9486 in the collection
Federalizing Education
Ohanian Comment: From calling out Susan Jacoby to speaking against creating larger school districts, I agree with Denis Doyle.
By Denis Doyle
In 1930, with a population of approximately 130,000,000, America (in round numbers) had 130,000 school districts, or one for every 1,000 citizens; today, with more than 300,000,000 Americans we have roughly 15,000 school districts, or one for every 20,000 citizens. And that number obscures as much as it reveals.
Most American school districts are small; indeed, only 500 enroll more than 15,000 youngsters and the largest 50 are almost without exception troubled institutions. Think of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and the other giant cities and a picture emerges of dysfunction and low academic achievement. For a reason; the huge districts are too big for their own good. Indeed, it is easier to count the handful of successful large districts -- like Montgomery County MD or Fairfax VA – than the unsuccessful.
First of all is the question of school building size. The one thing all private schools have in common is small building size (and small classrooms if they can afford it). Ask a headmaster or headmistress how many kids they can serve and the answer is “the number of first names I can remember.” Education is an intimate business and small trumps big every time. No wonder charter schools tend to be small as well. (The wonder is anybody could ever believe that larger numbers of children are to be preferred to smaller numbers).
And students, parents and teachers all prefer small to large schools (the one exception is high school athletics in which booster clubs prefer a larger talent pool to draw upon, which has the perverse effect of reducing the likelihood of everyone getting to play a JV or varsity sport).
Second is the question of district size. Private schools offer an interesting insight in that regard as well: there are no private school districts. Each of the nation’s 28,000 private schools is a tub on its own bottom. And while some parochial schools – notably Catholic and Lutheran – are parts of school “systems” the only aspect of system consistency is theological (and even that is less the case today than historically).
In private schools, the buck stops with the head.
Why should public schools be any different? Indeed, the old saw that economies of scale result from large concentrations of students is just that, an old saw. To the contrary, there is every reason to believe that significant diseconomies of scale appear in larger districts. Not only are they bureaucratic in the extreme, paid school boards (with large staffs) are the norm and their CEO’s are paid what private sector CEO’s are paid – in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
It is no wonder the school union movement began in and remains concentrated in large districts.
Does anyone really think we’re better off with fewer rather than more districts? Does anyone any longer think that large districts are "better" than small districts? Apparently they do because the call to consolidate continues the evidence of our senses to the contrary notwithstanding. For example, Susan Jacoby argues in the New York Times op ed pages (March 19, 2010) that school boards should be done away with altogether -- the democratic process is too messy to permit let alone produce quality schooling, she avers.
Does she think education is a purely technical affair, best run by technocrats? Is there no longer a normative quotient to schooling? Has Socrates been wrong all along? Indeed, her example of democracy run amok is the Texas State Board of Education’s conservative approach. I, too, am made uncomfortable by their politics which is all the more reason to keep education decision-making decentralized. If you want a real headache, image a national Texas-style school board.
I would counter offer with a simple observation; the problem with American schools is not that they are not big enough but precisely the opposite: many are too big as it is. It is no accident that many small to medium-size American districts do as well as the best foreign systems; only when we factor in large urban districts do we not do as well.
As for being too democratic, we learn to choose by choosing and we learn to educate by educating. Withdrawing from democratic processes is precisely the wrong way to go.
The greatest loss in large schools and large districts is that the school community -- parents, teachers and students – lose the very sense of community that good schooling is meant to impart. Imparting a sense of community requires example and practice: lip service will not do. For there to be a community there must be shared values and common purpose unfolding in a real environment of shared practice and experience.
If action on the school consolidation front is called for it should be to deconsolidate large districts, break them up into manageable pieces to restore education on a human scale.
— Denis P Doyle
The Doyle Report
2010-03-
http://www.schoolnet.com/viewpoints/The%20Doyle%20Report/viewpointpost.aspx?postid=272&paged=true&page=1
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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