But many of these generous parents are making dangerous assumptions about their investments. They too often believe that they are no different from the corporations and individuals who donate thousands of dollars to political candidates' campaigns, expecting a specific return. They want to have an impact at school, regardless of whether their ideas are based on sound educational philosophy. And just as politicians should be making decisions based solely on what they believe is best for their constituents, teachers and administrators should be making decisions based solely on what they believe is best for their students.

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Most important, if we allow parents to donate huge sums of money to public schools -- with strings attached -- we create an artificial solution to a very real problem. The urgency to increase funding to ailing public schools is hobbled by these well-meaning attempts to make everything OK -- for a handful of already privileged schools. The parents who cannot afford to pad their school's budget rely on that sense of urgency to provide some impetus for improving the public education system -- now.

There was a different kind of urgency in my district: Parents urgently wanted me to believe that they had a right to interfere in my classroom. They even felt they had the right to dictate how my aide should spend her time. She happened to be a whiz at mathematics, so I frequently asked her to work one-on-one with students who needed extra help in math. About halfway through the school year, the group of parents who oversaw parent donations to the school announced that classroom aides would be used in reading instruction. It didn't seem to matter that none of the aides had teaching credentials or any specific training to teach reading. The way these parents saw it, they paid the aides' salaries and therefore should be able to dictate how the aides functioned in the classroom.

The meddling reached its apex last year during a labor dispute between the teachers and the school district. As a last resort before striking, teachers at my school "worked to contract hours" (which meant 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., as stated in the teaching contract, rather than the longer hours many teachers put in on a regular basis). The teachers also wore pins that read "Honor the Teachers, Honor the Agreement," which referred to an agreement made in earlier contract negotiations with the district.

Some of the parents were horrified by these actions, worried that the teachers' openness about the conflict would somehow traumatize their children. They forbade the teachers from discussing the dispute with their students, even in general terms, and scrambled to end the dispute themselves by paying the teachers the raises they had requested during contract negotiations.

When they were told that their generous offer wouldn't solve the issues under debate, the parents were shocked -- and confused. We had to explain that legally, since our school was public, the teachers' salaries had to be paid out of specific funds allocated by the state. Moreover, since the dispute involved many issues, not just teachers' salaries, a chunk of money wasn't going to make all the unpleasantness go away.

The parents' attempt to make our labor dispute disappear was a perfect example of how convinced they were that money could fix anything, even a problem with a time-honored and democratic means of resolution. While their offer to pay our raises was generous, it was also a strong-arm tactic designed to silence teachers and sweep uncomfortable issues under the proverbial rug, where their children would never see them.

As we consider solutions to the current crises in public education, it is essential to look at what happens when a community is allowed to bankroll its schools. When teachers are forced to act on the whims of the highest bidder, they can't be free to follow their instincts, to draw on the fruits of their education and experience or the advice of their administrators. Suddenly, the idea of high-quality public education in every school -- not just the lucky ones -- is gone.

As tempting as it is to lavish praise and support on schools where parental participation is extraordinarily high, it is important to scrutinize the impact of the parents' involvement. It is true that children deserve a rich educational setting, but the value must come from a teacher's good sense, not from the influence of parents' dollars.
salon.com | May 26, 2000

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