When Traditional Public School Educators Set Public Policy and Speak for Public Schools, It Makes a Difference
If you are a proponent of the Jeb Bush-“Chiefs for Change” model of corporate school reform, you conceptualize school governance in terms of tough management overriding the interests of local educators who are said to be unable to handle the inevitable and often competing pressures within a community. In its formula for state takeover of low-scoring school districts, Chiefs for Change prescribes: “unflinching” appointed leadership; the appointed leader’s absolute autonomy to control staffing, teachers, and school culture; the appointed leader’s capacity to demand and get results or fire staff; and the appointment of an “unbiased” third-party consultant “external to the school system.”
Traditional educators understand the role of public schools very differently. Working with a community and building collaboration are skills practiced by traditional school administrators. Last Thursday, for example, the PBS NewsHour‘s Jeffrey Brown interviewedTony McGee, the school superintendent in Mississippi’s Scott County Public Schools when Brown wanted to learn about the how Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids had affected families and children in Scott County. Superintendent McGee told Brown: “We had approximately 154 students across our district, mainly Hispanic and Latino… that were absent from school today. And so we have started reaching out to those families to find out about boys and girls—where they’re at or how they’re doing—just making sure that they know school is a safe place for them—it can be a safe harbor for boys and girls—and that we’re here to care for those kids… We have a lot of organizations in Scott County that are deeply rooted into the Hispanic community. And so they came to lend support to our school people… and making sure that everybody felt safe… On our end, especially in the community and the school, we had no prior knowledge. And so it was—it was pretty—pretty shocking. It was really a tough day emotionally for our educators and students and families.”
There is an ongoing battle of values and language that shapes the way we think about and talk about education. The current threats across several states of state takeover of school districts are perhaps the best example of this conflict. According to the Chiefs for Change model, the CONTINUE READING: When Traditional Public School Educators Set Public Policy and Speak for Public Schools, It Makes a Difference | janresseger
