Let's Celebrate and Support Our Public Schools
Randall H. Collins

This fall, three thousand students returned to classrooms throughout Waterford Public Schools.  As superintendent of our school system, I am dedicated to ensuring that all of our schools provide the highest quality education to every child who walks through our doors.  The back-to-school season is a time when children are thinking about new backpacks, new clothes, new learning and exploring new ideas.  On the other hand, we, as adults should be thinking not just about learning and achievement for each child, but also about the many other things public schools do for children and for society.

Public schools are doing more than ever before.  We are in the midst of a paradigm shift as a result of No Child Left Behind, the federal law that calls on all schools to get all children to achieve at high levels-something no other nation has ever attempted.  Public schools are making this shift at the same time we are experiencing an increase in the diversity of the children we educate, particularly the numbers of poor children, children who are English-language learners, and children of every race. Waterford is no exception. We will address an ever-increasing population of students who speak many different languages as their first language and we will need to help them assimilate and be able to function in the English language. Waterford also offers several world languages from Spanish in grades K-12, French and Spanish at the middle school and the high school, to Latin, French, Spanish, and the beginnings of a Mandarin Chinese program, in the high school. It is important that our students learn other languages if we expect them to compete in an ever changing world economy and become successful citizens of a global community.

Childhood obesity is at epidemic proportions in our country. Public schools in the Nation are also doing more for the wellness of each child who walks through our doors.  School districts nationwide are adopting wellness policies and making healthier food and beverages available to children in schools.  Once again, Waterford schools are no exception; in accordance with Public Act 06-63, the Board of Education has made a commitment to offering healthier beverage, meal and snack choices for our students.  Vending machines no longer contain high fat or high sugar content snacks.  Candy bar sales, bake sales, and any kind of food fundraiser is not allowed during the school day and at most after school functions.  Parents are being encouraged not to bring cakes or cupcakes to school in order to recognize their child’s birthday and to seek other ways to celebrate those special days. Teaching students about proper nutrition and helping them to make wiser choices has been a priority in Waterford schools for the past several years.

Wellness has a focus beyond nutrition.  It also requires that schools consider providing physical activity and avoid the elimination of recess time for our elementary youngsters. In Waterford we provide a comprehensive physical education program and have never considered eliminating the much-needed recess time for our young students.

Most importantly, schools serve as the cornerstone for our democracy, providing a civic education and increasing opportunities for students to engage in civic and community-based behavior. Public schools were founded in the country to instill in our citizens the democratic values necessary to sustain our great Republic. Our forefathers realized that we could only continue to exist if we had an educated citizenry. In 1992, Waterford adopted a community service requirement for high school graduation,  making Waterford High School the first public school in the State to enact such a requirement. Waterford Schools have a long-standing commitment to teaching our students that we are part of a broader community and that we all have a responsibility to make it better. Today, public schools continue to prepare students so that they can contribute to our nation’s future economic and intellectual growth, and are able to compete in a rapidly changing world economy.

An area of concern is that the school buildings in our country are in desperate condition. This is not because they have not been maintained, but because they are old and no longer serve the needs of tomorrow’s children. Several years ago, after a great deal of discussion, Waterford engaged in a complete revamping of our schools to ensure that the facilities were equal to the great teaching that was going on within the classrooms. The Waterford Board of Education has a clear vision of what they want the schools to be once this program is complete.  What is their vision?  They believe, as I do, that to provide our students with a world-class education, we must have buildings that accommodate the needs of the special education students, buildings that provide for clean air and are climate-controlled to make sure that illness does not interfere with the health and learning of all students and staff, buildings that address the security needs of our complex world and buildings that are energy efficient and stop the drain of tax dollars from education to fossil fuel consumption. Lastly, we need a building configuration in our elementary schools that allows us to utilize our professionals in the most cost-effective manner possible as we face a declining school enrollment and the town faces a significant decline in tax revenues. I have been a Superintendent of Schools for twenty-six years and I have never worked with a Board that has had a clearer vision of what they want for our children.

However, public schools are doing all of this with fewer State and Federal resources.

No Child Left Behind, the federal education law, has made a powerful impact on public education by challenging every school to ensure that every child achieve at high levels.  No Child Left Behind requires schools to raise student test scores and improve teacher qualifications, and punishes schools and school districts where student test scores do not meet state targets.  But more importantly, it has enhanced our ability to shine a light on the performance of groups of students, allowing us to have more data about how all of our students are performing.  The law requires schools to report test scores for all students by subgroups: race, disability, socioeconomic status and English proficiency.

The law has also changed the relationship between the federal government, state government and local schools.  The federal government now requires increasing amounts of information about student test scores, more stringent teacher qualifications and greater attention to the achievement gap. While demands on schools and school districts are increasing, the federal government is providing just over seven percent of the funding in the average public school and providing less and less funding to public school districts each year.  Federal funding for No Child Left Behind has not met the level promised when the law was enacted four years ago.  This year, political leaders in Washington cut spending for No Child Left Behind.

If we want to engage in major systemic change and be sure that we are getting all children to achieve at high levels while preparing students to participate in our democracy, we can’t keep cutting funding for education.  We need to stop asking schools to do more with fewer resources, and we need to increase federal and state support for public education.

 I believe it is possible to make sure that all students learn if we plan instruction carefully and strategically respond to assessment data. Teachers working as members of Professional Learning Communities strive to enhance the efficacy of their teaching through collective diagnosis and prescriptive remediation or enrichment for every learner. Additionally, students with special needs have the right to be educated with their peers and we have a moral responsibility to see that it happens.

Further, much work needs to be done to improve No Child Left Behind and federal involvement in public education.  We need to make the law clearer, focused, fair, accurate and transparent so that we have the ways and the means to help every child get the tools they need to succeed in life.

Finally, let’s celebrate the good news about public education.  Public schools nationwide are working hard to close the achievement gap and helping more students meet high academic standards nationwide.  Connecticut Mastery Test scores indicate that Waterford students met or exceeded the State Goal Level. In fact, a new report from the U.S. Department of Education shows that students attending public schools do as well as or better than comparable students in private schools. Public schools have tackled the critical issue of childhood obesity with better nutrition and physical education classes that focus on fitness and not just competition. Public schools have willingly taken on the task of assimilating children who do not speak English into our schools while at the same time offering world language education to all children to ensure their ultimate success. Local Boards of Education have taken on the long-overdue task of rebuilding our schools in a cost effective manner.

Public schools are producing great citizens and preparing young people for active, responsible roles in society.  Public education is a great equalizer in our democracy.  Our schools not only offer children a free education, but also important life tools, including problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, and interpersonal skills.

As our precious children return to school this fall, let us recognize the good work that our public schools accomplish, and support those who labor in them to ensure that our great country succeeds.