The metaphor of our educational community as an ecosystem is quite powerful. And it’s useful: it helps us understand that what each of us does is a part of a larger whole, that the pieces fit together, and that we need to understand the relationships between those pieces.
But there’s a critical question few ask: is it healthy? Biologists tell us that a healthy ecosystem is sustainable. Like the circulation of rainwater, or the cycling of oxygen and carbon dioxide, an ecosystem is self-sustaining. That’s what makes it healthy. No subsidies required.
But I’m not an ecosystem, all by myself. Why? Because you have to fill me up once in a while—you need to feed me. And that food comes from outside my individual system. I’m not self-sustaining. And if I don’t work—if I don’t contribute to making obtaining my food—then I require a subsidy. I’m not a whole ecosystem—at best I’m part of one.
My educational system may not be an ecosystem, at least not a healthy one, if it’s not self-sustaining. And so I need to ask a few questions. Can I maintain my program into the foreseeable future, without having to go hat in hand to others for a subsidy—to eat? Is my programming valuable enough to my community that it is willing to commit to it—do I generate a service that community members are willing to support—to pay for? Or am I required to “close a budget gap” by spending my time fundraising.
Is my community willing to make a long-term commitment my program? Are we married? Or are we just dating—am I told we’ll take you through this year, and see how we like you in 12 months, or 24? And therefore, can I plan for the future?
I’m not really a health ecosystem when I spent a quarter of my time meeting with people who might write me a check to subsidize me.
And what is my role in all of this? How adaptable am I? As my community changes, as the demographics and other compositional characteristics of the people I serve evolve, am I seeking to understand what they need, and to serve those new needs? Am I nimble enough to adapt and adjust with my community?
Without self-sustaining economics, and without adaptation, we become frozen in time. We risk our community moving on without us. And we risk becoming dependent on subsidies.
And so I come back to our educational community, and I ask each of us this question: is your educational community an ecosystem? Is it self-sustaining? Does it create the means by which it can support itself? Or, does it require a subsidy? And if so, how often? And how dependent are you (are all of us) on those subsidies, and on the larger vision, the personal goals, and the quirks, of those who allocate those subsidies.
At this season we read that “a new king arose over Egypt who knew not Joseph.” What do we do when a new subsidy king arises over what we think of as an ecosystem, and the new king knows not--or shares not--our community’s goals?
