Summer of Discontent
by George Wood, Forum Executive Director and Superintendent of Federal Hocking Local Schools
In Steinbeck's The Winter of our Discontent, the well-meaning Ethan Hawley compromises his ethical compass to fix his family's economic distress. Recent revelations regarding similar ethical lapses in the education community make me wonder if we have not seen a summer of discontent.
The signs are everywhere.
In Florida, new state superintendent Tony Bennet resigned soon after it was revealed that he 'fixed' the education accountability system in Indiana--when he was state superintendent there--to make a charter school look good. That charter school, sponsored by a major campaign contributor, was held up as a model of how privatizing public schools would save the system.
In Ohio, legislators have put in place a new two-year budget that rewards failing charter schools with more funding even as it makes punishing cuts to successful charters and traditional public schools. The big winner in this budget owns the most powerful for-prof