Someone mentioned to me recently that Rep. Hope Damon has introduced a bill to change the way school superintendents are credentialed. It’s classic Damon:
- Some parts of the bill refer to other sections of the bill that don’t exist. And the bill makes no reference to the Ed Rules that already exist.
- The bill reads like a mission statement, rather than a statute. Except that you can read it several times without being able to discern what the mission is supposed to be. Here’s a sample:
As relating to vision, mission, and goals, the candidate shall understand and demonstrate knowledge of, or competency in, promoting the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning and strong organization mission setting high expectations for every student that is shared and supported by the school community…
Got that? The superintendent isn’t responsible for making sure anyone learns anything. He just has to facilitate a vision of learning.
- It’s not clear at all what problem she thinks the bill is supposed to solve.
For example, the current rules require “at least 5 years experience as an education administrator in a K-12 setting”, while her bill lowers that to 3 years. Is she trying to make certification more rigorous, or less rigorous?
- Since the bill doesn’t provide any penalties for non-compliance, it doesn’t create any requirements that can’t simply be ignored.
Anyway, while looking it over, I had a little epiphany relating to a 1994 episode from Seinfeld. In that episode, George tells Jerry that all the decisions he’s made in his entire life have been wrong, because all of his instincts are wrong. Jerry replies: “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”
George agrees, and decides that, going forward, when his instincts tell him to do something, he will do the opposite instead.
And it works out great for him. He gets a girlfriend, he lands a job with the Yankees, he is able to move out of his parents house. Each time he does the opposite of what he would normally do, his life improves.
I think there’s a lesson in here for New Hampshire regarding education. What Rep. Damon seems to be trying to do is tinker with the system, without making any real substantive changes. And as the saying goes, if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.
What the legislature ought to do instead is implement something we might call ‘The George Constanza Act’.
Basically, what this act would do is require the legislature to periodically gather recommendations from the people who present themselves as ‘experts’ on education, and then do the exact opposite.
After all, it’s the instincts of education experts that have led us to our current situation, in which we pay more each year to give fewer kids a crappier education.
Maybe it’s time we consider that perhaps those experts have been giving us the right advice all along — by telling us what not to do.
