Justin Marquis Ph.D. On Education and the Occupy Movement

What it Should Mean for Public Education

Young girl at Occupy Texas State protest on October 13th. Photo by Lindsey Huckaby.

What would an equitable system of education look like at the elementary and secondary levels? For starters, we need to understand one thing that I have been aware of since my first student teaching experience in a public school – equal and fair are two different things, and things do not have to be equal in order to be fair. As a way of clarifying this, look at Brown v Board of Education (1954). In this landmark civil rights case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that separate, but equal, is not equal. This decision illustrates how things that may seem equal may also not be fair.

So my opinion of fairness in education is going to tread a very fine line. For starters, a “fair” system of education requires adequate funding. Now adequate means a very Marxist thing here – from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. This notion removes “equality” from the equation. Some schools and individuals simply require more funding than others based on the demographics of the school and the pre-existing skills and abilities that students in a particular area bring with them when they enter the school. A school with students who are less-well-prepared would require more fiscal resources than a school with better-prepared students. Now this does not mean that either group of students should be forced to do without anything that would make their educational experience rich, meaningful, and rewarding. Adequate funding means just that – giving each school the funding that it needs to provide a positive educational experience for every student.

That said, fairness in education also has a great deal to do with autonomy, or, if you prefer, separateness. Each teacher, school, or district needs to have the discretion to run their classroom(s) or system in a way which they, as the local experts, know will best benefit their students. Students, parents, teachers, and administrators in impoverished rural or urban areas need to have input into decisions that concern their school in the same way that parents in suburban schools often do. National control and standards do a great injustice to the individual student by failing to account for differences in social, ethnic, gender, or other background factors that affect performance on these tests and should be abolished in favor of authentic assessments that measure innovative and critical thinking within a context that has meaning for the student and their community. This move away from standardization can only happen through local autonomy.

What it Could Mean for Higher Education

Higher education is a different animal than public education to its very core. In the U.S., there is no free, compulsory higher education. It is a luxury rather than a mandate. This is the first area in which a movement towards creating a fair society would have to look in terms of higher education. Signs of this are already starting to emerge. Yesterday I received an email from moveon.org asking me to sign a petition to have the federal government forgive all outstanding student loans as an economic stimulus initiative. While unrelated to Occupy Wall Street on the surface, such an initiative is very much inspired by the fact that a significant number of the protestors are disgruntled college students or recent graduates who are saddled with insurmountable college debt and little real hope for employment in a struggling economy (NPR, Oct. 14, 2011).

I am not going to propose that all colleges and universities should be free.  It will not happen. In the same way that some people choose to enroll their children in private schools, some, regardless of any societal shift, will enroll in high-cost, private colleges and universities. However, there needs to be a free, government funded college option for anyone interested in pursuing higher education. This free option could be through community colleges, state universities, or some other new system involving online and informal learning. Regardless of what the actual system looks like, the value of higher education is currently out of alignment with the actual costs. Given the immense value of learning and the importance of continuing education for all Americans, easily available free educational alternatives should be a priority of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Originally published on October 18th, 2011  in full here.

Texas State University Students Unite In Action

Video by Matt Barnes.

The University Star: Occupy Wall Street Reaches San Marcos

OCCUPY WALL STREET REACHES SAN MARCOS

by Kolten Parker

Approximately 25 students rallied together near The Fighting Stallions Wednesday in The Quad to voice concerns with American corporations.

Photo by Adrian Rox

Texas State students gather in support of the “Occupy Wall Street” Oct. 5 at the Fighting Stallions. The group encouraged passers-by to take part in the movement and travel to Austin Oct. 6 to protest at city hall.

Occupy Wall Street, which began Sept. 17, is a protest that has gained national attention. Protests have followed suit, with the same message, in large cities and on college campuses throughout the United States. The Austin American-Statesman reported police are preparing for large crowds of more than 1,000 activists to gather in Austin.

Joshua Harvey, protester and international studies junior, said the group of students who rallied in The Quad Wednesday are not directly affiliated with any organization.

“We are trying to get students to wake up to the fact that corporations run our government and country and now is the time to take back democracy,” Harvey said. “It is time to put the power of the people back in government.”

The students were chanting “We are the 99 percent,” and “The people united will never be divided.”

University Police Department Sgt. Jeff Jamison said he has dealt with protests on campus in the past.

“The students are exercising their rights by being out here. Our job is to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand,” Jamison said.

Jamison said UPD received a briefing on the protests during the shift change, but were not bringing additional units on campus to handle the protest.

Johanna Lima, protester and computer science freshman, said she was encouraging students to get involved without being “too pushy.”

“This is the most beautiful movement I’ve seen because it is breaking down partisan walls,” Lima said. “I have democrats, republicans and libertarians standing next to me with the same mission—a revolution.”

Harvey said the students’ biggest motive was to bring attention to the movement on campus and encourage and facilitate civic debate.

“Most college students are too apathetic,” Harvey said. “They are more worried about MTV or their iPods to care about what is really going on in the government.”

Mercedes Banda, applied sociology senior, sold fruit cups in The Quad during the protest for the Latino Student Association. She said the group made their agenda clear and gathered students’ attention.

“Lots of students were coming by and asking what they were protesting,” Banda said. “When I told them it was part of the protests on Wall Street, most of them didn’t know anything about it or seemed like they didn’t care.”