What if those making education decisions for public schools, had to be public school grads??

[LWolf]

25. You're right about that.

I'm not a disinterested party. As a teacher, I'm more passionate about public education than anyone I've ever met outside my profession, and that includes the population of families that I've served over the decades. I've got my students' backs to the extent I'm allowed, and too often have to fight AGAINST the system to serve them.

There was a time, before the standards and accountability movement took us by the throat and strangled the life out of us, that I worked an alternative system. It wasn't a charter school; it was a fully public school, part of a regular school district. We just weren't standardized. That district gave us more autonomy, and permission to do things differently. They empowered us. Here's how it worked:

We had a strong, vigorous site council; half of the members were parents, who reported back to any parents who wanted to show up for regular parent meetings, and took feedback from the larger group back to the council. The entire staff, certified and classified, made decisions which were then taken to site council for approval. There was always one (older) student represented on the council, as well.

This school set its own calendar, its own hours, and handled its own budget. When someone needed to be hired, a couple of teachers, a classified employee, and at least one parent, along with the principal, were part of the committee that chose who to interview, conducted interviews, and VOTED about who to hire out of that pool.

This school had an open door policy; parents were encouraged to spend as much time on campus, in classrooms, as they wished, to be part of the whole day as they chose.

We had the enthusiastic support of all of our families.

Of course, this example is only one school site, at one time; not an entire system. It is an illustration of what happens when the actual stakeholders, parents and students and educators, are empowered to help set priorities and allocate resources.

Politicians and corporations aren't the stakeholders. If we are going to empower the stakeholders, a good start would be making sure that the federal and state SOEs are educators who know something about teaching and learning and what the system needs to be successful. That would be a start.