From our series, “Conversations with Experts”

Today we are featuring the story of an educator and author who taught in a Title 1 school in Chattanooga, TN for 7 years. His experience articulates the complex struggles of public schools where 70% of the students live below the poverty line. Now he acts as an education consultant and advocates for students stuck in these schools. His mission is to help teachers connect individually with their students to create overall better classroom environments and student outcomes, which he argues starts with better individual students-teacher relationships.  

Interviewer: Chris, tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience as an inner-city educator in Chattanooga.

Chris Morris:  I worked as a high school math teacher in a very culturally diverse and impoverished Title 1 school for 7 years. I experienced a tale of 2 halves as far as my ability to reach these students. For three years I struggled to know how to engage these students as I was vastly unprepared at the start. 

Growing up, I attended a private Christian school, so I had no idea what I was in for. These students faced obstacles I couldn’t even imagine. Many of my students were only showing up to school for the free and reduced lunch offered during the school day. I write much more about this in my just-released book, Class Act: Changing the Educational Landscape Through Love. It took time, but I finally realized that until underprivileged children - who can count on very little in their lives - know personally that you care for them and you’ve demonstrated that care individually, it’s hard to get much out of them academically.

Interviewer: Tell us about your frustrations as an educator in the public school system itself.

Chris Morris: The frustrations feel infinite from an educator’s perspective. The public-school system has become more and more regimented and government-controlled. As a teacher, I felt like I was spending 80% of my time doing things that had nothing to do with educating students. The standardized testing has gotten completely out of control, and, in my experience, it takes away from learning. It felt like we were pulling students out of class, sometimes missing weeks of instruction, to take practice tests, benchmark tests, and end of course exams. 

Now as an education consultant, it’s even more frustrating to work with public education. Getting a hold of decision-makers or even knowing whether or not the decision-makers will stay in a particular role is next to impossible. Internal education policies and/or programs are often not given enough time to assess before they’re scrapped, and another program is implemented.

Interviewer: Interesting. So, what made you interested in school choice options or what made you feel like school choice might be an answer to the problems you experienced? 

Chris Morris:  I’ve had some close friends who educated me about the benefits of school choice over the past couple of years. In my state of Tennessee, the governor is piloting ESA’s in two counties, and I’ve been able to observe more of its benefits. 

But considering my experiences, I see public education as a monopoly over the service of education. Monopolies tend to take advantage of their customer base because they know that they are their customer’s only option for that service. I firmly believe that school choice is the best thing we could do for our students. Not only does it provide immediate options for students who need it, but it will put pressure on public school to do better, therefore making the entire educational landscape better.

Interviewer: We agree. And we’re especially interested in those students who have an immediate need. So, what do you think about our research? What are your initial reactions to the idea of giving scholarships to families living in defined low-income communities to change student outcomes AND changing the economic landscape of that neighborhood/community?

Chris Morris: Looking back at my experience in a Title 1 school, I think it’s brilliant and makes perfect sense. If school-zones no longer define property-values, you stimulate the economy of formerly impoverished areas and increase the likelihood of job-creating business development in those areas.

Speaking from my experiences, I think there needs to be a national push to make Education Savings Accounts an option for every family. If every student had the ESA option, it would force all educational institutions to compete for the customer, the student, therefore achieving better educational outcomes for our nation’s future.  

Interviewer: Chris, thanks so much for sharing your experiences and your time with us. In a nation where we rarely get to hear the unfiltered experiences and opinions of teachers without union involvement, your story is an important one. 

If you’ve enjoyed hearing from Chris today and want to learn more about his teaching philosophy for low-income schools and students, check out Class Act: Changing the Educational Landscape Through Love. Order through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Chris’ website - http://morrisseymodel.com/