Jackson Sun, April 17
BY STATE SENATOR LOWE FINNEY
Education is perhaps the single determining factor affecting where and how today’s students will succeed in the workplace and to what extent our region will prosper in the years ahead. For these reasons, I am hosting an education forum on April 28 at Madison Magnet Academic High School in Jackson from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m.
This event is for the community. While it is true that anyone can attend a meeting of a local school board or other legislative or governing body and learn what is happening in our public schools, I am the first to admit that those meetings can sometimes be intimidating for someone not familiar with the inner workings of an organization, and important issues may not always benefit from the full and frank discussion of all interested parties. This event is dedicated to our region’s students and schools and is taking place at a local high school with an open door to educators, business and community leaders and parents.
The forum will begin with a brief presentation from officials with the Tennessee Department of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission concerning issues facing Tennessee’s students, schools and teachers. Following the presentation, two panels will delve further into such areas as curriculum and classroom best practices, community involvement in and expectations from local schools, teacher and administrative needs, accountability for stakeholders and preparation for higher education. Education Commissioner Patrick Smith will moderate the forum discussion.
The panels will consist of 12 to 15 people from varying backgrounds including elementary education, school administration, government officials, higher education, chambers of commerce and regional development, parents and business leaders from some of the area’s top employers. This discussion affects each of us, and the event will hopefully reflect a broad cross-section of interested parties. There also will be time for questions to our panelists. It is my hope that an expression of common interests will lead to an exchange of ideas that will benefit students of all ages.
You might ask why an event like this is necessary. Simply put: We can’t wait any longer to address the needs of our region’s education system. Of course, there is much discussion right now regarding education in our area. But who is listening? Who is talking? What is being said?
Indeed, if you listen closely to some members of the business community, you might hear their frustration about the fact that they must interview dozens or even hundreds of people to fill a few vacancies at the jobsite. Listen closely to teachers and you might hear about a lack of resources or enough time in the day to devote to projects from which students would greatly benefit. Parents often are unsure how to offer help with the current system. And too often, policymakers try remedies to problems we might not even fully understand.
Improvement begs that we first understand the challenges.
My father once told me that the best way to learn something was for someone to ask me questions about it. He’s right. The precision of a good question demands an informed and meaningful response. We will only understand our educational challenges by asking of our educators and ourselves what is important to our community and what we can do to make things better. Only then can we enter into a productive dialogue of hard questions and honest answers.
Everyone wants to know how we can have the best education system in our region and in our state. Let us start by gathering amongst ourselves and asking questions, the right ones.