EXPELLING THE ‘BS’ IN PUBLIC EDUCATION

It is a mistake to overlook the fact that America public schools have for decades, been poorly managed. Few publicly funded institutions have been run perfectly, to serve and protect the rights and welfare of its students. The primary problem is how administration is viewed. Private businesses have owners and managers who must run things with an eye on profit. Public Administrators are, ideally, managers of tax-funded systems intended to keep America running smoothly by providing fair practices so all citizens are included. Ideally, public administrators should be highly ethical efficiency experts. What actually makes this ideal problematic is the fact that America’s history began with genocide and then followed up to include slavery.

We have a tendency to accept denial as a way of life. Essentially, the super status given the killer/enslaver has transformed into the unaccountable “boss.” The BS factor, in this context, refers to “bogus standards.” Why many government systems have, a history of failure that remains prominent over decades has a lot to do with the influences of the management model from private sector transferring into the realm of public administration. Specifically, the unaccountable boss is the failure model that has decimated the world economy.

 We now know that systems where there is a head who sets policy without proper internal checks and balances, is a publicly funded system that will fail to deliver quality services to the community. So how does a tax-funded agency, such as a public school site clearly indicate it has moved from the boss mentality that has guided most failures in education, to ensure there is now a more clearly designed management system that rewards leaders for moving to a progressive all-inclusive management? As well, some penalties have to be applied for the school settings that refuse to move towards a genuine all-inclusive management model. Again, the elected lawmakers need to help communities resolve this problem.

Luis South

Los Angeles