The Press and School Reform

I am amazed at the number of stories that the local and national press have released recently about schools, their failure to educate our kids, and the growing concerns about respect and safety for our students.

The press has published massive broadsides against school district administration. The recent scandals in Miramonte Elementary school have pressed the mainstream media to root out any other corruption or perversion in our local schools.

The question remains and looms even larger: with all of this press coverage, how come we see little change in the way that our schools are run? Since we read in the papers daily about financial mismanagement, staff misconduct, and political infighting which drains our teachers and tax revenues away from schools, why do we still read that very little is being done about it?

After reading Sandy Banks' fawning piece on Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy, I have concluded that the press is actaully enabling the same culture of failure by championing reform instead of devolution of the public sector in public education.

Like many liberal establishments, the press corps firmly believes that the right collection of intellectuals, and the proper (read "larger") investment of  money, will transform our failing schools into educational powerhouses. More oversight will supposedly offer the community more insight into why public schools mismanage tax revenues and fail to prepare students for the future.

For all the reporting, for all the exposés, for all the time and energy spend in bringing to justice bad administrators and poor teachers, the press still believes that reform, reforms, and reformation of the public sector will transform the public schools. On the contrary, the lack of competition, accountability, and swift efficacy by choice to eliminate waste and fraud have all contributed to the problems which are hindering schools from performing well.

The liberal mindset entrenched in our public schools has also colored the worldview of the media, which is convinced that more experts and more money will solve systemic problems. What education needs now is less system, fewer bureaucrats, and more freedom for families to choose which school where they enroll their children.

Reformation is not the answer. Dissolution coupled with options, respect and trust in parents' discernment to choose the best schools, and children's capacity to know a good teacher from a bad one, these simple changes through a voucher program will ensure that schools  compete for students, allocate state funds properly, and demonstrate an edge in innovating curriculum to teach the child, not accommodate unions, school boards, and state politicians.