Intro
For over five years now, I have been acting as an advocate for students rights, and ensuring that the concerns of the student are heard by both policymakers and legislators. It has been my purpose in my adult life to do what I can to ensure that the largest stakeholder in education is represented. It’s been incredibly humbling to witness passionate high school students who are concerned about their school district, or their state who are able to take the initiative to become noble and determined liaisons for all of the students. To be able to read the examples of young people who are able to create an improved world for future students is extraordinary and should be admired.
The events that have transpired over the last five years have shaken me to my core. This has led me to a great awakening in which I have harnessed the tools and experience necessary to be an ally and create pathways of access for students to become empowered. I want to die knowing that within every single state in this country, there is an open seat for a student to be able to represent the concerns of their constituents. I am so grateful for the students that continue to push and make strides for our future, and I would not be here today, if it weren’t for the students that originally pushed for representation in education some forty years ago on the Massachusetts State Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, and the first student council created in New Jersey nearly ninety years ago.
School Committee
I thought it would be important to share my story of the very instance in which I knew I was going to be a student advocate. As a preface this is not meant to glorify how I tried to take a stand, but rather, highlighting the inherent flaws within the ways stakeholders of education interact with each other.
It was my junior year of high school, and I had been recently appointed as the student liaison for the school committee, I pushed my principal for instead having an election but he said it was too late in the year to do that since there was a vacancy in the position. During my time as a student liaison, there two most pertinent concerns were the following: The cost of the $1 million iPad initiative our school was taking, and that the students felt there was a disconnect between the administration and the students. I worked with the students that were experts in the field of computer science to propose a much less costly alternative to the iPads, which would have been the Google Nexus pads. It would have saved the school $600,000. When I originally advocated for this alternative on the school committee, it was met with mixed reviews ranging from, “this is a great idea and we should take the time to look into all solutions,” to, “we are too far along in the iPad initiative, and Apple provides a better tablet device.” When this occurred, I was called into the principal’s office where the district’s IT department held a surprise visit where they wanted to talk logistics about my proposal. Though I trust to this day my superintendent had the IT department visit me out of good faith and respect, because she wanted to take the time to hear what the students were thinking, the meeting instead felt more like an ambush, they knew in advance when they were going to meet with me, whereas I had no idea that such a meeting would occur, leaving my underprepared.
The school committee ended up continuing with the iPad initiative, which the public also initially had mixed reviews as well. I was glad to see that at the very least a discussion was set up with a student to ensure that there was some level of agreement (we both agreed that digital literacy was important) but I was offended at the way they approached the discussion in an interrogation-like manner. This was not the particular instance to which I was referring about wanting to dedicate my life to student advocacy, but it is an essential precursor to my story.
Later in my junior year, there was a public evaluation being done on the impact the superintendent had on the school district. As the student representative, I did not have a vote in this evaluation, but I asked for the materials to see what criteria was being evaluated for the superintendent. During this evaluation, each school committee member publicly announced where they superintendent was strong, and what issues she could improve upon. As a school committee member, I felt it necessary to represent the concerns that the students had, and I discussed the issue that attendance is low during these meetings, and ways that we could engage parents and students more. Before I was even allowed to speak, the chairperson said that, “I want to make sure that you understand that you are not a part of this,” to which I responded, “I want to be able to add my opinion,” [on behalf of the student perspective]. Following this meeting, I couldn’t stop thinking in my head, “if I am not a part of this evaluation, or if I don’t have voting rights, then, what is the point of me even being here?” Even though I had been working with State Student Advisory Council for the previous two years, this was the moment that I knew that the way we interact with our stakeholders had to change. Over half the states in this country forbid having students even be on school committees, and even more so, there are only four states with full voting rights on state boards of education. Additionally, there is not a single state that explicitly states that students on school committees should have full voting rights.
Addendum: Why Stakeholders Matter
As an addendum to the iPad initiative, the following year, the school’s budget was $600,000 in the red. This was not due to the iPad’s in of itself, but it had to do with students leaving the district, and special needs students needing out of district placements. Due to this shortfall, the school committee made the painful decision to lay off 42 employees in order to balance the budget. This may look like a case of, “I told you so,” but I can assure you that is not the intent of telling this story. This story highlights what happens when all stakeholders are ill informed of what is occurring within the school budget, and if stakeholders were better engaged, other solutions could have been made before reaching this decision to make mid-year layoffs. When we give stakeholders the ability to speak and find ways to engage the stakeholders, we allow for a robust dialog to occur, and not continue hiding potential concerns from the public.
I cannot stress enough that this story is not meant to lambaste the school committee I had the privilege of working with. To the contrary, I believe they all acted with the best of intentions and did not see engaging stakeholders as an option (I believe they were unknowing of that opportunity, as opposed to blatantly disregarding them in the decision making process). I only tell this story to provide insight to other school districts of how incorporating stakeholders could save people's careers, as well as creating a healthy community and culture of honest decision making.
Where's the Data?
I am currently working on a publication that highlights the evidence of how students being included as stakeholders with voting rights benefits educational policy, but I am not allowed to disclose my findings due to publication rights. My policy report pertains to the factual evidence and pragmatic approach to why we need students as stakeholders, whereas this blog will continue to be the emotional, or personal reasons why having students as stakeholders is both necessary and moral.
