This essay analyzes public education as an issue of how the mass media has both observed and influenced public opinion and policy. The different kinds of messages the mass media industry has produced over time and how and why the messages have changed. Also the report will touch basis with how public opinion and policy have changed over time because of the mass media’s messages.
Public Education
To find the presence of a large private education sector that benefits public schools in a broad-based democracy, there must be politicians responsive to low-income families but crowds out public education spending in a society politically dominated by the rich (De La Croix, 2009. 597-628.) Rich is the best describable term when referring to public education; according to Raffel Jeffrey (2007) even though public education accounts for one-quarter of the United States’ state and local government spending, employs one-third of all government employees, and consistently ranks as a high priority of citizens, public administration has neglected public education.
The mass media have had effect on influencing the public opinion and legislation by not making public the slow pace public administration has been progressing. According to Jeffrey (2007) the neglect of public education by public administration can be attributed to those scholars, researchers, and practitioners and documents ultimately developing sparse coverage of public education in textbooks, journals, books, professional association activities, and curricula. Also the lack of coverage by practitioners of the mass media has been the absence of messages; the neglect can be attributed to public administration’s federal focus on meeting standards, theoretical views about the connection among public education and politics that result in structural and organizational barriers.
Lack of Coverage
Directly deriving from the lack of coverage by the mass media, the message received by the public is indirect. Society believes public education and public administration are effectively meeting standards and constantly working side to side with culture, technology, and science.
Every mass media tool that distributes messages have a purpose; whereas textbooks indicate which topics a professional field considers significant for all students to learn to become practitioners, journals reflect the latest research and theoretical thinking of the field.
The five leading journals in the public administration field were examined to define the range and attributes of public education coverage. “From January 1, 2000, to August 23, 2003, only 17 articles focusing on public education were published in these journals – an average of one article per journal per year.”
The need for coverage appoints for means to an end for the traditional public administration and a new beginning for those willing to take issues head-on. Additionally, the mass media is the key point in allowing society to know public education’s standpoint. Recently, a published documentary in which President Barack Obama called it “powerful” even though Oscar Academy Awards categorized it as “not good/accurate enough to be selected.” According to Valerie Strauss (2011) “Waiting for Superman” is a documentary-film from director Davis Guggenheim that by starring five students analyzed the failures of American public education.
Public Reaction
Even though “Waiting for Superman” uncovers a vast field of neglect toward public education, it was the first big documentary to reach millions. Some people portray it as not developing much any impact for instance, “Educators and experts who study education are not entirely convinced that Guggenheim’s film will be any more successful at effecting change than all the other documentaries that have become before it; in fact, film-makers have been wringing hands over public schools for decades, especially on public television.” Even though the articles do not give specific examples about what coverage has been given over public television, it solely shows a disoriented professional. According to Puente, Maria (2010) Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute says, “I can imagine more people feeling the need to do better by kids, but I’m not sure how that gets channeled.”
One can say that if previous documentaries had an effect on the public, on any level, “Waiting for Superman” could, too. The mass media, instead of acquiring the necessary information to move forward on the mission, which is supposed to be better public education; the mass media criticizes on the particular areas the documentary lacked information on.
Because the message given depicts the change of teachers’ unions and how no longer will the Unions be able to specify member’s wages, extension of membership, increase in the share of public school labor force the Union represent, precluding pay based on performance and aptitude, and minimizing competition. The reaction of the public has been more than that of average documentaries however, not all the credit can be given to a simple documentary.
Michelle Rhee has been the message mass media never told and the reaction never expected. Studentsfirst.org is an entity that for the first time opens their horizons to any opposition in regulating the broken school system and how society can transform it. According to studentsfirst.org Michelle Rhee discloses messages by taking action in such form as, “adding instructional time after school and visiting students’ homes as a third grade teacher in Baltimore, to hosting hundreds of community meetings and creating a Youth Cabinet to bring students’ voices into reforming the DC Public Schools, she has always been guided by one core principle: put students first.”
Putting students first is the message. The reaction may be almost immeasurable however, as time passes, society will analyze how the new techniques of transforming schools across America will either help or deteriorate the public. So far, the subsidized public education system has not educated Americans as far as it concerns to be qualified for the demand of jobs there are. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that the same system will work; a new system in place can help to transform some areas of the system that throughout history has never been able to improve.
Public Change
The public is starting to look at changes in the public school system. Beginning from legislative action to change policies, budget cuts are the easiest way of seeing how mass media messages manifest on social entities. When Congress only communicated with the biggest teacher organ of the nation, the issues at stake were primordially those of the Union without giving students the possibility of speaking out opinions. With the new messages on the mass media, students are growing up to distinguish between the Union’s practices and the new practice that puts students first.
In several states the message is heard, and clearly. According to studentsfirst.org when teacher layoffs are necessary, the best teachers will get to stay. By performing fair and robust evaluations, teachers and principals will be judged based on how much academic progress the students have made.
Salary is second from first in importance; according to studentsfirst.org teachers deserve professional-level salaries, and the more effective the teachers are, the more pay teachers will receive. In addition, job security should not come before the interests of students, and parents should have quality information and multiple options to choose the best school for the children.
Teacher unions worldwide have always strongly opposed performance-based pay. According to the CATO Journal, Unions view wage differentiation lie on the basis of subject taught as well as any subjective evaluation of teachers, as threats to their collective bargaining strategies and therefore reject them outright.
Since the 1950s schoolteachers’ salaries have increased impressively, so much that private schoolteachers received an average base salary of $38,200 in 2007-08, whereas the comparable figure for teachers in traditional public schools was $52,100 (CATO Journal, 2010.) “This understates the difference in compensation between the sectors, however, due to the superior retirement benefits enjoyed by public sector teachers.
The Teachers’ Union has had major impact on public opinion and policy nationwide, even worldwide however; because the Unions have always sent out the same message while constantly asking to increase collective bargaining, the public overcame these issues and began to change the mass media messages were being distributed. Michelle Rhee, along with other mass media messages such as “Waiting for Superman,” all have made the public change the view on how important public education genuinely is by representing the past, present, and the future, too.
Conclusion
The different types of messages mass media have publicized begin with the Teachers’ Union perspective. If it were not for the impact the Unions had on American society, public opinion on public education would differ. In fact, once the mass media started to make public other influences on public education other than that of the Teachers Unions, society also began to see persons like Michelle Rhee applying full-throttle experience with a different mass media message. It reflects on how saving and rewarding “great” and effective teachers, empowering parents, fair and robust evaluations, reform tenure, classroom techniques, etc. is now making a new mass media message, students first. Ultimately, how the new dilemma of public education is means to an end and how the public reaction is helping the change.
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