Mission Creep

Early on in the school year, we were invited to participate in Jamie Vollmer's 'Schools Can't Do it Alone Network'. As part of this network, I have been passing along videos that Jamie has shared to all of you. If you are unfamiliar with Jamie's work and background, I encourage you to check out his website here. Jamie has long been engaged with public schools and was first invited to participate in reform efforts by viewing our system through his lens as a business owner. In the beginning, he was one of our harshest critics and suggested that if schools would simply operate as businesses we could fix all that ails us. However, after he really studied the public school system and discovered the tremendous success they have, he became one of their fiercest advocates. 

Today I am going to share with you two of the latest installments from the video series. Both of these very short videos (running about 4:00 each) speak about the growth of mandates in our schools over the last 120 years. The first addresses those that have been added from the period of 1900-1960 and the second talks about all the mandates that were added from 1960-2000. The list is staggering! Yet they are so interwoven into the fabric of our system that most think they have always been there. (We'll have a brief primer of the original function of public schools and their primary goal in a post after spring break.) That is not to say they are neither good nor bad, they just are. A couple of examples would include school meal programs or the introduction of kindergarten; (first half day then full day) which at one time were not ubiquitous with our system of schools. Good mandates, right? Mandates nonetheless, they are the responsibility of our public school system. Truth be told, it's no wonder schools are used as the vehicle to address the problems that plague our society. We are after all the largest governmental organization in our communities with logistical operations that can’t be matched by other agencies. Can you think of any other organization with the logistical structure and manpower that would have been able to pull off operating a comprehensive meal program during a pandemic? And we have a captive audience. But, how do these mandates come to pass? Legislation of course. 

Each year as the legislative session begins I post a series of blog articles that discuss legislative priorities that are endorsed by the board. By their very nature they form a legislative platform of sorts. They are the framework upon which our advocacy efforts are built. One of the standing items included in our annual agenda is that of unfunded mandates. That is because inevitably, each year public schools are asked to add one more item to our list of growing responsibilities-and without the resources we need to execute that daunting list of 'to do's'. 

Nevertheless, the one immovable variable that we seem unable to tackle is time. We continue to cram things into our annual list of school mandates all while nothing ever seems to go away. In fact, it would seem that we continue to reinforce the notion that schools can in fact do it all: and do it in roughly 180 days a year. Recently, our legislature introduced a bill that would have required schools to teach cursive writing. The bill didn't survive the funnel so it is a dead issue for now. Granted, we can have a debate about the pros and cons of cursive writing (perhaps we even should?!). For certain it can help develop fine motor skills and there are correlations between the tactile act of putting 'pencil on the paper' and brain development. But let's be honest: when was the last time you wrote something substantive in cursive? Or is a requirement your job? Be honest.

Perhaps we could all come to agreement that yes, in fact cursive is an important skill that needs to be included in our curriculum. But then our next question should maybe be: what are we willing to give up in order to make that happen? We only have 180 days. Choose wisely.