This back-and-forth between James Forman and Leo Casey, picking up on the conversation Sara and I started last week on the lack of progressive solutions to dysfunctional urban school systems, includes someworthwhile posts on both sides. Leo's distinctions between corruption, patronage, and incompetence are legit, and he's right to disparage silver-bullet free market solutions--although I don't think anyone here is actually arguing that point.
But I'm inclined to agree with James that the conventional progressive education agenda, at least as described by Leo, still has no plausible solution for rank bureaucratic incompetence. I started my professional career as a government bureaucrat, so my general inclination is to be suspicious of those who blame everything on nests of cubicle-dwelling civil servants. Its a cliche, and usually wrong. But in the case of DCPS, when Leo says that "A thousand mile journey begins with a single step," my first thought is that the journey that needs to happen here is a lot shorter than that, starting in the DCPS administrative offices and heading on a one-way trip out the door.
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