Blaming Your Own Team
Editor's note: Deborah Meier is traveling in Belgium this week. She filed this essay before leaving.
Dear Pedro and friends,
It's hardly something new in American political life. The foxes have been guarding the hen house for many years. But what we're seeing in education of late involves more chutzpa than I've ever seen in education circles.
The foxes? Our city mayors and their appointed superintendents. The hens are the schools for which they are presumably accountable.
We're in a "competition" between charters et al and "regular" urban public schools. Competition is good for all, we're told. But not if one side is fighting with both hands tied. The folks who promised us they'd be accountable for our public schools are, it turns out, rooting for the other side. They're doing their best to see that "their"
Dear Pedro and friends,
It's hardly something new in American political life. The foxes have been guarding the hen house for many years. But what we're seeing in education of late involves more chutzpa than I've ever seen in education circles.
The foxes? Our city mayors and their appointed superintendents. The hens are the schools for which they are presumably accountable.
We're in a "competition" between charters et al and "regular" urban public schools. Competition is good for all, we're told. But not if one side is fighting with both hands tied. The folks who promised us they'd be accountable for our public schools are, it turns out, rooting for the other side. They're doing their best to see that "their"