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School boards have the solution to the problems ailing education today.

That bold statement comes from Barbara M. Wheeler, who became president of the National School Boards Association in April. One of Wheeler's goals is greater involvement of school boards in the public dialogue about education, and she sees NSBA as the premier voice of public education on the national scene.

"Boards of education set the tone for a community," she says. "In many instances, boards of education have been left out of the equation in all these great summits. But we’re the policy makers and we're the ones who can effect change in our communities if given the tools and the opportunity to make those changes. Teachers are on the firing line on a daily basis. We have to provide the tools and the environment for the teachers to make that magic happen in the classroom."

Wheeler brings a wealth of experience to her new role as NSBA president. On the national level, she has served a year as president-elect and two terms as NSBA’s secretary-treasurer, and represented the Central Region on the board of directors for four years prior to that. She was president of the Illinois Association of School Boards from 1987 to 1989, and represented the DuPage division on IASB’s board of directors for several years. Since 1974, she has been a school board member in Community High School District 99, which provides high school facilities for all or parts of Downers Grove, Woodridge, Lisle, Westmont, Oak Brook and Darien.

Of her service in District 99, she jokes, "I’ve become the institutional memory." But she adds, "My experience as a local board member keeps me in touch with what is happening in the local school community."

Experience at the national level has convinced Wheeler that school districts everywhere face similar issues. "Kids are kids and education is education, and the issues are the same across the country, whether it's Idaho, or Los Angeles County, or the city of New York, or a small rural district in the Deep South," she says. "There's not that much difference. It's the magnitude of the problem based on the size and student population."

Wheeler sees finance and student discipline as the two most pressing issues facing public education. "I don't care if you're in a one-room schoolhouse in the cornfields of Nebraska, or in a very complex school in the heart of the Bronx, finance is a major issue," she says. "We are working with very limited dollars and yet, any time there is a wrong or a perceived void that affects the lives of anyone from 2 to 21, the public schools are expected to solve the problem. But we’re not given the resources to deal with the problem."

Adequate funding, for example, plays an important role in promoting the use of technology in schools. "Technology is crucial," she says. "But technology costs money, and a lot of schools can’t afford to make that useful tool available in the classroom."

She believes the rising level of violence in our society is being reflected in school discipline problems. "The kinds of things we see in schools reflect a microcosm of the kinds of things we’re seeing in society. It’s a lack of civility. That in turn is affecting what’s going on in schools, because more energy is being expended in dealing with students with a lot of problems that are manifesting in discipline problems."

The best way to tackle these problems, she says, is to talk openly about them. "I think with finance, communities have to make value judgments as to what kinds of schools they want," she says. "I think schools need to be given the freedom to teach what needs to be taught. If we’re going to have a mandate, I don’t think we should be required to follow the mandate unless the funding to pay for compliance with the mandate is there."

According to Wheeler, communities also need to have a dialogue about what is happening in society and what communities can do to help schools deal with the issues that kids are bringing to the classroom. "When a student brings a weapon to school and shoots kids at school, most of the time, that kid has issues that have nothing to do with the school. We’re seeing an increasing amount of that kind of violence. It’s a frightening manifestation."

The new president believes part of NSBA’s role is providing leadership for local school boards in initiating this kind of dialogue in their communities. "I think we, on the national level, raise the issues and begin the discussion that needs to be continued on the local level," she says.

Wheeler considers raising student achievement to be NSBA’s primary goal. She urges educators to resist fads, and points to the "acrimonious" debate in recent years about "whole language" versus phonics. "There's research that shows what works," she says. "That research has gotten lost in the discussion and the dialogue."

She wants to see the NSBA provide school boards with the information they need to ask questions and to evaluate the programs in their districts, so they can make sure their curriculum is based on research and not on the latest fad. "Boards need to be aware that they can ask their administrators and the education professionals in the district the questions that need to be asked, so the board can make the policy decisions about the curriculum in their individual school districts," she says. "That’s one thing NSBA can and does do: provide boards with the information they need to make those decisions."

Wheeler expresses concern about the discussion revolving around other school reform issues, including charter schools and vouchers. "Essentially what they’re saying is, let’s go to a deregulated system. Let’s go to a system that isn’t saddled with all the regulation that comes with being a public school. Well, if that’s the big cure-all for the American public schools, why don’t we just deregulate the public schools? Why don’t we just create an environment where the public schools can do what they need to do to provide the curriculum that the kids need to become lifelong learners and have successful lives? Why set up another shadow system with vouchers and charter schools? If charter schools are so wonderful, why not make every public school a charter school, and only regulate the ones that show they can't educate kids?"

She wants NSBA to play a larger role with elected officials working on school reform. "Our primary responsibility is to work at the federal level with the Department of Education, Congress, and the White House; and, when asked, to work with the various state associations. But the national dialogue in education emanates from inside the Beltway. That’s where NSBA is, and we’re positioning ourselves to be part of that discussion. In the past, school boards have not been. Our role is to become a player in the national discussion on education, and to raise awareness that, at least in my opinion, the local school board is the solution to education reform. Let us do our job. Stop regulating our job."

Closer to home, what is Wheeler’s opinion of the funding bill that recently passed in the Illinois state legislature? "At least they did something," she says. "They have been dancing around the whole issue of school funding for so long. They have been talking about doing something about funding reform since I became a board member in 1974. They need to do more, and they need to fix some of the inequities that I think were in the bill they passed, but they finally did something. They stopped talking about it. From my perspective, that’s an encouraging step."

On a serious note, she adds, "The state has to be willing to say it needs to fund education. The shell game with the lottery is a laugh. The state needs to decide, to determine, is education a priority? And if it's a priority, then maybe we should focus on education and be willing to take a high-road approach. A statesmanlike approach. That’s one of my frustrations. I haven’t seen the legislature doing that. They’ll pass mandates, and they won’t fund them. Maybe we ought to get a moratorium for a few years on mandates, and let’s take a deep breath and stand back and say, ‘Okay, what’s really going to work?’"

She urges school board members to work together with others in their communities to improve the public’s image of schools. "Let’s talk about what education is doing well," she says. "And we are doing a whole lot of things extremely well. There are a whole lot of successful young adults out there who have come out of our schools. Let’s have a candid discussion of what we’re not doing so well, because there are some things we don’t do as well as we probably could, and let’s talk about how we can fix it. Stop all the rhetoric, because the rhetoric isn’t solving anything. It’s leading a lot of people to believe that most of the kids who graduate from the public schools can’t read, and that public schools are one step away from being reform schools because of all the discipline problems. That’s not the case."

Wheeler welcomes the recent trend toward changing the relationship between school boards and teacher unions. "At least at the national level, there are some very candid, open discussions between the leaders of the AFT and NEA, and the other major educational organizations ... very blunt discussions about issues surrounding student achievement. I am encouraged by the candor that is coming forth from the teacher’s unions relative to the need to change the profession, and the candor coming from the boards and the other segments of the education community. I see real hope to do really good things for kids."

Meanwhile she offers some reassuring words to school board members in Illinois. "The vast majority of school districts in Illinois can hold their own with districts anywhere in the country," she says. "We’re doing a pretty good job."