I’m a pretty hard-core edugeek, but I never even considered this option. Upside: schools will have more autonomy. Downside: schools will have more autonomy. We’ve relied on systematization by quango1 — public in the form of state / fed standards and court rulings, private in the form of curricula and assessments — to force education to be more progressive and ~scientific, so a move like this is messy. It’s easy to see how the right could seize on this as yet another strategy to push its reactionary rubbish. Hopefully, progressive education orgs (like teachers’ unions) will be smart and (a) fight that but, more important, (b) use it as a tool to give teachers more power. I’m not optimistic.
Notes
Footnotes
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“systematization by quango” — it sounds like “Munchausen syndrome by proxy” — is a ridiculous phrase, but we a much thicker vocab to describe the many-headed beast of governance by quango (Quasi Non-governmental Orgs): standards-setting bodies, professional associations, private entities that perform required services like accreditation, assessment, etc. ↩