A Message From Dick Rowland
In October 2006, I attended a meeting in Milwaukee where I heard Howard L. Fuller, PhD speak. I will never forget that speech. It is summarized below. I suspect you will be affected as I was.
Dick Rowland, President
dick@grassrootinstitute.org
A Call for Revolution: The need for real K-12 reform
By Howard L. Fuller, Ph.D.
 This article is adapted from Dr. Howard L. Fuller’s October 4 remarks delivered at the K-12 Education Reform Summit, co-sponsored by State Policy Network, the Alliance for School Choice, and the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. It is published with his permission as well as that of the State Policy Network.
It's my honor to be here tonight, to see so many friends and new faces. In addition to being chair of the Black Alliance of Educational Options, the greatest honor I have is being board chair of CEO Leadership Academy.
People often ask me, “Why do you do this?” I have a simple answer that comes deep from within my soul: I believe all of our children are precious, and it is our responsibility with God’s guidance, to nurture them, love them, care for them and make sure every single one of them is educated. I am blessed to be able to do this work every day.
I believe what Ron Edmonds said: We can, whenever and wherever we choose, educate all students whose schooling is of interest to us. We know more than we need to know to accomplish that task. The real hurdle is the lack of political will to do what must be done for other people’s children. Everyday I see children suffer because we don’t have the political will to change the institutions that continue not to serve them well.
I do what I do because I believe Danny, Britell Iesha, Queda and Alexis can learn. Every time I go to our school, I can see they will never get what they need if we, who say we care, simply talk about fixing the existing system. We must have a revolution. Tinkering around the edges will never get us where we need to go.
The most powerful innovations in education must occur in classrooms between teachers and students, but we need to create conditions that allow those things to happen. We need to replace our current school system with systems of learning opportunities that put the interests of students first, allow dollars to follow students, and hold adults as well as students accountable for academic achievement.
Today, if a school does not produce, the adults who are responsible for students learning are not affected. Kids don’t learn, administrators and teachers get a raise. They say, students don’t want to learn, but we need more money — to help them not learn again next year.
It is a crime that the only people held responsible for students not learning are the students and their parents. If parents are supposed to teach children, why are we spending all this money on education? If we have concluded it is the parents’ responsibility to educate kids, let’s close down these multibillion dollar institutions and give the money to parents!
The existing education system has some excellent people doing heroic jobs. Unfortunately, many work in dysfunctional systems that in essence prevent them from educating our children. This is a discussion about systems, not individuals.
Without any mealy-mouth qualifying weasel words, one of the things we need if we are to improve education in America is: parental choice. This term is often used only to talk about vouchers. The dreaded “V” word. I support vouchers, but they are only one form of parental choice.
Parental choice means giving families the opportunity to choose, from a range of options, a learning environment they feel is best for their children. As chair, I state the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) supports policy initiatives that will provide options for parents and their children be they public, private, or outside of institutional arrangements. Charter schools, public-private partnerships, contract schools, home schools, silent schools, innovative options within the traditional system — whatever will empower parents and give kids a chance to be educated.
Hirschman wrote in his book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, if you are in an organization and have no capacity to exit, your voice is diminished. However, if you’re in an organization and do have the capacity to leave, but you stay, you will develop a deeper form of loyalty to that organization because you find value in the organization.
When I was a superintendent of Milwaukee schools, I learned I was in charge, but not in control. As I talked about what I was going to do, it also became clear that everybody was organized to protect what they wanted no matter what I said. I was just out there talking, because administrators and teachers knew students couldn’t go anywhere else.
Now, imagine, as is now the case in Milwaukee, what happens when administrators and teachers understand parents and their children have options. They are more likely to treat your kids right; they know if they don’t, you will take your children elsewhere. And, if your children leave, the money goes with them. That kind of understanding is likely to produce more positive outcomes.
The issue in America is not choice, but who has it. Those of us with money, have choice.
I belong to the Harriett Tubman School of Thought. She said, “I get up everyday to end slavery, but in the mean time I am going to rescue as many slaves as I can.” I get up everyday to try to improve the existing systems of education, but in the mean time I have a moral responsibility to rescue as many kids as I can.
I have been talking a lot about the need to change schools, school systems and our whole thinking, but I want you to understand where I am coming from. Not only do we have to fight for parental choice, but we need to acknowledge the existence of differential power and resources in this society based on race and class.
Children who are hungry cannot learn. Children who are abused and neglected are not able to concentrate in schools. Children need to see people in their immediate family working to understand the connection between education and work. Children need to see a society where race is not an impediment to their advancement and respect. Children need to interact with adults who have not already reached a conclusion about their capability because of their skin color or the clothes they wear.
We walk a fine line here. Although race and class have an impact on our children’s perceptions and life chances, these conditions cannot be an excuse not to educate them. It is one thing to understand this, and another to use it as an excuse.
America is not a colorless or colorblind society. Let me tell you a personal story. I attended Carroll College. I was the only black student there for some two years and the first black male to graduate from it. Some people who got to know me felt that the greatest honor they could give was to say, “Howard, when I see you, I don’t see a black person.” When they said that it just scared the hell out of me, because, it was like, oh my God, what do you see if you look at me and you don’t see a black person? I tried to make them understand, if you want to deal with me you don’t have to neuter me.
I want to celebrate our differences, not talk about, “we need to not see color.” We need to see the color, but it shouldn’t determine how we relate to each other.
I believe as William Daggett does. He said, we must love our children’s hopes, our children’s dreams, our children’s aspirations and our children’s prayers more than we love the institutional heritage of the school systems.
Howard L. Fuller, PhD is chair of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (www.baeo.org), distinguished professor of education and founder/director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning, Marquette University. He can be contacted at Howard@baeo.org.
Dr. Fuller’s 30-minute presentation, plus audience questions, is available on DVD. To order it, please contact Tonya Barr at tbarr@spn.org or (703) 243-1655.
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