Every once in a while, I read an article that convinces me that education policymaking in this country is insane.
This is one of those articles.
The head of the DC City Council education committee has found the answer to fixing the city’s still troubled school system: He will hire a law firm to find the solutions! A law firm!
The law firm will help figure out how to improve achievement and more:
“Major targets for Catania include streamlining enrollment lotteries for parents, adjusting how schools are funded and allocating more dollars for poor children, setting performance targets for schools and consequences when they consistently fall short, and outlining a way to decide the fate of vacant school buildings.”
For $300,000 in private funding, “The lawyers will research school policies that have succeeded around the country, help determine what might work in the District and translate that into legislative language.”
The sponsor of this project ” is interested in setting school “transformation triggers” — performance targets including test scores and other measures that, if not met, could result in a school closure, staff replacement or a takeover by a charter operator.”
Ah, now there are some innovative ideas (not!): testing, targets, firings, school closings, charters.
Maybe the answer is a moratorium on decision making by unqualified non-educators.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Law firms are expert at covering their own behinds when complaints arise about their actions.
That is the main form of expertise that is being sought in this case.
My feelings too. This has more to do with hiding the mess Rhee and Henderson have made than anything to do with “reform”.
Hitting nail on head, Carrie.
Some years ago the San Diego Mayor appointed a prosecutor to run the schools. He hired the man who failed in NY as a consultant. They spent huge amount of consulting fees and it failed.
I first misread your post to say prospector, instead of “prosecutor.” Then I laughed because what’s the difference? Everyone’s panning for gold in our public school system.
Except for the teachers!
This has EPIC FAIL written all over it.
I have two suggestions for David and Reform 2.0. Save the time and money. Ask a few experienced DC teachers, like me and plan a field trip 10 miles down the road to Rockville, MD. When in Rockville, stop at 850 Hungerford Drive. Say hello to Josh Starr and a few others, sit down, chat and visit some schools. You’ll quickly see some of what needs to be done in DC. You can also go visit Fairfax County (about 20 miles away) for some additional tips.
I live 5 minutes away from that office – and I’m underemployed. *wink* For that money you can have a LOT of ideas from a LOT of experienced teachers. I’d rather be in on a meeting of educators working toward solutions than a fly on the wall in a law office any day! 😛
If I were a donor, I wouldn’t fund something like this. What a waste of money in an area where the practices of some suburban school systems could be replicated and there are a total of 4 universities (public, private and parochial) with schools of education that I’m sure would be eager to assist, if asked.
Law school does not prepare for educating human beings except for being exposed to a sadistic version of the Socratic Method which I suppose could help in teaching.
I know because I graduated from a university ed program, taught math and history and still substitute teach while I am finishing up 1L, or the my first year of law school. .
Teaching and the law should only touch to make as certain as possible our children have proper learning environments.
Otherwise, leave teaching to teachers.
May God have mercy on your soul. And do your best to keep your student loans to a minimum, if possible. (I’m a lawyer.)
It could be worse: They could have hired Jerry Weast to resurrect their school system. He’s for hire doing that these days, I understand. As a parent and as a teacher I was happy to see the back of that guy; I hope the door didn’t hit him on the [backside] on his way out.
(I know: “Tell us how you REALLY feel, crunchydeb!” LOL)
Gilbert and Sullivan: “Is this the court of the “Exchequer?”
🙂
“Court of the Crimson King”?
If you would not hire a group of teachers defending you when you have been accused of capital murder or performing heart surgery on you, why would you hire a group of lawyers to “reform” your schools?
Because everyone knows that anyone can teach, pretty simple, eh!
I CONCUR TWINKIE1CAT! LOUDLY!!!
Leapin’ lawyer lizards! Having personally completed an entire J.D. program at an ABA-accredited college of law after a respectable career in K-12 education, I can only concur with popular opinion on this subject. Any of my professors who grasped the teaching process were strictly naturals. Most of the professors had no grasp of effective lesson planning (“cover the material”), various intelligences & learning styles (non-deductives and unconfidents weeded before entry), and had difficulty appreciating, conveying, or encouraging the value of creative, alternative analysis for legal questions. After student licensure & employment occurs, most law firms continue compounding these academic and intellectual constraints, IMO. Conform, conform, conform, redefine to suit the client, and certainly, bill for every minute. If anyone questions the result, defend by citing hours spent and the sterling credentials of the expert advisors. “Teaching credentials? Of what use are those in the real world?”
How could anyone believe that a group of lawyers, acting without respect for or information from teachers, could produce anything useful for the majority of the capital’s children in public school? And do these legal experts plan to consume their own product, enrolling their own children in the participating schools?
I predict that this move is only about the billable hour and access to the data by elite friends, restricting future labor capacity (we don’t need a whole lot), planning for resource scarcity, effecting population diminution, and heaven knows what other wicked thing.
Gerry Spence (quite well known ‘eccentric’ lawyer of national fame) in “Give Me Liberty” warned of over-reliance on the LSAT as an admission “tool” and how it would lead to a certain type of very limited thinking by those entering law school. See his website at: http://www.gerryspence.com/
Perhaps some out of work DC teachers could be hired to reform the judicial system. Quid pro quo!
As one who also finished law school but decided to remain an educator, so many comments are ‘right on’….’take the next case Ms. L’ did not present a basis for evaluating public education. The law is confrontational, and education decisions work best when they are collaborative.
As I have said on this blog, in LA we are seeing Supt. Deasy and our arrogant Mayor shut down programs that were successfully collaborated from the bottom up. Crenshaw, Verdugo, Hamilton, and other high schools suffer from top down imposed edicts. And the coup that these Broad trained jerks tried with Venice HS was a shock as they tried to impose a for profit Charter in the midst of a good high school. Luckily the parents and teachers are fighting back.
Ellen, I think you really summarized it eloquently: The law is confrontational, and education decisions work best when they are collaborative. Changing education into a more “confrontational” type of system is dehumanizing. There is a place for confrontation and competition… but building an educational community on it is inherently destructive. The phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child” speaks to the nature of how education works best… NOT “survival of the fittest.”
I guess these administrators have never heard of education researchers, colleges of education, or even education journals, which would probably be a lot cheaper than a lawyer who will charge you if he thinks about your case while he’s sitting on the toilet.
This is why we should never have non-educators as administrators at any level.
Also, someone needs to ask why there’s always unlimited money for consultants and profits for for-profit charter scams and more testing at the same time legislators and appointed admins are crying poverty, jacking up class sizes and firing “over-paid” teachers.
When I read the first words of this post “DC Board will hire Law Firm to…” I thought I would then read the words “…conduct an in depth investigation of the cheating allegations”…. but instead, I read the words “…reform schools”… I suppose I haven’t lost my naive optimism! Maybe tomorrow I’ll read that post… 😉
@Wgersen- As a local here in DC- I also hold out that hope. Too bad the parents don’t hire a law firm and investigator. Then, perhaps then things will change.
Why not have the “Tooth Fairy” prepare the plan. Is there any difference?
Someone shoudl look at the military and how they educate people. They do a very good job.