Here are some quick remarks, in no decided order. A few are remarks that I have made previously. I’ll cover the school district more in the future.
Choice of school and teacher is preferable, whenever possible.
Choice improves efficiencies within an organization, even if it does not lead to alternatives to the organization.
Federalization of achievement standards was a mistake.
Awards should be based on merit, and not tenuous claims to entitlement, or a sense of family entitlement.
Federal law — as it is — cannot be flouted, whatever its over-reaching character; local administrators, teachers, and curriculum coordinators are not above the law. No parent should rely solely on the promise that rights afforded under the law will be recognized, or enforced appropriately. Trust, but verify.
Schooling and education are different things — schooling (presumably) stops, but education (one hopes) continues for a lifetime.
Technology should be diverse in hardware and software, as it is in the market.
Praise of an educational plan from the very authors of the plan (!) is less compelling than praise from an independent source.
A foundation or endowment for our public schools is a good, clever idea.
Comparisons of knowledge attained between Americans and students abroad show decline to Americans’ disadvantage as the students advance in grade level. This demonstrates that America’s educational challenge is self-inflicted. We are the equals of others by nature, but fall short through nurture.
Our public school administrator many be the worst leader the Whitewater district has ever had: bland, mediocre, but autocratic. Of all the many combinations that one might have (smart or dull, empowering or controlling), she has the worst combination: dull and controlling.
The leader of a small-town district should be able to answer her own phone, and be prepared to answer questions without hiding behind a receptionist.
Hiring committees should not be be composed of employees from every functional area in a building. An interview panel in our district for teachers or principals might now include, for example, a building custodian. I am the first to believe that all people are created equal; I reject, however, the idea that a good way to hire a teacher or principal is to ask the custodian’s opinion. That’s egalitarianism at the expense of merit.
Our problem is not providing a good education; our problem is believing that the only way to provide a good education is through adherence to perspective of administrators, and teachers unions. It’s a sign of how rigid these perspectives have become that the conviction that ‘We can offer better for less’ seems like an insult to some.