Leave kids alone

Legislators, let schools work

The improbable Donald Trump election has many explanations, but the most compelling came from former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who called it “a rejection of the Democratic establishment, the Republican establishment, the media establishment, and the financial establishment.”

Attacks on establishments are nothing new, and often reflect real grievances. Much of the public fears that today’s elites insulate themselves from any negative consequences of their policies.

Globalization through trade and immigration helps Americans generally and stockholders in particular, but challenges labor with more competition. If crime rises because policymakers handcuff the police, or alternatively, if police profiling humiliates the law-abiding, it affects regular folks, not the Trumps and Clintons, who get taxpayer-funded protection 24-7.

In America’s wars, today’s political class has no skin in the game. In World War II John F. Kennedy and George H.W. Bush risked life and limb for their nation. Today, no Obama, Trump, Bush, or Clinton has relations in the military. Elites scorn military service, with its real boredom, occasional danger, and distasteful contact with regular folks. Only rare politicians like Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and our own Tom Cotton have faced enemy fire. Others spend more effort spinning the appearance of success than strategizing to win or withdrawal.

In my area, education, some national leaders who preach at public school educators send their own kids to fancy private schools like Sidwell Friends. Here in Arkansas, politicians are more representative. Most state legislators have kids or grandkids in public schools. Yet as politicians, they cannot resist micromanaging those schools.

Legislators want to make a difference, so they pass laws. Unfortunately, too many laws hurt kids. Over time, laws and rules build up, pushing public servants to focus more on compliance than service.

When I checked back in 2009, Arkansas public schools had to send the Arkansas Department of Education over 70 reports annually. “Unregulated” public charter schools had the department monitor 165 separate practices. Few think regulatory burdens have declined since. Asked what state legislators could do for public schools, one disgruntled superintendent complained that the Legislature could stop meeting so it would not pass any more bills “helping” schools.

I propose that instead, legislators start to unshackle educators to make public schools better. In that vein, I offer two broad ideas, and two action items.

Broadly, avoid adding any new mandates on schools before taking some old ones away. Failing that, send more money. Adding regulations and requirements while cutting funding or barely covering inflation, just doesn’t work. Along these lines, it might make sense to reinstitute the portion of fiscal-impact statements addressing how new proposals would affect local school budgets, not just the state budget. Second, direct the Arkansas Department of Education’s Office of Innovation to catalog existing mandates we can cut, copying other states, to free our public schools to serve kids better. Have this list ready for the next legislative session.

Meantime, since a state legislative session is a terrible thing to waste, here are two small matters I’ve seen as a school board member that the Legislature can fix right away to help our schools. (Others should offer their ideas.)

I believe that only Arkansas makes it illegal for school board members, their superintendent, and the board attorney to meet together in executive session. That means that to consult with their attorney, board members and superintendents must schedule (and pay for) seven meetings, one for each member, instead of one. Killing this statutory requirement would free up time and cash for classrooms, without any loss of transparency.

Here is an even bigger matter. School boards need the option to ask the Department of Education for a 10day waiver from Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests when hiring a new superintendent or purchasing major property. On the former, superintendent candidates fear applying for new jobs since their current bosses might react badly when word gets out. This forces school districts to hire consultants to pre-interview candidates—taxpayers are the losers. Regarding property purchases, public schools can never buy cheap when the seller knows our plans. These laws cost tax dollars we could spend on kids, with few gains in transparency.

People think of public service as a big thing, but much of government lies in the details. If we get more of those details right, maybe public trust will follow.