Imagine that you go to a mechanic because you have a problem with your car. He says: Give me several thousand dollars up front, and leave your car. And when you come back for it, maybe it will be fixed. Maybe it will be in worse shape, although that doesn’t usually happen.
In either case, you can’t get your money back, but you can try again later if you’d like.
You might think: I’ll find another mechanic! But because of the laws enacted by the legislature and the regulations promulgated by the Department of Mechanics, all mechanics work the same way.
You pay, and then you pray that you’ll get what you paid for. And if your prayers aren’t answered, too bad for you!
But I’m just kidding around, right? No one could get away with operating on this model for very long.
Unless we’re talking about schools. Because the pay-and-pray model is exactly how schools operate.
You send your kid off to a school like Newport. The school has an impressive-sounding mission statement,
The mission of the Newport School District is to inspire, prepare and challenge all students with a relevant, rigorous curriculum, driven by outstanding instructional leaders in partnership with our families, businesses, and community, consistent with our core values.
and budget to match — about $21,000 per student.
And yet, only about twelve percent of the kids in Newport schools can read at the most basic level of proficiency. This is the kind of performance we expect from schools in Baltimore or Chicago.
But it is rare to find a school district in New Hampshire where more than half the kids can read proficiently.
So, on the one hand, it seems natural to ask: Why don’t schools do better? And many people do find themselves asking this question.
But there’s an even more natural question that hardly anyone ever seems to ask: Why should anyone expect schools to do better, when we make it abundantly clear that they don’t need to?
