Page 5 - Leadership Matters monthly magazine template January 2013

5
Education reform
is killing education
By Dr. Kevin O’Mara
Superintendent
Argo Community District 217
The last bastion of communities
choosing how their communities
will be reflective of the local
residents is coming close to ending.
While here in Illinois we still have
locally elected school boards, their
efficacy at advocating for their own
children is almost wholly stifled by outside
damaging influences.
Groups like Stand for Children, the Civic
Committee and Advance Illinois, with their
associated large political contributions, have set
the bar for “reform” as an avenue for damaging
what our founding fathers envisioned for
neighborhood schools. The Illinois General
Assembly -- at least those members who have
been receptive to the dollars and associated
influence -- has passed mandate after mandate
that now require all public schools to hold to
arbitrary and ultimately damaging statutes and
rules. These mandates siphon dollars and
associated resources away from local school
boards to allow for compliance.
What have we lost? We’ve lost the one thing
that could help educate young people throughout
the state: teachers setting curriculum, teachers
setting instructional standards, teachers helping
students in ways that are directly targeted to their
individual needs.
The Illinois State Board of Education has
ceased being an advocate for our youth; they
now are simply compliance officers for the large
and growing statutes embedded in the Illinois
School Code and federal Department of
Education rules. They have school boards sign
off on efforts to gain federal dollars (remember
the Race to the Top debacle?) while ensuring
that school leaders waste their time filling out
form after form to make sure that local schools
are compliant with the hurtful federal and state
mandates.
Teachers and local leaders know their
communities and know their students best. They
should be the ones setting the bar. I know our
teachers, and they take great pride in what they
teach and how they instruct. I’ve been working
with teachers and teachers’ unions for 25 years in
public education and I have never, not once, had
a poor teacher defended by the unions. They are
the experts; let them be empowered to decide,
under the local school board’s direction, what is
taught and how the lessons are taught. They
want what is best for the students. What’s more,
they know how to make sure each child learns to
the best of their ability.
To the outside groups, know this: We don’t
run factories. We help students learn. We aren’t
against standards, but one size does not fit all.
The many professional educators that work under
extremely difficult circumstances do so because
they love what they do and they know how to do
it. Stay out of their way and give them the
resources they need. Only then will real school
reform take place.