SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Impediments to Reform

The current issue of Fraser Forum is devoted to education policy.  Among the excellent articles is one by Peter Cowley that discusses the Impediments to Reform in the Public System.  The elephant in the room is finally exposed.

Those of us who have been slogging away in the trenches for years know all too well what those are, but it is refreshing to read the straight goods.  Here is his list of why well-intentioned public education reforms are doomed to fail:

• 1. There is a general distaste for competition among major education stakeholder groups.
• 2. Teachers’ collective agreements restrict innovation and leave little room for efficient and effective management of schools.
• 3. There is no cost to educators when poor performing schools fail to improve.
• 4. There is little in the way of rewards for results.
• 5. Professional autonomy in the classroom inhibits broad-based innovation.
• 6. There is no provision for the routine expansion of successful operations.
• 7. Some teachers are not adequately prepared for teaching.

Cowley concludes with his solution—only more competitive influences would be strong enough to provide the incentives needed to overcome these formidable obstacles.