Parents best hope for schools

Editorial by Greenville Daily Reflector, January 23, 2014.

Two news stories this week each carry potential for helping public schools in Pitt County: A promise from Gov. Pat McCrory to win a pay increase for teachers, and, perhaps more indirectly, a program designed to help moms and dads with parenting skills. The story about teacher raises will get the most attention from supporters of public schools, but the greatest hope for improving student performance lies with parents.

Teachers are the heart of public education, of course. They have not been well cared for in North Carolina for at least six years, ranking now at 46th in the nation on the salary scale. As the governor said this week, that is unacceptable.

Since Republicans have had control in the General Assembly, the salary issue has been exacerbated by a move to end tenure for teachers. Those and other legislative assaults on public schools threaten to steer top young educators to pursue their profession in states that offer better salaries and stronger support for schools.

But even the best teachers with the most generous compensation, working under the most supportive conditions, will struggle against the odds to reach students whose parents are not engaged in the effort, too. In Pitt County and most other areas of the state, it is the chronic lack of parental involvement that is the root of low-performance issues among at-risk students.

The problem can be helped through initiatives such as the Positive Parenting Program being administered locally by the Pitt County Health Department. As reported by The Daily Reflector on Wednesday, the so-called “Triple P” program uses 30 years of research to “give parents simple and practical strategies to help them confidently manage their children’s behaviors, prevent development problems and build strong, healthy relationships.”

Such a program can certainly be a tremendous help to single parents (mostly mothers) who may be caught in a cycle of poverty and public assistance. But this is a program designed to cut across cultures, socio-economic groups and various family structures.

Local administrators say one of the program’s goals is to remove the stigma that a parenting program is for “bad” parents.

Groups such as the newly formed Parents for Public Schools of Pitt County should utilize programs like “Triple P” in their mission to “engage, mobilize and educate” parents. Until that mission gains some momentum, schools, teachers and their most at-risk students will suffer.