TV REVIEW : A PBS Report on Education

Everybody talks about it but nobody seems to do much about it.

It is education in the United States, specifically the sad state of teaching and learning as it is practiced in public schools nationwide. Perhaps the topic is simply too large to get a handle on, too bulky to think about.

Tonight’s “Frontline” report, “Teacher, Teacher,” airing at 9 on Channel 28, takes just the right tack for this unwieldy subject. By focusing on the problems of the small Shakopee, Minn., school district, “Teacher, Teacher” offers a microcosm of the world of huge, urban school districts.

The problems in this town of 12,000 just southwest of Minneapolis are much the same as in big cities like Los Angeles: students who can’t read or do basic math, underpaid teachers, deteriorating facilities, resentful taxpayers.

It is this last group that prompts a crisis in Shakopee. After a bill increasing property taxes is passed, angry Shakopeans pass a referendum cutting funding for the school district, forcing serious cuts in school programs and services.

Those cuts set up the framework for this very engrossing hour: What do we want for our children? How much do we really value their education? Are we getting our money’s worth?

“Teacher” follows three teachers into the classroom, letting the story play itself out against a backdrop of lessons, parent-teacher conferences and school board meetings. The teachers argue that families--not schools--are failing children, that teachers are unrealistically expected to correct the ills of the greater society.

Producer-director Robert Thurber offers no easy solutions. “Teacher, Teacher” deserves the attention of those who have a stake in the future of our children--in other words, all of us.