“I feel like it is sort of a ‘Tale of Two Michigans - one that was and which still is, but which is dying. And the other, which is what we want to become," she said.
I met her in Lansing, on a day when she and the other superintendents from her county had gone to talk with the governor and their legislators about what matters.
That experience left her dismayed. She listened to pompous politicians talking about the need to make cuts, as if properly educating our children were something that could be put off.
Superintendent Johns knows how difficult it can be; she was the daughter of a steelworker in Pittsburgh. There was no money for college, so she put herself through, working two jobs.
She says she sometimes had to let her grades slip, but that’s hard to believe. She got an elementary education degree from the University of Pittsburgh and then earned a masters from Johns Hopkins, and then another masters and a doctorate, from Harvard.
She had high-level jobs in Pasadena and Baltimore before coming to Utica four years ago. She has a commuter marriage, and a job that never ends. Now 44, she didn’t finish paying off her school loans till her late thirties. And she knows for today’s kids, it will be harder. She has to fight to make parents understand that.
One of Utica’s current students had unbelievable test scores, and was admitted to MIT. But her parents are hesitant to sign for a loan. Johns knows this decision will likely determine the course of this young woman’s life.
“With blue collar kids - and I was a blue collar kid - if they don’t start college right away, and don’t go full time, the chances of their not finishing is huge,” she said. In the old days, there were at least good-paying jobs for people without degrees, jobs in the plants.
Not anymore.
People think of Utica as one huge white blue-collar suburb. There’s a lot of those folks, but her kids speak 47 different languages at home. Nearly a thousand are still learning English.
Yet, her message seems to be connecting. Utica’s dropout rate is less than five percent - lower than almost anywhere else.
She has talked her teachers and administrators into cuts and givebacks. Yet some say she should have asked for more.
“They don’t understand,” she said. She explained that how for many kids, Utica’s programs are the only exposure they ever get to the arts. For many, it‘s the first time they‘ve ever seen a play.
Eliminating the arts would be devastating. Christine Johns knows that some don’t get it, but hoped for better from those who run the state. She had a chance to talk to the governor, to explain how important it is that someone really thinks through these policies that make budget-cutting more important than anything else.
Jennifer Granholm looked her in the eye and said, “I understand.” Christine Johns can only hope the legislature comes to understand too.
This was excellent. This essay and story about Superintendent Johns should be required reading for all the other superintendents and school board members in SE Michigan. Finally someone gets it.
Posted by: Thomas Quail | May 03, 2010 at 10:40 PM