By Mickey Dunaway

A few words about President Biden’s forgiving student loans for more than 800,000 borrowers of $39,000,000.

Qualifications to comment.  I was a loan borrower for my bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees, and I paid them all back in full.  Wonder why the Feds haven’t contacted me yet?  Hmmm. Interestingly, I never worried about it.  I just wanted to teach and coach.

I taught at and led high schools.  I led schools and school districts.  Seventeen years in leadership at the high schools.  Eight years at the district. Fourteen years at the university.  I have some insights into students going to college, what it takes, and who goes, and here are my thoughts about why some kids don’t go to school beyond high school.

A few questions and thoughts about the 800,000 students and the $39 Million of Mr. Biden’s proposal.

How many of these 800,000 went to high-dollar private universities like the Ivy League, Northwestern, or Stanford?  BUNCHES.  This is the first reason I have no sympathy for them. 

How many majored in the glamour jobs of tech, medicine, or university research at those private universities?  Mr. President, tell us how many attended high-dollar universities and their majors.

Did none of them research beforehand to see what it would cost to go to private school for the 8-10 years it takes to get one of these degrees? 

Why are we who proudly went to state universities not recognized for our accomplishments?  There is an explicit governmental prejudice against state universities, which is a damn shame.

Who is going to pay for the $39,000,000 loan forgiveness?  Those who are roughly in the same financial class as I am—as a lifelong schoolteacher Are ultimately paying that $39,000,000? 

We, who have worked our entire lives to take care of our families and communities.  We, who have paid our taxes regularly and generally without too much regret.  We who love our country and whose ancestors and kin fought for it while the wives, lovers, and mothers worked every day to keep the family going, always worrying about that knock on the door.

A Few Questions of Ethics

Do low-income students and minorities deserve to attend college?  Absolutely. Should there be scholarships available for them?  Yes, if they have demonstrated in high school a work ethic and academic prowess that reasonably assures success, and their teachers will say so to the university.

Should all scholarships be based on academic merit?  Nope.  But this is not as big a deal as it sounds.  There were no scholarships for me or for anyone I knew coming out of high school in the 1960s.  Today there are many scholarships around today, and they are not terribly hard to get.  Students graduating from high schools of 200+ students will often accumulate scholarships in the millions.  However, most of those scholarships don’t amount to much, and few of them are given to minority and poor students.  Why?  Because these students lack the drive work to get them.  I am not being hard.  I am being honest.

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A Story of Success or How to Cure Education’s Ills

The state was Alabama. The town was 15,000-person Alexander City, a small Milltown. The school was Benjamin Russell High School. The statistics of the school were + 60% white and 40% black and about the same for poverty. Here is our story.

I am going to tell a little truth here that is going to be hard to hear for some of my friends.  During my 12 years as a high school principal, over and over and over, I watched minority students dumb down their curriculums.  Black high school males, especially, often took courses far BELOW their ability level so that they would not be labeled WHITE by their friends.  So, who can cure this cultural problem so that kids of poverty and color will routinely be in higher-level classes at the same numbers as white kids?

I am going to tell a little truth here that will be hard to hear for some of my friends.  During my 12 years as a high school principal, over and over and over, I watched minority students dumb down their courses of study.  Black high school males, especially, would take courses far BELOW their ability level so that they would not be labeled white by their friends.  A very sad commentary indeed.  Our high school removed courses that were called BASIC which meant below grade level and replaced them with courses that were on grade level and taught as college preparatory courses. 

Did numbers of minority students fail?  Yes, a significant number, but no more than those who were failing the below-grade-level courses they had been taking. 

What did our school do?  We eliminated the choice to dumb down the curriculum.  For those who struggled, we added significant advising by our teachers for all students and especially those who teachers recognized as capable of higher-level work.  We added courses that were vocationally oriented but whose academic content was at the college level. 

During those wonderfully challenging years in Alabama, we did not reach every child.  The student who arrives at high school reading on a 3rd-grade level is for all reasonable purposes beyond a school’s ability to rehabilitate.  But we tried. We taught remedial reading.  We removed student-self-created barriers and replaced them with college prep courses and with solid advice to every student and parent about what it took to succeed in the world of that day and beyond. And we celebrated graduation with students, teachers, parents, and the community. When those graduates walked across the stage, I awarded them their now powerful diplomas and shook their hands, but at the end of the diploma awarding process, at the end of the stage stood their advisor. There were no handshakes for the advisor—this was a time for well-earned hugs of appreciation!

Let me remind you, in case you missed it, this was Alabama—cash and vision strapped—Alabama.  But not our board. Not our teachers, counselors, coaches, and clerks. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we did have a ton of vision and dedication, and with the help of Russell Corporation, where the majority of our mothers and fathers worked, things changed.

Did we get rewarded by the government? NO. But we got rewarded. Most teachers were thanked, but it was many years later because that’s how it works in education, but these time-delayed appreciations were rewards that few other people can ever experience. That is why we are teachers.

Please comment on my thoughts.

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Dream Big. Plan Well. Act Boldly