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March 24, 2006
So, Jay Bennish has had his 15 minutes of fame - or shame - but the question remains: Where do we go from here? What's the remedy? What should Cherry Creek Schools, or any school district, do to protect students from indoctrination at the hands of politically motivated teachers? Let me offer two plans.
Plan A: Internal School Reform
1. Honest self-appraisal: Overland High School Principal Jana Frieler issued a news release after the Bennish debacle, entirely sidestepping the problem and glibly declaring Overland High to be a "great school" with "a long tradition of excellence." It's currently fashionable in educratic circles to promote self-esteem among individual students whose performance doesn't merit it. Frieler elevates this to the level of collective delusion. Some good people may be trying really hard there, but Overland High is most definitely not a great school with a tradition of excellence. It's academic performance ranks at the bottom of the district. Unless, of course, this is a version of the Lake Wobegon Syndrome, in which all schools need only declare themselves great.
2. School administrators should actually manage teachers: The course syllabus Bennish wrote and distributed at the beginning of the term was entirely too broad and unfocused. It gave him license to take the course in whatever political direction he wanted, straying far from the core requirements of state standards on geography instruction. It's the responsibility of school administration to regulate what teachers teach.
In the private sector, managers manage employees. Education should be no different. Principals or their designees should routinely observe teachers in the classroom. How better to judge their skills and the appropriateness of how and what they're teaching? Install television cameras with audio capability in classrooms so administrators can monitor instruction. I'm glad Cherry Creek officials encouraged students to continue recording classroom lectures. It's one thing to keep what happens in Las Vegas in Las Vegas, but there shouldn't be any secrets about what's happening in our schools.
3. Accountability: Public schools don't belong to teachers or administrators. They belong to the people. These are our schools. We pay for them. They shouldn't be playpens for disgruntled left-wing activists like Bennish. Parents should be able to demand rigorous instruction in basic academics and a curriculum that reinforces their values.
Unfortunately, Plan A won't work. I've long despaired of substantively reforming the public education bureaucracy. These government schools aren't responsive to individual parents and students. They're political entities, responsive to their most influential, collective constituency: the teacher unions and the school boards the unions work so diligently to elect. Principals won't be allowed to behave as managers, rewarding excellent teachers and firing incompetent ones, because the teacher unions won't let that happen. Bennish is a reflection of the dominant political culture in these government schools and in the teacher colleges that feed them. And there are many parents, for that matter, that are quite satisfied with the status quo. Just think of the liberal mentality that rules in the Boulder school district. Dissenting parents are simply outvoted.
So here's Plan B: Competition and Choice in Public Education
This is all about how you want your own children educated. There's no consensus and there shouldn't be. One size doesn't fit all. Some parents want their kids to be socially engineered as little collectivists, pacifists or environmentalists, complete with an implant of liberal guilt about our historical sins and the evils of capitalism. They want a soft educational environment, free of pressure and competition. Others prefer a more favorable presentation, on balance, of our nation's history and achievements so that their children might take pride in their American heritage. Perhaps they'd like their kids to be groomed as future entrepreneurs, industrialists or even soldiers, exposed to the wonderful world of free markets, competition and individual excellence. They want a fast track, highly rigorous course of basic academic instruction. They want their children to be prepared for the real world; challenged not coddled.
This conflict doesn't have to be mediated. The solution is variety. Treat parents and students as customers, not captive wards. Parents who like government schools the way they are can stay there. Rather than fight the educratic bureaucracy, dissenting parents should be allowed to bypass it with vouchers, redirecting tax dollars already earmarked for educating their kids to the school of their choice, public or private. Innovative and responsive new schools would multiply. Forced to compete, government schools would improve as well. Competition and choice are two pillars of freedom that have worked wonders in all other sectors of our society. Education is no different.
Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. His e-mail address is mikerosen@850koa.com
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