Why Can't Politicians Get Out of Schooling?
by Frederick M. Hess • Jun 5, 2014 at 8:25 am
Cross-posted from Education Week
Cross-posted from Education Week
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Well, I'm starting to enter the back stretch on my next book, The Cage-Busting Teacher. It's due off to Harvard Ed Press in September, and should be out in early March. I thought I'd start sharing some of the themes, mostly because I'd love to hear your reactions, criticisms, questions, and suggestions. Today's is a topic that I'm often struck by, particularly when smart and engaged educators bemoan the fact that lawmakers won't let them be.
Talented educators regularly gripe to me about dumb accountability systems, teacher evaluation schemes, and such. They gripe about politicians who aren't willing to spend enough on schools, to listen to them, or to ask their advice. They exclaim that policymakers ought to mind their own business and let educators run the schools.
I get it. It's an understandable premise, especially for a hard-working, talented teacher. But I tell these folks they need to step back and look at this with fresh eyes. See how it looks to the policymakers, say. After all, public schools spend public dollars and hire public employees to serve the public's children. For better or worse, they're going to be governed by public officials. Those officials are going to set the policies that shape what educators can and can't do, how money is to be spent, how performance will be judged, who can be hired, and much else.
Now, you may say, "Hold up. Public officials haven't always done it this way." There are two responses here. One, is that you're wrong. Politicians and state bureaucrats have always written regulations about how money could be spent, how many kids could sit in a classroom, which textbooks would be used, what subjects had to be taught, who could teach, and so on. We're used to all this, though, so it can be less noticeable. Two, the reason that today's policy feels more invasive is because policymakers have been convinced that these older rules and regulations weren't getting the job done. So, they've adopted new policies around Why Can't Politicians Get Out of Schooling? :: Frederick M. Hess:
