The current education dance in the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is about low scores. But the method of fixing the problem is based on two false premises: that it is teachers' fault, and that shifting teachers will solve the problem.

The actual problem is the clients—impacted by poverty. Schools with the low scores are mostly in communities of poverty. Poverty is the issue. It isn't race. But it is race-impacted because students of color are more likely to be poor.

Part of the problem is No Child Left Behind. It is a trap created by those who believe market forces, charter schools and voucher schools should be able to feed on public education. No Child Left Behind should be considered illegitimate because it requires 95 percent of students to be proficient, a statistical impossibility. NCLB uses standardized tests, encouraged and lobbied heavily for by the publishing industry.

NCLB killed many art and music classes. It eliminated many programs for gifted students while focusing on low-performing students, such as Monterey is doing now.

NCLB has teacher accountability linked to testing. That is absurd, because teachers can't overcome absenteeism, drug and alcohol abuse, parental incarceration, early birthing, teenage parentage, mindsets that venerate the thug and despise learning, frequent moving, high unemployment, mental illnesses, evaporation of the middle class, generational poverty, gangs, and new programs year after year that consistently prove not to be the silver bullet they claimed to be.

Instead, MPUSD has declared teachers are responsible. Seasoned teachers will be moved to low-performing schools. This means unseasoned teachers will be moved to Monterey High School. All of this is being done for a shot at getting the largest amount of federal funding. Only a shot. There are no data showing that moving teachers from wealthy communities to poor communities raises scores. But much data show that enraging one's workforce and the supporting community lowers efficiency (scores).

The superintendent and the school board have done exactly what our former president did. They are attacking the wrong target. And, as in Iraq, it will create a quagmire.

What would make more sense, from the school board's perspective, would be to ship low-performing kids to high-performing schools. That would dilute their low scores with higher scores. But that would mean facing the reality that the kids have low scores because of where they are from. And that would be, ummm, well, ugly. It is far easier to play musical chairs with teachers.

Predictions for next year:
 

• Scores will plummet.

• Many high-scoring students will bail from our schools.

• Teacher morale will deteriorate more.

• Students will flex their muscle this year in interesting and unintended ways. Sit-ins, test refusals, flash mobbings, etc.

• The superintendent might finish out the year, but that's all. Prepare for another expensive buyout.

• Monterey's schools will probably be in the news a lot.