The Agony of American Education.

• Author: Neal, Richard G.
• Position: Letter to the editor

Thanks for another great article on school choice ("The Agony of American Education," April). In the '80s I spent a lot of time in Edmonton with Michael Strembitsky, who introduced decentralized management to Edmonton. I took his model, revised it, and implanted it in the Prince William County Public Schools, Virginia, in 1988. I believe it was the first comprehensive school-based management system in the U.S. I wrote the book School Based Management: A Detailed Guide for Successful Implementation and gave seminars across the country to help introduce this style of management.

In working with school districts around the nation, I learned there were a number of problems with this approach. School-based management is still under the control of state regulations and local school board policies designed for centralized control. Federal intrusion has added another layer of bureaucracy. Those educrats are unwilling (and often unable) to give up their power.

Furthermore, even with training, most principals are not by nature prepared to run a school independently. They are administrators who simply carry out the orders of the central office. Principals do not generally have an entrepreneurial character.

Most important, I found that the unions were infiltrating the site committees to take them over and stop any real progress toward putting education in the hands of the main stakeholders, students and parents. I have a confidential memo from the National Education Association describing how concerned it was in the early days of school-based management. The monopoly unions are against any real change in government schools that might enhance student learning...