Home Rule
Public education is alike a picture puzzle with several hundred pieces to the puzzle. Each piece corresponds to an organization with a specific interest in improving education such as charter schools, vouchers, etc. Each of these organizations holds a piece of the puzzle acting as if their individual piece was the entire puzzle. The puzzle master is the legislature that enacting laws that govern how the districts are operated.
All these gimmicks are nothing more than distractions. At worst all these distractors sap the energy of does most directly involved in the education of our children, school teachers. Teachers are the front line of public education.
No plan or leader is effective if it does not have the support of school teachers. They are the ultimate stakeholders.
State legislatures respond to pressure from some groups that complain about the quality graduates that cannot read, write or execute simple mathematical problems. If the complaint is loud enough laws may be enacted to address a specific issue for instance, testing.
There are organizations, some called Political Action Committees (PAC) that portend to be the ultimate cure for all that ails the school system. From local school districts, to state to the federal government, everyone wants to be in on the action. Standardized testing mandated by the federal government is education’s answer to Obamacare. In this milieu of conflict a tug of war ensues as to which is the best course.
In the form of Lord Acton’s "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
supposedly with the same common objective.
What can you do???
The district superintendent that has considerable leeway in interpre Home Rule
Home Rule is a hot topic in Dallas.