Leadership Matters - January 2013

Education reform is killing education

By Dr. Kevin O’Mara Superintendent Argo Community District 217

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.

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

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