Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In this case, 'autonomy' is just a four-letter word

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In this case, 'autonomy' is just a four-letter word:

In this case, 'autonomy' is just a four-letter word

Rahm and Jackson offering a few principals "autonomy".

Blaine principal, Troy LaRaviere gets into it with Rahm's new CPS’ chief education officer, Janice Jackson after she dutifully defends Forrest Claypool's so-called "principal autonomy" plan, otherwise known as Independent Schools Principal (ISP) program.



I'm a great fan of teacher autonomy. But whenever you hear the word autonomy coming down from one of the world's great top-heavy, command-and-control bureaucracies, you have to ask yourself -- autonomy from whom and for what?



In this case, Claypool and Jackson want to give a gaggle of top principals, a little freedom (mostly what they already have) from their own network chief's bureaucratic oversight and offer them a taste of professional community -- meeting with each other.



It reminds me of the day former CEO Arne Duncan asked us to start a charter school instead of a small neighborhood public school, so that the system wouldn't "fu*k with you". I replied, "But you ARE the system. Why don't you just not fu*k with us?" He looked befuddled but finally relented.



The outspoken LaRaviere, whose school rates among the district's highest, smells something fishy. He's not just after some autonomy for himself FROM the system. He wants to change the system and is forthright about it. He thinks that the Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: In this case, 'autonomy' is just a four-letter word: