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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, our first week of school, national politics call in. As the 2024 election cycle ramps up here in September of 2023, what's most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? 212-433-WNYC. I ask this today because school has been starting this week in many districts across the country, of course, so there are many stories about the particulars of that, and there is already a lot of news about Democrats and Republicans gearing up for the campaigns for the presidency and control of Congress next year. Republicans are in their presidential primary season as you know, and lots of other 2024 politics are already happening behind the scenes too.

How do these connect? Well, education policy is going to be one of the flashpoint issue areas in 2024, so we ask, what's most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? 212-433-9692. I don't even want to get too prescriptive on what aspects of education policy you should call about because I think even the types of education issues that each party should put in play or do put in play reflect people's needs. Or let me put that differently. Whether the types of education issues that each party puts into play reflect people's real educational needs is a question and a point of contention.

You tell me. You tell your fellow listeners, you tell the politicians and strategists who might be listening right now, what's most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. I think it's fair to say that Republicans have been more focused than Democrats on making education a national issue and setting the agenda of what to even debate. That is maybe the central strategy of Ron DeSantis, for example, but most Republicans follow the same lesson plan.

As the Associated Press described this last month, "Ron DeSantis' path to national prominence started in Florida's classrooms, where he harnessed culture war passions and deployed them in education policies." The article continues, "In the name of parental rights, the Republican governor has banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity and limited what Florida schools can teach about racism and US history. He has exercised control over the pronouns and bathrooms students use. Tenured professors must now undergo regular reviews as part of sweeping reforms to police 'left-wing ideology' indoctrination in higher education."

That from the Associated Press on August 23rd, and you get the idea. You know all that. Those ideas are debated locally too as in some New Jersey school districts now where they're trying to make it mandatory for teachers to notify parents of any signs that their kids are giving in school of a changing gender identity. On this show last week, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin pushed back.

Attorney General Matt Platkin: What we have sought in these cases is simply to go back to a policy that all of these school districts and the hundreds of school districts throughout the state found unobjectionable until just a few months ago. Which says, of course, you can tell parents about issues going on with their student, including changes in gender identity and expression. You just have to consider the individual circumstances of that child as opposed to making a blanket affirmative requirement based on a characteristic, in some cases, based on information that you may overhear in a hallway that is protected under state law.

Brian Lehrer: New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin here last week. That's the national education policy debate the political sector appears to primarily be having right now, but I wonder, listeners, and the reason I ask is, is that the only national education policy debate there should be? Imagine an empty page, a tabula rasa on this subject, what's most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You know the old joke about the response to the push for organized prayer in schools, that old prayer in schools debate?

Yes, I pray in schools. I pray for up-to-date textbooks, I pray for decently small class sizes, I pray for well-trained teachers, I pray for good supplies and after-school programs. That's what I pray for when I pray in schools. We could frame the question like that. If you pray for our schools in the United States, what specifically do you pray for, or simply put, what's the most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? Help broaden the debate if you think it needs to be broadened at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can also text a response to that number or tweet @BrianLehrer and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and now to your answers to the question, what's most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? Help broaden the debate that the country is currently having. If you think it needs to be broadened at 212-433-WNYC, call or text or tweet @BrianLehrer. Emily in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Emily. Thanks for calling.

Emily: Hi, Brian. Thank you for what you do. You're a national treasure and this show is one of the things that makes me proudest to be a New Yorker. I think that it's critically, critically important, especially at this point, that we find ways to further incentivize people entering the profession of teaching. Every single policy issue in education is going to be impacted if this teacher shortage continues as it has popped up in every single city-state that I work with across the country. I used to be a teacher, I was a new teacher once.

Very, very, very hard job. I can only imagine it's gotten even harder now with all of the politicized aspects of the conversation, and I just think it's so crucial that we get, not even young people, but people who have something to offer kids in classrooms and keep them there with the supports and money that they deserve.

Brian Lehrer: If your top priority is incentivizing people to become teachers, how do you think they can be most effectively incentivized?

Emily: I think asking for teaching to be a reasonable job. I think that funding schools and giving people the resources they need, but also the time that is needed to plan and prep and give feedback to students in an effective, and authentic, and meaningful way. I think that that's how I always felt as a teacher anyway and I hear that echoed a lot, which is that this is impossible because there's so many things to be doing and I don't feel like I can do any of it to the fullest extent that my kids deserve and that I want to provide for them.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Emily: I would say, I don't know.

Brian Lehrer: Great start to this call, and thank you very much. Elizabeth in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call and thank you for your program. I believe that the most important issue is equity of funding. The United States has some of the best schools in the world and some of the worst schools in the world. The difference between the two are the amount of money that the underfunded schools get. Rather than having the most novice teachers and the Teach for America teachers in the under-resourced schools, we can have the best teachers in those schools; the ones with the most experience and the most credential.

With more equitable funding, we could balance out the tax levy property tax funding and make sure that every student in the United States has access to the best education possible.

Brian Lehrer: It certainly increases education inequality that education funding is so tied to property taxes because then, obviously, the higher income areas in terms of housing are going to wind up with more money per pupil. Do you think you have to fight the teachers unions at all on your proposal to have the most experienced teachers teach in the high poverty districts? Because teachers, like anybody, would probably say, "Well, if I've got the most seniority or rated as the highest quality, I should have more choices to where I go."

Elizabeth: I don't know how the teacher's union would react to it, but I think that if included in the idea with not just teacher pay, but also all the other supports that students in under-resourced neighborhoods and schools need so that the burden isn't entirely on the teachers to do everything that a student needs. I'm thinking right now of the model in Finland where money is allocated based on what they expect the students in each economic level to need and they just throw the resources at them-

Brian Lehrer: Right. Interesting.

Elizabeth: -whether it be more reading recovery in early grades, social work, whatever they need.

Brian Lehrer: Teachers could, theoretically, maybe it goes on in some places, be incentivized with more pay to teach in schools with kids with more challenging needs. Elizabeth, thank you so much. Listener tweets on a national level, "I'd like to see universal free lunch. Aside for many education standard, children need to be fed to succeed." Thank you for that tweet. Here's Mike in Manasquan, a former high school principal. Mike, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Mike: Hi, Brian. Thanks very much for taking my call. Love your show. My biggest concern is closing the gap from the pandemic, and especially doing that in our most disadvantaged student populations.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much to the point about the post-pandemic gaps of various kinds. Scott in San Jose, you're on WNYC. Hi, Scott.

Scott: Hi, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. I wanted to let you guys know that I have a cousin who's a public school teacher in the Hillsboro District in the State of Florida. The effect of being a school teacher in that district, it had a very stifling effect on her ability to even know what she can and cannot talk about and how she has to tiptoe around everything from gender to race to even science around climate change. I also wanted to remind everybody--

Brian Lehrer: Whoops. Oh, his line just went dead, so sorry about that. That got disconnected, but he made his point about his cousin who teaches in Florida. Some suggestions coming in via text. No income taxes on teachers. Instant pay raise, better access to housing and other perks. I guess that's addressing the caller who said we need to deal with a teacher shortage. Another person texts, "Schools need to let go of so-called balanced literacy programs and start teaching phonetics again. The method called queuing has destroyed literacy rates," says that texter. Listener writes, "Free college education at state and city institutions.

High-quality engineers and critical thinkers get high dollars. This would level the education requirement." Again, aiming at that teacher shortage. Let's see, who's got a good one on the phones? All right, Chris in Glen Ridge, a teacher for 20 years. Hi, Chris, what you got?

Chris: Hey. In my 20 years and by the end of it when I decided to get out is when I heard that the head dishwasher at the plaza was making more than I would ever make as a teacher. I think that, and no disrespect to the dishwasher at the plaza, but I think teachers need more money. It's an awful job. It's a difficult job, but the other part of this is you can't have a system where you have all of the high-performing kids essentially in one system and all the lower-performing kids in another system. We need to distribute all of our kids equally throughout the schools if we're going to have any kind of chance because it just doesn't work. I just feel terrible.

I send my kids to some of the best public schools in the city. I've tried to escape and buy into that system of finding the best education for your kids, but it's not helping the system. For those who can and to be able to do that, it doesn't help this system.

Brian Lehrer: 15 seconds left in the segment. Complete lottery system, no tracking?

Chris: Yes. If you want it to work, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Chris, thank you very much. Definitely food for thought there on that last call. Listeners, thank you for all your calls on the question, what's most important to you from the government in terms of education policy? That's the Brian Lehrer for today produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our Daily Politics Podcast. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio, and we had Juliana Fonda at the audio controls. I'm Brian Lehrer, thanks so much for listening today and stay tuned for All Of It.

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