent of Americans say it is extremely or very important for students in public K-12 to learn to be good citizens.” (emphasis mine)
• “Fewer than half of Americans believe their local public schools are doing a good job at preparing students for college, the workforce or to be good citizens….only 34 percent think schools are doing a good job at preparing students to be good citizens….” Based on PDK International’s 2016 48th Annual PDK Poll; (emphasis mine)
• “…Most federal and state policies focus on academic success and college preparation. Many Americans feel, however, that public education should be about more than academics. Many believe public schools should offer career training, help develop interpersonal skills and prepare students to be good citizens ….” (emphasis mine)

In the context of this report, it would be a fair statement to say that the American people prefer democracy to any other system, and that learning to be “good citizens” means learning about our core values of American constitutional democracy, and that part of  K-12 education’s goal ought to be to produce graduates who’ll take the responsibilities and duties of citizenship seriously … which in turn would increase the chances that the “government of the people, by the people and for the people will not perish from the earth” – a fervent hope of Abraham Lincoln.

In other words, if you, as school board members – through your actions, policies and practices, in concert with your administrators and teaching and non-teaching staff – produce graduates steeped in the core values of American constitutional democracy, the idea of preserving, protecting, and defending American democracy for the benefit of present and future generations, becomes all the more attainable.

To each K-12 school board member or school district superintendent, then, the following questions would seem pertinent:

• A K-12 system’s MISSION STATEMENT represents the system’s blueprint for success or its navigational GPS. Do the words or the terms “civic and history education” or “responsible citizenship and American democracy” appear as part of your school district’s MISSION STATEMENT?
• Specifically, is “teaching or preparing students to be good, responsible citizens” or “civic and history education” part of your school district’s MISSION STATEMENT? If not, why is that the case?
• Without purpose and direction expressed in your school district’s MISSION STATEMENT, aren’t you in effect suggesting that preparing students to be good citizens is an unworthy goal? Without such a definite goal or purpose, aren’t you leaving its accomplishment to chance?
• When attending workshops on school board governance, you, as school board members, are invariably advised and trained to restrict yourselves to the BIG PICTURE – which means policy-making. You are advised, “Keep your hands off the school system’s operational details. Operational details properly belong to your school district’s administration. Don’t intrude on the administration’s bailiwick.”
• Could there possibly be a PICTURE displayed in a MISSION STATEMENT bigger than the grandiose goal of preparing students to be good citizens, to increase the chances of preserving, protecting and defending the greatest experiment in democracy the world has ever known? So that “the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth”?
• If you sit on a K-12 school board, why wouldn’t you want to have such a grand and noble purpose, among others, as preparing students to be good citizens of American society, a society designed to be a bastion of democracy?
• board member, Miss board member, Mrs. Board member … with all due respect, you are basically saying, to your community, that preparing students to be good citizens is NOT that important, unworthy of inclusion in your MISSION STATEMENT! Really? Is there anything else that can produce a jolt of greater direction, greater purpose, and greater meaning for K-12 education — for American society’s sake — than preparing students to be good, responsible citizens?

Though my memory is very poor, from a two-page set of handwritten notes I had saved from a board discussion on mission statement in April 1988 (the bulk of my files from eight years on my local school board are gone), I had written down questions like:  ‘Society’ is mentioned, but why not call it ‘democratic society’?  How could we use the term ‘global society’ but be reluctant to say ‘democratic society?  And why is the word ‘democracy’ nowhere in our draft?

What ultimately happened to my local school district’s MISSION STATEMENT at that time, I have no vivid memory.  What revisions may have transpired since then, I have no idea.  All I know is that the current MISSION STATEMENT of my old local school district can stand some improvement, as it relates to civic and history education – what I’d call values education.

My perspective in 1988 was – and still is – the perspective of a naturalized immigrant who fled a dictatorship and, consequently, now adores Lady Liberty and worships at the altar of American democracy.

Yes, I confess.  I now worship at the altar of American democracy.  If you ask me what my religion is, I might be tempted to say, “My religion is democracy!”  I am truly forever grateful for the many blessings America has given me and my family all these years.  America was – and still is – my refuge.

Several months ago, out of curiosity, I visited the websites of almost 500 school districts — 491, to be exact (top ten districts in enrollment in each state in the U.S., with Hawaii being a single-district state) – to find out if the goal of preparing students to be good citizens is part of their MISSION STATEMENTS, or if the words ‘American democracy’, if not just ‘democracy’, somehow found some precious space in their MISSION STATEMENTS.

NONE of the 491 school districts had values education as part of their MISSION STATEMENTS.  You know what else I found?  The goal of preparing students to be good citizens appears in the MISSION STATEMENT of just ninety-six school districts, or twenty percent (20%) of my sample.  For a huge chunk of the rest of my sample, for the great majority, 395 — eighty percent — the answer is a disappointing NO!  In other words, “good citizenship” was deemed not that important, so it did not merit any mention on their MISSION STATEMENTS.

This is incredible.  I don’t get it.  It appears that many school board members all across this great country of ours do not deem it proper and fitting to include the goal of preparing students to be good citizens as a key part of their MISSION STATEMENT!

If we extrapolate the results of my random survey, assuming that they represent the whole universe of roughly 13,600 school districts, it would be fair to say that we have reached a very sad – indeed ‘depressing’ — state of affairs in the K-12 education community.  It would appear that great number of America’s school board members do NOT deem it fit to include ‘good citizenship’ as one of the purposes of K-12 education!  Really?

From my layman’s vantage point, I strongly contend that VALUES EDUCATION – which I define as education on core values of American constitutional democracy, such as life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, equality,  TRUTH, as well as rule of law, separation of powers, representative government and civilian control of the military — ought to be a key component of every public K-12 school board’s MISSION STATEMENT.

“The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen,” Louis Brandeis once said.  “A democratic form of government, a democratic way of life, presupposes free public education over the long period; it presupposes also an education for personal responsibility that too often is neglected,” according to Eleanor Roosevelt

I’m sorry if I’m nagging you.  But … what could be a more noble purpose of education than to inculcate in the minds of our youth the CORE VALUES OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY?

In the grand scheme of things, at the end of the public K-12 production line – I’m not in the least comparing our precious young ones to widgets — what could be a better outcome than turning impressionable youngsters into highly responsible citizens in adulthood with the requisite “civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions“ whose conduct and behavior could, or would, help to preserve, protect and defend the longest-running experiment in democracy the world has ever known?

Forgive me, but I just wanted to know.  By the way … THANK YOU for serving on the school board.  I know it can sometimes be a THANKLESS job.  I hope the people in your community appreciate the time, effort, and energy associated with your service.