Educational Leaders in Public Schools

Public schools are well known for careful stratification and segregation of age groups. Public schools are so poorly run (take DPS for example) that all of those kids run across the county line to attend any school that will accept them. These kids are so far behind academically because of the crap that DPS taught or didn't teach, that they will never be academically successful. Public schools are not required to answer to parents, but they do need to heed the words of politicians and school boards-all of whom have their own political agendas. It would not be an exaggeration to say that these agendas are weakening the entire system.

Public schools are operated at the state level through departments of education, and locally by school districts and publicly elected or appointed school boards. Approximately 15,000 different school districts operate in the United States, and most are run by counties.

Educational leaders have focused in recent years on providing safe and disciplined school environments for students and teachers. Many schools have increased expulsions of violent students by adopting "zero tolerance policies" toward serious offenders. Education outcomes become irrelevant. Educators and parents can post a "viewpoint" page on the site that acts as an online profile, and they can participate in discussion forums, share links and resources, and review teaching materials.

Education reformers and policymakers who consider higher academic standards a centerpiece of their movement should not count on teachers to be a driving force, added Wadsworth. It may be that the academic energies of even the most motivated teachers are sapped by what they consider to be the stressful day-to-day demands of the classroom. Education costs have been rising faster than inflation. Many parents want, but cannot afford, these private alternatives. Educating for citizenship, work and the public good has been replaced with models of schooling in which students, especially poor minority youth, are viewed narrowly either as a threat or as perpetrators of violence. When not viewed as potential criminals, they are positioned as infantilized potential victims of crime (on the Internet, at school and in other youth spheres) who must endure modes of governing that are demeaning and repressive.

Educators must recover their higher motivation, a spirituality that comes from faith not in religion but in civilization, humanity's sanctuary from the cruel vortex of nature. Educational alternatives would be unlimited. It would be the source of enormous progress, and a model for the nation.