Take it Easy, Mr. Deasy

After false starts and stalled leadership, Los Angeles Unified has settled with a superintendent who intends to accomplish super things.

Refusing to grant tenure to a larger cadre of teachers that in years past, pushing for student freedom to enroll anywhere in the district, and advocating for greater efficiency and accountability, Superintendent Deasy has commanded a great deal of respect from parents and colleagues for his boundless energy and fixed focus to make public education better.

His controversial decisions have aggravated some and have ingratiated him to others. The Teacher's Union has expressed dismay over Deasy's support for value-added measurements, which some union leaders argue infringes on the authority of the teacher while poorly analyzing the full impact of the instructor on his students over an extended period. His sudden decision to replace the entire faculty at Miramonte Elementary School following the uproarious allegations of sexual misconduct of long-suspected by unreported faculty both jarred and awed community stake-holders. He has engaged in unprecedented oversight to expose any previous wrongdoing by LAUSD staff, promising to mount necessary investigations.

In addition to his rapid reforms, Deasy touts the rising of graduation rates in the district. His rapprochement with teachers has signaled his willingness to work with sometime adversaries to innovation. His enthusiasm to improve the lot of urban youth has included the unrivaled accomplishment of visiting every school in the second-largest school district in the county. His affable presence has calmed worried kids and has emboldened many who see nothing but a bleak future for public education.

The former Vice Admiral of the Navy did not command as much respect, and his deputy successor instigated necessary concessions from across the district, yet Superintendent Deasy still must plug a $300 million dollar gap in the school district's budget. Facing limited options for overcoming this huge debt, Deasy cut adult education and and early childhood programs. In his words, the core mission of LA Unified is to protect K-12 education at all costs.

Following decades of minimal reform, political infighting, allegation of professional and fiscal misconduct, LA Unified remains a bloated bureaucracy that does too much. Public education does not need more energetic leadership, more diligent intervention, or frequent visitations from administrators. Less leadership, local intervention, and greater community accountability will improve the quality of education for youth in this country. Los Angeles Unified does not serve students or this country's future, no matter how painstaking the reforms planned and implemented by top brass. Instead of expanding his presence throughout the district, the Boston native ought to encourage secession. The number of communities poorly served by the sprawling bureaucracy headquartered at 333 South Beaudry should be enough to encourage South Gate, Lomita, Maywood, and Rancho Palos Verdes to take back local schools and return them to the care of more conscientious and caring officials in the near vicinity of these schools.

Mr. Deasy contains a great deal of energy, but what public schools need more than anything else is the cessation of Big Government do-gooders who want to do more, as if more time, energy, and money dispensed on reform will improve the lot of failing schools and failed leadership that only shifts the problems and maintains a weak step ahead of the mess. "Big-Picture leadership" and "day-to-day" management are exclusive ideals which have stalled student achievement while wasting our future and preventing much-needed decentralizing reform from taking hold.