Is marketing our school district a waste of money?

Did Leon County Schools need to rebrand and improve its marketing to draw our community back to its public schools? That is the stated purpose. I would not fault our school district for spending money to brand and market our public schools if I believed that marketing would bring families who have left back to us. The idea that they would come back if our logo had new look or if they just knew how many great things our public schools have to offer, however well-intentioned, is just not grounded in my experience teaching in Florida public schools for 46 years.

Leon County families do know about the wonderful programs our public schools offer. They also know that their choice of programs will be more limited in smaller private schools. They even know that they will have more highly qualified teachers, for the most part, in public schools, if we can keep disinformation, bad legislation, grade inflation, blatantly disrespectful behavior, and inadequate pay from running them all off.  The “brand”, however, is not what I have heard as these families’ rationale for taking our money to go to charter or private schools.

I know many folks who have “gone private.” I did not hear my departing friends say they didn’t know what great programs we have in our public schools. They know about the magnet programs in the arts and International Baccalaureate and Career Academies. That hasn’t been enough to keep them from taking their vouchers and our money to private schools.

What I did hear some of them say is that they want their kids to go to school in a neighborhood they cannot afford to live in and be with kids and families they aspire to live like. Others said they want their kids to go to a school with a certain kind of student and be exposed only to their limited worldview and values. There is no logo or message about our brand that is going to change that.

John Dewey said, “What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children.”

That’s me. I’m the community. I want my grandchildren to go to school with everyone else’s children in a place that is safe and supportive of the unique abilities and talents they were born with. I want them to enjoy the richness of a blended culture and know how different people live and what they believe. I don’t want the school to teach tolerance, I want it to celebrate values of diversity, equity, and inclusion and to systematically teach them as essential to the viability of a democratic Republic. I’ve been fighting for that since George Wallace stood on the steps of the University of Alabama and the attitudes he represented have not changed. We can’t “brand” ourselves out of that.

Florida already wrote a blank check on the taxpayer’s dime so that anyone with employment flexibility and available transportation can transfer to a school that teaches none of those values, so let's allow the remaining public schools to support those values in peace. Let them grow smart, well-educated human beings who will become active citizens of their communities and care about all the people who live there. If our numbers shrink, let’s get creative about meeting the needs of the community that wants what we are already branding.

I don’t ever want our wonderful school system to appear to be “desperate” about selling itself. The truly remarkable administrators, teachers, and students who live in it every day deserve better. Let’s embrace our public schools for what they are and how important they are to the fabric of our communities, just exactly as they are.

There is no budget big enough to buy a marketing strategy to do that unless the community already believes in it.

Jan Bennitt is a retired Florida educator and an advocate for women, children, and education worldwide.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Is marketing our school district a waste of money?