I don’t like sending my money to Washington, D.C. so career politicians can build airports and bridges we don’t need and put their names on them. I don’t like sending my money to St. Paul so less famous but equally entrenched politicians can fund programs that spend more on their own operations than on the people they were intended to serve. And I really don’t like the widely-held view that the only way to make things better is to send more money to these same people—of all political stripes— to do more of what they’ve been doing wrong for so long. Judging from the news reports, letters to the editor, and general community buzz, I’m not alone in my frustration.
At its best, frustration can be energizing, becoming the catalyst for learning and change. It is no secret that Great Expectations School was born out of frustration and the subsequent resolution to create something different. For those who shared the positive vision of a new approach, this was a healthy, sustainable venture. But many who jumped on the bandwagon had only their frustration and the negative energy of being against something. This was not healthy and not sustainable. As a result, many families who moved to GES because they didn’t like what was happening at I.S.D. 166 found they weren’t happy with what GES had to offereither. Theexpression “out of the frying pan, into the fire” comes to mind.
Unfortunately, I see some of the same things happening around the issue of the upcoming school levy. People are against raising taxes, against the decisions of past school boards or administrations, against the entrenched interests and systems of education, or simply against the status quo. Voting against the levy becomes an expression of everything they don’t like, born out of frustration.
But negative energy remains unhealthy and unsustainable. Making decisions “against” something focuses us on others and the past, while making decisions “for” something empowers us to create a better future. GES began to grow as we promoted what we were, not what we were not, and families made choices based on what they were seeking, not what they were against. The health of our school, our relationship with I.S.D. 166, and the broader educational community has improved ever since.
Charter schools cannot levy taxes to raise funds, and GES will not receive any financial benefit from new property taxes. At this point, funding for us and our charter school peers is caught in a complex financial tug-of-war being played out hundreds of miles away by total strangers with no connection to the consequences of their decisions.
But the current school funding tug-of-war in Cook County is different. Here, the players are members of the community who will live every day with the consequences—good and bad, immediate and long-term—of their decision. We not only pay the bills, but can see where our money is going, how it is used, and who benefits. More importantly, through our election of school board members and our participation in school governance, we have a say in all of these things. It is important that we make our decisions well.
If we really want to have an impact, our most important choice is not whether we are for or against the specific issue of the levy. Thiselection provides an opportunity to vote on a wide array of offices and issues. Our most important choice is whether we will cast our votes out of frustration with the things we are against, or whether we will be energized by our frustrations, learn from our experience, and vote out of the positive energy necessary to move our education system and our communities forward. There is plenty to be against. What are you for?
Each month a representative
of our local schools will offer
thoughts in Issues in Education.
This month’s contributor is
Peter James, director of Great
Expectations School.
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