Editor’s Introduction to Volume 14: The End of Ed. Reform?

Abstract

My colleague Jay Greene points out that in both 2016 and 2020, presidential candidates by and large avoided k-12 school reform. While Democrats call for more money – which is, after all, what Democrats are supposed to do – neither party seems to have much stomach for school reform the way presidential candidates in the 1988–2012 period did. Political entrepreneurs in those times gave us federal charter school grants, school vouchers in the nation’s capital, Goals 2000, NCLB, Race to the Top and Common Core, and like state and local reform efforts. Recently departed presidential candidate Corey Booker once staked his reputation on remaking his city’s schools, but said relatively little about education while running for president, only in part to avoid bringing up his past association with Betsy DeVos. Reasonable observers disagree about Booker’s education success in Newark, with Barnard (2019) citing solid achievement in the growing charter sector while Morel (2018) sees stagnation in district schools, disrespect for district educators, and stymied demands for local empowerment and employment. Social science tells us that reform is not easy; yet I believe we should rage against the factory machine. Inherently, any large network of interlocking institutions experiences goal displacement, prioritizing organizational interests over societal interests. Such vested interests can use their reputations and insider knowledge to resist outside reform, as shown by TerryMoe (2019) in his work on New Orleans school reform. As Maranto and Mike McShane (2012) point out, for a century the U.S. tried more money, smaller class size, and a proliferation of bureaucratized and specialized education professions, essentially all the changes endorsed by the educational industrial complex. Yet it is unclear whether this professionalized division of labor helped children over the long run. In the real world, like other professions, education professions tussle over turf (Levenson, 2012). They also compartmentalize, defining children by their diagnosable parts rather than as unique, whole individuals. Our factory model of schooling weakens relationships with teachers, who emotionally offload challenging students to the relevant special education (SPED), English Language Learner, or counseling professionals (Valle, 2009). As a parent and school board member, I have seen this. Such offloading may explain findings that special education parents transferring from traditional public schools to charter