Courtesy of Elizabeth Hampton at the Huffington Post:

It’s a rare occasion when you find someone with little to say about education. Everyone, it seems, has a finger to point, two cents to toss in [...]

This is completely understandable. Not every American can speak knowledgeably on the political backdrop catapulting unrest in the Middle East. Even fewer (some politicians included) can deftly navigate the health care debate. But if you’re a citizen of this country, you have likely spent time in a school building and therefore, when it comes to education, you’ve darn well got something to say.

Amid the cacophony of opinions, there is one set of voices I think we need to hear more from: teachers.

From academia to politics, the views and decisions driving education policy are frequently devoid of educator input. As such, the individuals who yield greatest influence on what happens in our schools are not actually in our schools. [...]

What do you think? First, do teachers lack the opportunities and the proper forum to weigh in on education reforms and policies — the outcomes of which primarily will affect them and their students? And what would such a forum look like?

Moreover, Hampton points out that education debates provoke a passionate response from everyone because everyone is (essentially) inside the debate. Everyone lives near schools, attends schools, relies upon them. But is that “cacophony of voices” necessarily problematic? I would argue that the voices themselves are not the problem, just the fact that they have become cacophonous. Both the teaching community and the community at large could perhaps benefit from more chances to join (or lead) a discussion that truly affects us all.

Who do you think gets left out of education debates and decisions? What voices need to be heard?