Tag Archives: public education

Educating Children Is the Essence of Paying Forward

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We educate children of the next generations in the belief and hope that the knowledge and skills they learn will support their future success in times when our generation cannot. We pay now for rewards anticipated in their tomorrows.

The right to be educated is as essential to an American as any guarantees in the Bill of Rights. In fact, an illiterate and uneducated person lacks the reading and contextual comprehension to understand the background, meaning, or applications of the Bill of Rights let alone the ability explain them as the backbone for our way of life. Advocating for public education and higher education has been with us since our founding. Thomas Jefferson said that education is necessary for all people to protect their freedoms, prevent tyranny, and make better decisions for their common good. Jefferson believed that education is a “paying forward” strategy that prepares children through education to become capable citizens as adults.

https://www.monticello.org/the-art-of-citizenship/the-role-of-education

Jefferson got it right. Our system of public education is the essence of paying forward. Taxpayers fund the education of their children and grandchildren today and for years to come knowing they, the payer, will not see the outcomes achieved by the education they bought. In the rear-view mirror of history, this is how each generation in our country has received education paid for by its parents and grandparents. We educate children now in the belief that when these children are adults they will pay for the education of the next generation(s).

How does this work?

Jefferson and our nation’s forefathers purposefully did not make public education a function of the federal government. They delegated public education to the state governments and there it remains today. Each state is responsible for establishing its public school system, and each state further delegated this responsibility by creating local school districts and school boards of education. In Wisconsin, state statutes 115 – 121 describe the state’s guidelines for local control of public education. As Jefferson proposed, local communities are the most knowledgeable for decisions on the education of children in their local schools.

From the get-go, public education was the agency for ensuring three essential outcomes

  • A literate adult population. The capacity to read and be informed is essential for an electorate to make self-determining decisions. Public education’s first goal was to teach reading and civics. Voters need to read the ballot and sign their name, and they need a working vocabulary to understand their elected representatives.
  • Inculcation of knowledge and skills for prosperity. Schools prepares children to become informed and productive adults. An informed citizenry is bonded by its heritage and its history so, schools teach US History as a common background of national information. And schools prepare children through regular attendance, following group directions, and learning literacy and problem-solving skills to enter the local workforce after graduation. A child who is regular in daily attendance, follows school rules, and annually adds to their knowledge and skills will be a productive and reliable citizen.
  • A common education without privilege or discrimination. Prior to the early 1800s, education was reserved for male children of prosperous, white families. It took decades before girls were enrolled and even longer before non-white children were allowed to attend public school. It took time for the theory of public education as a prevention for a class-based society to become reality. Public education still suffers the ill designs of segregated and self-interested people in our society.

What we need to know.

We do not have a national system of public education. There is no constitutional authority for the federal government to direct local school governance. In other countries, compulsive education is a mechanism for the indoctrination of children in “state thinking.” It is a tool of totalitarianism. And, that tool is not constitutional in the United States. Any attempt to do so is illegitimate and illegal.

Congress uses the 14th Amendment – the due process clause – to create protective legislation ensuring equal and equitable access to education. Our laws prohibit segregation into so-called separate by equal schools for any children. Our laws support and protect the education of children with special education and handicapping conditions. Congress passed specific and continuing legislation, such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to promote public education and teacher preparation. Although the “due process clause” opens the door for Congressional action, the clause has limited interpretation.

In specific instances, politicians and Congress try to shape public education through semi-draconian actions. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established national student achievement goals in reading and math and punitive repercussion for states, schools, and teachers who could not or did not achieve those goals. The Common Core was proposed as a national curriculum for state and local school systems to implement. In the next decade, NCLB’s efforts dissolved due diminished federal financial support for its agenda and state and local school districts’ adoption of NCLB’s positive intent without punitive accountabilities.

Public education continues to be a tool used by and for special interests in our society to gain personal advantage. Most recently, state legislatures changed school district boundaries to create re-segregated schools – re-segregation on socio-economic-cultural classifications. The COVID pandemic accentuated the creation of chartered “pocket” schools for select enrollment. In several states, school systems look like schools prior to the civil rights corrections of the 50s and 60s. This is not happening by accident.

The historic separation of church and state is eroded by legislation providing public tax dollars to parochial schools. Politicians understand the unspoken consequences of sum-loss school financing. When the sum of financing is politically capped, any redistribution of the limited funds means existing recipients will receive less. And when funding is aligned with enrollment, urban schools suffering “white flight” are left with high costs and diminished funds. This is not happening by accident.

Lastly, local school governance thrives on neighborliness. Moms and Dads who sit on school boards usually do so to support a quality experience for their children and their neighbor’s children. The vast majority of school boards are non-partisan and paid only for their meeting time. Sitting as a school board member is an act of civic responsibility. However, populist activists’ invasion of school board meetings and haranguing of board members to enact specific agendas, such as book banning and curricular cleansing, is changing the membership of local school boards. This is not happening by accident.

The Big Duh!

Polarization within our society is anathema to the purpose of public education and, if continued, will gradually and forever make public education what Jefferson feared – no longer a protection against tyranny. We will be paying forward into an unAmerican future.

If test scores are that important, eliminate all else in public education but testing and test scores

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Tired of the annual and uninformed complaints about student test scores in our nation’s schools? Weary of the complaint that we spend too much money on public education only to create low-scoring students? Annoyed that politicians use public education as a partisan punching bag always taking their hardest punches at our children’s achievement in international comparisons? Peeved that while conservative critics complain about test scores in public schools, they keep shifting public tax funds to parent vouchers for private education?  

It is a wonder that critics are not as vociferous in complaining about athletics because half of the teams in any conference will have losing records for the season, some for seasons on end. Or concerts in which some voices and instruments are out of harmony. Or math teams that fail to solve any higher math problems. Or school bus routes that run late. Of too much pizza on the lunch menu. I am not encouraging complaint for complaint’s sake but simply pointing to the silo of criticism about academic test scores.

To the annual critics of public education who whine about the status of academic test scores, I propose that we give them what they want. Let’s strip everything out of our public schools but academic test preparation, academic testing, and make this the singular public education program of every school. If test scores matter that much, schools should be all about test preparation and test results.

Announcement – Tests Only Matter Schools (TOMS)

Beginning today:

  • The only educational programs approved for children in public schools will be academic instruction in preparation for annual MAPS testing, reading assessment in third grade, and NAEP testing in grades 4 and 8. All other academic instruction, arts, athletic, and activities programs are hereby eliminated from public schools.
  • Contracts for all teachers except those specifically assigned to teach reading, ELA, and mathematics are immediately voided.
  • All children from age 3 through age 13 will attend school five days a week for 40 weeks each year. School instruction will be provided in four (4) ten-week blocks with three (3) weeks of no school between each block. A school day will be four hours in duration beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending at noon.
  • Parents of school-age children are responsible for transporting their children to and from school each day.
  • Attendance is mandatory with parental incarceration the penalty for student truancy.
  • Children aged 3 through 5 will receive pre-reading, literacy, pre-composition, and numeracy instruction every day.
  • Children aged 5 through 8 will receive reading for understanding, grammar mechanics, composition, arithmetic, pre-algebra, pre-geometry, pre-statistics/data understanding instruction every day.
  • Children aged 9 – 13 will receive reading complex text and literature, advance composition, algebra, geometry, advanced algebra, trigonometry, probability and statistics, and problem-solving instruction every day.
  • Annual MAPS testing will be used to assess each student’s progress in preparing for the national third grade reading test and the 4th and 8th grade NAEP tests. The three-weeks between each instructional block provides reading, ELA, and math teachers time to evaluate each child’s academic progress and plan personalized instruction for the next ten weeks.
  • Only children who are prepared for the third-grade national reading assessment and the NAEP tests will be allowed to take the tests. Preparation means achieving scores of 85% or better on pre-tests for these assessments. Unprepared children will be recycled in third, 4th, and/or 8th grade until they are prepared to take these assessments.

TOMS reduces the cost of public education.

The immediate cost saving will be mind-blowing, and every proponent of TOMS will beat their chest with pride.

  • Teacher and support staff payrolls will be reduced by 90% or more.
  • School administration, counseling, curriculum and instruction, and campus supervision will be streamlined.
  • Athletic, arts, and activities budgets will be eliminated.
  • There will be no need for food services or school transportation.
  • There will be no heavy budgeting for technology education, science labs, art or music studios.
  • The school’s utility costs will be minimized to HVAC, water, and sanitation. There will be no after school/evening programming.
  • School taxes will be greatly reduced. The state’s per pupil formula will fund TOMS and no revenue limit override referenda will ever be needed again.

TOMS succeeds!

The United States will top the annual lists for international student academic achievement, all children will achieve high academic standing, AND the cost of public education will be a pittance of what it is now. The critics of current public education will be able to say, “I told you so.”

Oh, and TOMS only applies to public schools. Children enrolled in private schools will have their activities, arts, and athletics programs because there are no public complaints about test scores in private education.

The lesson.

“We only appreciate what we have when we lose it.” (Isabel Allende)

And “we get what we settle for.” (Thelma and Louise)

If TOMS don’t work for you, please choose future leaders who understand that public education is an investment in our commonwealth and our commonwealth is worth the investment. We are our commonwealth.

Educating Problem Solvers

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Public education exists to fill the needs of the commonwealth.  In the 1800s it was citizenship and immigrant assimilation.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was the need for literate industrial employment.  In the mid-1900s it was national security.  In the late 1900s and early 2000s it has been national and international economics.  Along the way there has been a layering of social and humane purposing for educational programming, but they never were the fundamental drivers of educational policy.  Today our nation needs to educate children to be informed problem solvers.  We face cataclysmic issues of climate, economic, social, political, and ethical distresses.   It is not enough that educated graduates can read, write, compute, and have an abundance of knowledge.  These are nothing if they are not put to a purpose. We need our next generation to be educated in problem solving.

Problems du jour.

“Plastics”, Mr. Robinson told Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate.  The future he said was in the plastics industry.    Today Mr. Robinson rightfully could say “Water”.  There are places on our planet where there is not enough or no water.  Drought!  Simultaneously, there are places where rainfall and flooding are deadly and ruinous and places where rising sea level erodes and overwhelms homes, towns, and cities.  Flooding!  As a natural resource, its scarcity and overabundance are causing humans to change how and where they can live.  In its extreme, drought and flooding are killing us.  We need a generation who are prepared to work the problem du jour – water – not just chase the hot trend du jour – plastics.  If today’s Benjamin Braddock, Hoffman’s character, needed advice on what to do with his college diploma, a good answer would be “problems with water”.

But water is not the only problem needing solving.  If not water, then childcare – the scarcity and cost of childcare devastates young families.  Or, elder care – the costs of Medicare and Social Security are multiplying the national debt.  Or, affordable housing.  Or, ethical government.  Or, aligning immigration to employment.  Or, and the list goes on.  We face a multitude of problems that live at the local, state, national, and global levels.  We have problems that divide us into those who are affected versus those not.  That is a problem unto itself – our problems divide us, they do not unite us.  We need problem solvers.

A new mandate – active problem solving.

Mandates are needed.  In the 1960s President Kennedy gave our nation a mandate to go to the moon.  We did.  In the later 60s President Johnson signed mandates to change the national view of civil rights.  For a while, they did until we let problems of special and personal interest get in the way.  In the early 2000s, President Bush mandated NCLB and reading and math became our national school focus. 

At the state level, the Wisconsin legislature recently passed Act 60 to mandate financial literacy and Act 20 to require phonics-based reading instruction.  Public education is a function of state government, and our educational mandates are embedded in the statutes.  Once law, mandates must be implemented.  Making mandates is not a state problem; making the right mandates is.

Locally, school boards mandate.  During the pandemic, school boards mandated masking, mitigation, and virtual learning.  Some mandates were popular and others were not.  School boards approve policy and policies are their mandates. 

Mandates make things happen.  

I challenge every school district administrator to use UbD (Understanding by Design) techniques to create a district-wide, 4K-12 problem solving curriculum.  This backward design process begins with a statement of the graduation outcome and then describes the programming to achieve the outcome.

Why start with local school districts?  Because they can act unilaterally and usually apolitically.  Partisan state government is either gridlocked or bent toward partisan issues. 

The local school outcome of interest is – all graduates are informed problem solvers.  Informed means three things.  Each graduate –

  • understands multiple problem-solving strategies and how they work,
  • has an informed “BS” detector and can filter out all the (B)bias and (S)special interests that surround our significant problems, and
  • is motivated to persevere until a problem solution is working.

Mandates are really easy.  It just takes courage to understand that what becomes law or policy gets done.  Therefore, if you want something done, mandate it.

If the current status quo is not working, change it.

A reader may say, “Our school curriculum is already overloaded.  We cannot add a new program to our overworked faculty and students”.   True.  And the answer to that statement is brutal.  The current school curriculum maintains the status quo.  It educates children to fit into and be part of the current state of the world.  Public education, as it exists now, is always behind the curve of our problems.  It extends the life of problems; it does not help in solving problems.  That is why courageous mandates are required at the school board level.  Legislative processes at the state and national levels take forever making most solutions so lost in the problem they have little chance of changing anything.

This is not a difficult proposition, if there is a will by educational leaders to act.  All they have to do is ask these simple questions. 

  • Are our current systems working positively and aggressively to fix or alleviate the crises we face today? 
  • Are today’s graduates skilled enough in problem solving to fix or alleviate these crises?
  • Are children in the elementary and middle school grades learning problem solving strategies?

The answer is not “yes”.

Start here.

Every child receives instruction in the social studies in our 4K-12 curriculum.  The traditional scaffolding of United States history in elementary, middle school, and high school with specific courses in US government or civics and economics only builds common background knowledge for all.  There is no purposeful application. 

The C3 Framework for Social Studies Standards is a game changer in terms of repurposing a social studies education.  The C3 Framework adds this singularly unique focus –“preparation for a civic life”.  The structure of this curriculum includes this mandate – how will students use their learning to purposefully engage in their community and state as informed and skilled problem solvers.  The purpose of social studies is engagement.

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History

A proper school board mandate is to approve the C3 Framework as the basis for district social studies instruction.  Abandon curriculum that only prepares graduates for a game of Jeopardy.  At grade level, this means children in 4K-12 annually will learn developmentally appropriate inquiry skills to ask problem-based questions and learn about civics, economics, geography, history, and the behavioral sciences.  The focus is not knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but knowledge and tools for critically looking at community and state issues and developing age-appropriate conclusions.  “This is what we should do…”.

The commonwealth.

Our local communities and state are so intertwined that the old concept of commonwealth is more important now than ever before.  Our problems are large and forbidding so our approach to problem solving must be equally new and bold.  The commonwealth needs problem solvers not gawkers lamenting why problems never get fixed.  Public education can provide a next generation of informed and trained problem solvers.  Instead of Generation (whatever letter comes next), let’s create Generation PS (problem solvers).

Parent Demands in Public Education are not Parent Rights.

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Hot button:  an emotional and usually controversial issue or concern that triggers immediate intense reaction.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hot%20button

Public education in the United States is a long story of hot button issues.  Emerging from a pandemic fraught with hot buttons – vaccines, school closures, remote education, quarantining, information and disinformation, lost trust in public schools – we may want a calmer educational environment.  But we are not getting calm.  The hot button today is parental rights in education – red hot!

What do we know?

Parental rights in education begin with two constructs.

  1. The US Constitution does not include any statement of parental rights in education.  The late Justice Scalia labeled parent rights in education as “unenumerated”.  As such, there is no basis for shaping law or policy based upon what the Founding Fathers wrote.  Specific rights to determine a child’s education are not extended to parents nor protected by the Constitution.
  • Nature abhors a vacuum.  In the absence of substance in a defined space, surrounding and denser matter will invade the space until the defined space looks and acts like its surrounding.  So, it is with parental rights in education.  In the absence of a legal basis, parental rights are whatever parent activism can carve out of the undefined space of law.

Why are these constructs important to understanding parental rights in education?  In any dispute regarding an act of the state, in this case a school district or school board, the argument is first reviewed under the Constitution.  Because education is not enumerated, attention is given to the 14th Amendment that ensures due process and establishes concepts of equal protection under the law. 

Although education is not a function of the federal government, Congress has taken action to ensure the rights of citizens within public education.  For example, the 14th Amendment provided for equal access to education and the end of racially segregated schools.  It also pointed Congress to pass PL 94-142 protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving the educational results for children with disabilities and their families.  PL 94-142 may be as close as the federal government has come to stipulating that parents and schools are equal partners in determining the best educational placement for their child.

Further, we know.

The US Constitution implies that each state government is responsible for the establishment of public education in its state.

In the WI Constitution, chapter 118.01(1) – Purpose establishes the authority for the creation of public schools.  “Public education is a fundamental responsibility of the state.  The constitution vests in the state superintendent the supervision of public instruction and directs the legislature to provide for the establishment of district schools.  The effective operation of the public schools is dependent upon a common understanding of what public s hooks should be and do.  Establishing such goals and expectations is a necessary and proper complement to the state’s financial contribution to education.  Each school board should provide curriculum, course requirements and instruction consistent with the goals and expectations established under sub. (2).  Parents and guardians of pupils enrolled in the school district share with the state and the school board the responsibility for pupils meeting the goals and expectations under sub. (2).”

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/118

Eight goals for public schools in Wisconsin are enumerated in WI Stat 118.01(2).

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/118/01/2

The duties and powers of a local school board are enumerated in the state constitution.  In 118.001 Duties and powers of school boards; construction of statutes, the legislature says “The statutory duties and powers of school boards shall be broadly construed to authorize any school board action that is within the comprehensive meaning of the terms of the duties and powers, if the action is not prohibited by the laws of the federal government or of this state. 

So, what do we know?

The US Constitution does not address education.  The responsibility for education is implied to the various states.

The WI constitution authorizes the state superintendent to supervise public education and local school boards to implement public education.  The constitution enumerates goals and expectations for public education in WI and authorizes school boards to create policies and rules to achieve these goals and expectations.  Parents and guardians “share” responsibility with the state and school board for assisting children to meet goals and objectives.

There is no constitutional or statutory discussion regarding the rights of parents.  Parents “share” in the responsibility to achieve the state’s goals in educating children.

What changed?

Educational policy is no longer about children but about adults.  Very few educational policies today are designed to improve or enhance teaching or student learning and achievement.  There are exceptions such as Act 20, Wisconsin’s new literacy and reading proficiency law.  Most policies today are written and enacted to achieve the political goals of adults.  The simple version of this story is that children in school don’t vote, their parents vote.  So educational politics focuses on satisfying adult voters.

Conservative populist politicians can build constituencies based on attacking social and cultural institutions, like schools, libraries, museums, and public media.  They exercise elected authority to shape public education in ways that appeal to voters and donors.  While they are not able to affect federal policy, they use gerrymandered state houses to affect state legislation, state departments of education, and policies at the local school district level.

Education is a soft target because everyone is a product of childhood education and from their experiences is a self-made expert about schools.  Public education is a soft target because it is large and statewide and a problem in one school district can be implied as a problem for all school districts – it is easy to generalize.  And public education is funded by tax dollars, and everyone favors reduced taxes.  Lastly, public education is attacked by those who want this most public of state institutions to give them as individuals what they want as individuals and to codify their specific wants into laws for everyone.

Governor Walker (WI) used Act 10 to diminish the connection between teacher unions and the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.  The Act had other ramifications for school operations, but its origin was to decrease the political power of public employee unions. Although the legislative slogan implied shifting power from collectively bargained contracts to school board decision-making, the realities of school financing changed very little over time.

Governor Youngkin (VA) campaigned on promises of empowering parents and restoring excellence in education.  With a Republican-led legislature, he banned critical race theory discussion in schools and retracted accommodations for transgender students.  His legislature also passed a pro-education budget to placate those opposed to his policy changes.  Youngkin empowers parents to be active in pushing conservative values at their local school board level with a “we support what you want” encouragement.

Governor DeSantis (FL) has gone beyond policy to enforcement with threats of incarceration and loss of teaching license for educators who do not comply with his mandates.  He states that “Florida is where woke goes to die” and “We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to be optional”.  Parental rights in Florida are only for parents who agree with their governor.  Rights are restricted for those.

Governor Reynolds (IA) moved the state legislature to significantly change school financing.  Now every child represents an amount of state aid regardless of enrollment in public, private, or parochial school.  Every student is a voucher, and every school is a voucher school.  It does not jive with the Founding Fathers’ separation of church and state, but it passes muster with Iowa’s Republicans, and they are the votes who matter to Reynolds’s.

The pandemic re-taught Americans that all politics are local.  School board meetings are open to public participation and typically have less than a dozen residents in attendance.  Parents with a pandemic-based purpose found that a school board confronted by a vocal handful could either command board members to approve their policy demands by their loud and in-your-face presence or cause boards to shut down and adjourn meetings without enacting the posted agenda.  Neither outcome was good for the school district but accomplished the goals of selected parents – give me what I want.

While most school boards did not experience a capitulation or shut down, board meeting confrontations were common enough to shift the traditional relationships between parents and board members.  Parents who disagreed with pandemic masking disenrolled their children seeking a school with more favorable policies.  Parents who disagreed with quarantining and school closures disenrolled in favor of home schooling.  And parents who disagreed with masking and closures and kept their children enrolled in the school became constant voices at school board meetings and in local media.  Goodwill and traditional trust were eroded on both sides by what was said and written by both sides.

The relational upshot from the pandemic is that growing numbers of parents want and demand an active voice in the daily operations of their local school.  Voice no longer is about masking, but is about the books in classrooms and libraries, the curriculum that is taught, and the language and dispositions that teachers use in daily teaching that are subjected to parental review.  It is about partitions between genders.  It is about diversity and inclusivity.  A new status arose from the pandemic – a parent has the right to determine school policy and rules regarding her child. 

The Big Duh!

There is no legal authority in our public law for parental rights in education.

There is a growing charismatic authority in political leadership that wants to give specific rights to parents relative to public education in exchange for the political support of those parents.

The dichotomy between the public and parents lies in the fact that public education is created to achieve the public’s goals in educating children not the goals of individual or groups of parents.

Rights and demands are two different things.   Politics has the capacity to give legitimacy to parent demands, turning them into legislated parent rights.  This is a changing landscape with an unknown future.  What the pendulum swing of one partisan legislature approves may be disapproved when the pendulum swings again.

At the end of the day, public schooling is about children not about parents.  Parents choose the school in which to enroll their children and share with teachers and school leaders in the responsible assurances that all children will achieve the school’s educational goals.  Excepting the provisions of specific laws, such as PL 94-142 and approved 504 plans, that is the extent of parental rights.

Dropping Educator Prep For Superintendents Is A Bad Idea

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There are answers that resolve the difficult issues of a problem and there are answers that avoid the issues.  School districts in Wisconsin face problems that a recent legislative proposal avoids.  School superintendents are resigning and retiring at a faster rate than new superintendent candidates are being prepared for the job market.  A proposed legislative fix is to eliminate the requirement that superintendents must be trained as educators and licensed by the DPI.  Making the job available to a wider pool of non-educator candidates does not address the problems that cause a shortage of trained superintendents.  This is a bad answer – superintendents are educators first and foremost.  Address the issues that cause superintendents to resign or retire early; do not lessen the training that connects a superintendent with the instruction of children.  Superintendents need to be educators.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel accurately reported the problem and the legislative proposal.  “Over the past few years, the number district administrators leaving the job has nearly doubled. At the start of the 2022-23 school year, 107 of 421 Wisconsin public school districts had a different superintendent from the previous school year, with 65 of them in their first year, according to Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators executive director Jon Bales. This is in comparison to 66 changes in superintendents at the start of the 2021-22 school year.

Under current law, all school district administrators in Wisconsin, with the exception of Milwaukee Public Schools, are required to hold a license issued by the Department of Public Instruction. The proposed legislation by Stroebel and Wittke would create a similar exemption for the other 420 public school districts in the state.

‘(The bill) is just an attempt to help provide school districts the option of taking qualified people from candidate pools that they have available to them,’ said Wittke, a member of the Racine Unified School District Board from 2016-19.

‘We just look at it as trying to do things that bring more talent into the K-12 education system and allow talented people to realize the full extent of the expertise that they have,’ Wittke said. ‘(We want to) open up the talent pool and help districts out so they can choose the right person to run the district rather than someone who has a specific license.’”

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2023/05/17/schools-superintendent-turnover-not-unusual-for-wisconsin/70196216007/

The “heat in the kitchen”.

President Harry Truman gave us his direction for dealing with heated problems.  “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”  In a manner of speaking, that is what an increasing number of school superintendents are doing.  After successfully preparing themselves for school district leadership, they abandon their job and/or career.  While President Truman proclaimed himself to be heat resilient, he did not help us understand the issue of heat.  Neither does the Stroebel/Wittke proposal.

The heat is not what it used to be.

Historic heat and current heat are not the same.  In past decades the annual budget or a school referendum or the losing record of the high school football coach were hot school board items.  Parents and residents physically attended a school board meeting, rose to speak to the board, heard each other, and awaited a board decision.  Addressing the board was part of a process and the protocols for speaking with the board were honored.   Heated arguments were made, and some excessive words were used but at the end of the process civility was honored.

In the era of new heat, we add vitriol.  As crass indicators, the new heat can be measured by the decibels of yelling and the amount of spittle that is expelled.  Old heat retained civility and new heat has little regard for self-regulation.  Growing numbers of parents and residents attend physically or Zoom into board meetings and ignore the agenda and parliamentary process.   In many instances, they grab the floor and do not relinquish it until the board gives them the decision they demand, or the meeting is abandoned in chaos.  They leave the lectern to get into the faces of board members.  They over shout those who disagree with their demands.  The new heat is all about forcing board decisions to favor the demands made by the most vocal. 

Superintendents are the school board’s lightening rod.  The district administrator is the board’s executive officer and responsible for implementing the board’s policies.  As the board’s executive, the superintendent also makes recommendations for board consideration.  The superintendent is the point person on all issues thus is the lightening rod that attracts all the storm and fury when there is public disagreement with policy implementation or recommendations of new policies.

Within this tense environment, a recent study found that nearly 40 percent of superintendents reported being threatened or feeling threatened on the job.  And 63 percent of superintendents reported feeling endangered about their mental health and well-being over the past two years.

But while superintendents are feeling the heat, policymakers are unable to accurately determine the impact of pressure on superintendents’ well-being, performance and willingness to stay on the job.’”

https://www.governing.com/education/why-are-so-many-school-superintendents-leaving-their-job

I served as a school superintendent for 15 years and was a school board president during the pandemic and write from experience. 

New hot issues are about parenting and politics not schooling.

“Contributing to this tension are politically divisive issues that many school superintendents have had to navigate over the last three years, including the teaching of race, book bans and providing access to athletics and bathrooms for students who identify as transgender.” 

https://www.governing.com/education/why-are-so-many-school-superintendents-leaving-their-job

The school board is legally authorized to govern local public education and nothing else.  Too many parents and community residents today want the school board to resolve newly heated social and political topics that are not school issues.  Unable to invoke policy at the national or state or municipal level, they turn to the grass roots government of school boards.  Their purpose is to make local policies impose their perspective on everyone in the school district.

No quick fixes; just education.

Public education is public.  Our state Constitution tells us what this means.  Boards are publicly elected.  Schools operate on public tax dollars.  School enrollment is open to all in the public community.  School policies and rules are public documents.  All the business of the board except what the statutes allow to be confidential is a public record.  The doors of a public school may be newly secured, but they are open to the public.  Board meetings are open to public participation.  These attributes are strengths of public education and are part of the solution to emerging struggles.

New stressors that are raised by some in the public must be resolved with the tools of public education – teaching and learning.  This is why school superintendents must be trained and licensed educators.  While elected board members speak for their constituents and their children, superintendents speak for education and the education of all children.  At the board table in front of the public, the superintendent is a singular voice, and that voice must be informed by training and experience.

The superintendent uses teaching skills to prepare the board for the topics on its agenda.  While open meeting laws prevent board members from discussing agenda items prior to meetings, they rely on the superintendent to teach them the background of the topic, the compelling reasons for the topic appearing on this agenda, and the pros and cons of the topic necessary for the board to make an informed decision.  Few board members are trained educators.  They need to be taught by the superintendent to think as educators.

Board members can represent all the traits and characteristics of children in a classroom.  They are not often satisfied with the dictates of a CEO but want to know the why and what if of the topics they consider.  Board members are adult education personified.

Trained superintendents also understand from their school life experiences that successful learning takes time and patience.  Experience taught them that a difficult day for one lesson need not carry into the next day.  Training tells them how to modify their instructional approach to ensure successful board learning.

Trained and experienced superintendents also know that once they have completed their pre-agenda education and presentation, the responsibility for the outcome is up to the board.  It is out of the superintendent’s control.  They know how to release their responsibility to the board.

Beyond teaching board members, superintendents also teach their administrative team, district employees, the community, and children.

Administrative team.  The superintendent leads the central office staff, principals, directors, and department heads.  On a line and staff chart, the superintendent is the person responsible for implementing all district programs.  The faculty and school staff take their organizational direction from the admin team.  A strong superintendent instructs all school leaders in the district vision, mission, and annual goals.  His detailed explanation defines the exact performances required of team members for the district to meet its goals.  Like strong teachers, he models and practices what he teaches and holds himself to the same assessments as his team.

District employees.  An employee who knows the CEO of the organization knows the job he does, has observed the work he does, and understands how the job contributes to the organization feels connected to the organization.  Superintendents who were principals and who were teachers have this background knowledge.  They can speak directly with bus drivers, cleaners, cooks and servers, aides, and all faculty with understanding of the jobs they do.  Conversely, superintendents without school training must rely on the reports of others to indirectly understand an employee’s work.  Except for the largest urban school districts, superintendents who are educators have this essential in-school knowledge and it provides indispensable connections.

Community.  The school community is a set of concentric circles.  Faculty, staff, and children are in the core circle.  Parents of school children are the second circle.  The resident community is the third circle.  Superintendents connect with some of the resident community in the comings and goings of personal living.  Folks at the grocery and gas station see the superintendent frequently; most in the community do not.  Residents know about the schools only from what they hear and read.  For this reason alone, a superintendent must be a community educator who provides frequent, informative, and candid communications to all residents.  Human interest stories matter, especially when they demonstrate that the superintendent knows the people-side of school.  A superintendent forms public opinion about the schools by what he communicates.

Children.  When I was an elementary student I knew my principal, Mrs. Phillips, and my school superintendent, Dr. Salsbury.  I saw Mrs. Phillips almost every day, and I saw Dr. Salsbury’s name in letters to school parents.  Both were real people to me, not just names.  When they spoke, I listened. 

When I was a superintendent with an office in the school’s main hallway, I saw the children of our school every day, and they saw me.  I sat in their classrooms, ate in their cafeteria, and walked their halls.  I considered the school my classroom and just like a teacher I was purposeful in what I said to children.  It was my opportunity to learn from them to better shape their school experience.  Every superintendent needs to get a “kid fix” frequently to remain personally connected with the most important people in the school.

The Big Duh!

If our legislator’s intent is to fill jobs, then any person can be a superintendent.  If their intent is to ensure successful school leadership, then only trained school leaders are qualified to be a superintendent.  As with many things in life, we will get what our legislators settle for.  We hope they settle only for what is best for educating children.