We are still a nation that is generous and compassionate at its core. That is our foundation and it will remain our commitment, domestically and abroad. Providing a safety net for the seniors, poor, children, disabled, and other vulnerable citizens will always be a priority for Americans, without regard to political party or ideology. Contrary to the rancor that is dominating some corners of our public square, we are a united nation, not a divided one. Although we have differing views about how to solve our social and economic problems, at the heart of every solution is a commitment to helping those who are less fortunate or can’t help themselves.

Innovation and philanthropy are the heartbeat of America, and each of us has been blessed and endowed with certain inalienable talents and gifts that are designed to enable us to have prosperous and meaningful lives across our lifetimes. Whether we take the steps necessary to discover what our individual gifts are is up to each of us. And, at the end of the day, if we choose not to do anything, then shame on us, and we have no right to judge or condemn the next person because they put themselves in position to be financially successful.

The airwaves and the internet are inundated with discourse that is pitting Americans against one another and causing a level of distrust and resentment that is not characteristic of the American spirit. The public chatter is causing innocent and decent Americans to feel guilty because they’ve worked hard and are now reaping the financial rewards for their labors and sacrifices. The dissonance is even causing some in the wealthy class to vow that they would willingly pay more income taxes to our federal government.

No one is entitled to another person’s hard earned dollars. Each of us is responsible for the choices and decisions we make in life. Sometimes we reap substantial rewards and other times we’re not as lucky. The hypocrisy in the public square is stifling as people complain about the millionaires, billionaires, and the shrinking middle class. We should be most concerned about how to adequately respond to the severity of challenges confronting lower and working class Americans. The public schizophrenia is evident as well because people are only complaining and pointing fingers because they are not the beneficiaries of the financial success.

This type of poisonous environment is being perpetrated by people and entities who make their livings and have built their reputations by creating hostility among classes of people and by encouraging citizens to blame someone else for their misfortune in life. These so-called “advocates” specialize in lies and deception, in order to keep those who are less fortunate from discovering the personal and economic power that they already possess inside of themselves. Instead of encouraging them to want to be self-sufficient and create better lives for themselves and their families, these “advocates” promote dependency and the blame game in place of education and personal enrichment.

The attacks on the wealthiest citizens are peculiar because the “top 1%” is not a new phenomenon. We’ve always had a wealthy class and always will, and the gap may even become wider depending on how average citizens adjust their spending, consumption, and investment habits. We should not be demonizing fellow citizens because they have earned a great living and accumulated wealth, nor should we be blaming them for other people’s individual decisions and choices that had nothing to do with them.

Millionaires and billionaires are not the problem; instead, they will always be a part of the solution, as long as they continue to invest in people, products, markets, and businesses. People are lashing out at a free market system that operates the same today as it did decades ago; the difference now, though, is the esoteric nature and sophistication of the financial instruments and financing schemes. These complexities of our financial markets coupled with the fraud, abuse, waste, cronyism, and corruption across all levels of government are the straws that have broken the backs of the American taxpayer. Everyday people from all walks of life have simply run out of patience and tolerance.

These were the comments of a schoolteacher who was deemed to be very successful in the classroom. One wonders if these sentiments are indicative of what most successful and highly effective teaching professionals feel about their jobs. If the education field expects to elevate the teaching profession in ways that attract the highest qualified and highly competent graduates and professionals, then we’ll have to implement incentives, rewards, and systems that support the development and routine activities of classroom teachers so they don’t become so overwhelmed, underappreciated, and underpaid, to a point that they want to quit the profession altogether. The greatest recruiting and training efforts in the world will prove meaningless if school districts and education stakeholders are unable to provide teaching professionals with the tools and pedagogical flexibility necessary for them to be effective in their classrooms.

Instructors deserve to know that administrators and parents alike appreciate and understand the time and teaching constraints that they are confronted with on a daily basis. They must certainly be rewarded and compensated for the seemingly endless schedules they maintain -- planning lessons, responding to parents, evaluating students, and completing the volumes of administrative paperwork. Anyone who has spent time in a classroom knows how easy it is to feel overwhelmed at managing a room full of students who themselves face scores of distractions and choices, inside and outside of school. In an era where there is increased emphasis on accountability and testing, it’s increasingly important that school leaders develop new ways to incentivize the efforts of schoolteachers who are proving to be successful leaders, managers, and instructors of students across the learning spectrum. The changes occurring throughout K-12 public education must be teacher-centric as well as student-centric, especially since these are the two most critical stakeholder groups as it relates to the academic success of students and schools.

Traditional civil rights advocates and many of their longtime allies are struggling to justify and explain why they oppose charter schools and other education reform initiatives that largely target and improve the academic prospects for schoolchildren residing in the urban communities that many of these groups profess to care about. It’s no secret that the most effective charter schools across the country serve predominantly non-white students who reside in urban environments. When you examine the performances of the good charter schools, it’s abundantly clear that the academic gains of charter students equal or exceed those of their peers in traditional public schools. These realities beg the question of why anyone who claims to care about access to high quality public education for all children would oppose the development of more charter models.

One reason for the schizophrenia on behalf of civil rights advocates is that many of them ultimately care more about their political and social allegiances than they do about the actual academic success of every child. They are proving that they’re willing to sacrifice the academic achievements of young people in order to maintain their shrinking relevance in a shifting social and political landscape. The fear of change is causing some civil rights groups to take positions that make no sense in the context of student academic progress, e.g. challenging the existence of a charter school based on space sharing agreements that would lead to students eating lunch earlier in the day. This fear is also preventing them from stepping outside of their comfort zones, beyond the grip of the status quo and teachers unions, to embrace innovation and creativity in the delivery of public education.

As fraud, mismanagement, and cheating scandals stifle the progress of a number of urban school systems, parents are gaining a clearer picture of what’s more important to some classroom teachers and school administrators. Educators’ pursuit of job security and personal and professional relevance and stature have led to all kinds of compromise and unethical behavior and practices within their ranks; actions that have hurt the academic prospects for students who are already being poorly served by their schools. As families have gained greater access to school choices and grown impatient with the education establishment, they are not necessarily relying on the judgments and opinions of advocates whose agendas are no longer in sync with the hopes and desires that parents have for their children’s schooling. Families that care about their children’s education have more choices in today’s environment and can choose to relocate their child to a school that is uniquely suitable for that student’s academic needs.

Today’s schools are dramatically different from a half century ago where there was separate and unequal elementary and secondary schools. America’s schools are filled, for the most part, with education professionals who care deeply about the academic success of all students. You can walk in any one of them and marvel at the culture of the schools and classrooms, in comparison to what was the norm fifty years ago. However, there are still low performing and ineffective schools in far too many communities, as evidenced by the low expectations of students, heartbreaking literacy rates, worn out textbooks, and rundown school buildings. Parents, civil rights groups, teachers unions, education entrepreneurs, and educators of all stripes must decide whether they are truly committed to equitable access to high quality education for every child or are they more committed to maintaining allegiances that sacrifice what’s best for students.

While it will likely take years to determine the breadth of the consequences and effects from this massive cheating scandal, the most critical outcome is that real damage has been done to the students of the Atlanta Public Schools system. I’m not sure how the administrators and teachers will accomplish the tough task of convincing thousands of K-12 students that the adults actually do care about their academic growth and achievement. Because so many students were aware that teachers willingly gave them test answers from one grade to the next, the school system is tasked with not only changing the culture and expectations surrounding testing, but also instilling hope and confidence in the students’ own perception of their academic potential. There has to be a dramatic shift in the expectations for groups of students who have grown accustomed to teachers who cheat, express little faith in their abilities as learners, and harbor low expectations of them. These young people will need to be re-trained so that they are able to embrace and believe in their own potential for high academic achievement. Every APS student deserves to know that they are not “dumb as hell,” but instead, are endowed with certain gifts and abilities that match their dreams and hopes for school, career choices, and life as a whole.

This marks an ugly chapter in American public education, especially as education stakeholders continue to work so hard at developing solutions and new school models for the multitude of problems in K-12 schools nationwide. Everyone knows that it will take a while to design the kind of comprehensive reform framework that can be adapted based on unique student and school populations. This is why we must continue to exercise patience with the implementation and adaptation of the benchmarks that define the No Child Left Behind legislation. We know that NCLB is not a panacea, but it has given us a good foundation for improving standards and accountability for school-aged youth, their teachers, and schools. In the aftermath of the APS debacle, most people have resisted the temptation to blame the focus on standardized testing for the ethical and moral failures of a segment of classroom instructors and principals. What we can learn from the failures of the APS system is how important it is to design systems, processes, and structures that reward the right actions and maintain a focus on student learning and achievement. The failures of the APS organization expose the risks involved as educators misinterpret and misapply the true goals for raising the standards and improving accountability in our schools nationwide. Education leaders and policymakers never intended for school leaders to employ pressure, fear, and retaliation, as they worked to attain NCLB benchmarks. If we didn’t learn anything else, we learned all over again that teaching professionals and school administrators need more guidance, tools, and resources as they attempt to develop school cultures that match the broader goals for K-12 education.

The investigative results surrounding the standardized test cheating scandal within the Atlanta Public School system cause much hurt and sadness for those of us who care deeply about the education of America’s school aged youth. This is especially true when you consider that the majority of the APS students are from low income groups whose access to meaningful learning options is already limited. The students and parents of the school district have essentially been victimized and failed by almost 200 elementary and middle school teachers and principals who participated in organized and systemic cheating. By any reasonable measure, this is an astounding number of educators to have been involved in this kind of scandal. And to be honest, the whole fiasco feels like organized criminal behavior, like a mob culture in a school district. You simply can’t make this kind of stuff up.

I’ve written about educators cheating when administering student standardized tests in the past, but this one takes the cake. How is it that teachers can plan “erasure parties” that are designed to actually change student test answers? There was a time when standardized test booklets and score sheets were not even supposed to be taken out of the school building by anyone other than those charged with maintaining the integrity and security surrounding the tests. Since when did it become acceptable for teachers to provide students with answers to tests, in place of actually monitoring the students as they complete the tests? Where did we go wrong or better yet, why are so many teachers so willing to compromise the nobility and ethical and moral standards of the profession? Do they not understand or care that they’re actually crippling the students, not helping them, academically?

APS leadership is responsible for allowing a culture that created this kind of organized and systemic cheating across the teacher corps. Whatever pressures, fears, and intimidation that classroom teachers and principals felt related to improving student test scores has to be attributable to an APS culture where integrity, ethics, and morals were not endemic or valued throughout the school system. Leadership failed at the highest level, which means that Dr. Beverly Hall, the outgoing superintendent, is ultimately accountable, even as she denies any involvement or knowledge of what went on in so many of her schools. As the chief executive officer of APS, she should have known. As CEO, her mandate and responsibility are to always have an evaluation or sense for the culture and operations of every school, either through her deputy officials, actual school visits, meetings, or analysis of data and information pertaining to the academic progress of schools.

A few years ago, as Dr. Hall was being recognized as superintendent of the year for the great job she had done in raising the test scores for an urban school district, she accepted the accolades and praise freely and with no noticeable trepidation. In other words, Dr. Hall was given credit for and she accepted responsibility for her work as the leader of APS when student test scores were shown to have improved. However, now that the state of Georgia has uncovered widespread cheating across the majority of APS elementary and middle schools, Dr. Hall is not accepting any responsibility for this tragedy. CEOs are always accountable for the results or performances of their organizations and they should not hide behind the excuse that they were not aware or had no direct knowledge of what was going on. They’re hired and paid to know what is going on across every level of their organizations; their task is to either find out themselves or hire sufficient and competent staff to monitor what’s going on in the trenches and on the ground.

So where do we go from here? One thing for sure is that we don’t give up, because our young people are counting on us to prepare them for productive careers and lives. Parents need to be able to trust educators to do their best to educate their students by applying the highest level of competence, ethics, and professional standards. Unfortunately, in the case of APS, parents must feel as if they can’t win for losing. Many have been led to believe that their children were progressing academically to be ready for grade advancement, based on improved test scores. Now, a whole lot of them are in for a rude awakening as they discover that their children are actually not doing well at all. What’s even more tragic is the fact that students whose scores have been fabricated have been ill-served because they haven’t received the specialized or remedial instruction they need.

The pressures to raise test scores are real and must be addressed as the Congress moves to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. Pressures, fears, and intimidation are real across teacher ranks; however, we must not allow these realities to be used as legitimate excuses for professional educators to engage in cheating schemes. We know for sure that there are excellent teaching professionals all across the nation who would never even think of compromising their students’ education by supplying answers to tests or changing test answers. There are also teachers all over the country who feel the same pressures as those in the APS system, to improve student test scores, but they don’t yield to the pressures to compromise their professional integrity and ethics. These unintended consequences of NCLB must be addressed not only to ensure that the goals for raising academic standards and improving accountability are achieved, but also to make sure that teaching professionals and school administrators are given sufficient tools and resources to prepare students to perform well on standardized tests.

When will grownups figure out that public schools exist to serve the students, not the adults? When will school administrators summons the courage and will to make the hard choices related to ideals such as professionalism, accountability, competence, and commitment? Why has the locally elected school board model lost its efficacy to the stench of politics, fraud, and cronyism, largely in districts serving the lowest income students? These are a sampling of the administrative and leadership realities and nightmares that have been brewing beneath the surface for the past few decades, as we’ve watched young people’s education become the sacrificial lamb in this whole fiasco. In the worst performing school systems, there has been a corresponding deterioration of morals, ethics, commitment, and competence among school board members, superintendents, and other administrators, as the academic progress of the respective students has dramatically declined for several decades. It’s not coincidental that the failures and weaknesses in school leadership have led to a point of dysfunction and ineptitude in the schools that so desperately need strong leadership in order to properly educate their students and to survive as places of learning. What it is, though, is a shame and a disgrace that the grownups are too self-consumed to take a stand for the education of our next generation of leaders, managers, citizens, and workers.

I’ve written in the past about the tragedies of leadership and stewardship failures in far too many schools and school systems. And I’m still shocked by recent accounts that detail school leaders who misappropriate funds, perpetrate political and bureaucratic schemes, and engage in corrupt and illegal practices and behaviors that compromise and poison the sacredness of education.  It’s beyond comprehension and overwhelmingly amazing that in spite of the severity of consequences facing targeted students and schools, the adults seem to care very little about the academic success of students. Back in the day, you could count on teaching professionals everywhere being good stewards for young people, while they were away from home. You could count on classroom teachers motivating and instructing in ways that nurtured and developed the interests and talents of their students. Principals, superintendents, and school board members used to exhibit an abiding commitment to academic excellence for all students. In the most distressed communities, that level of integrity and commitment may be a thing of the past. The reality of today’s climate is that we’re battling demons in the leadership ranks of K-12 education that threaten the academic, personal, and professional potential for our younger generation.

On the surface, our globally interconnected marketplace is a great opportunity to exchange products, ideas, and services across continents and industries. However, we have yet to fully interpret the degree of uncertainty, and therefore risk, which is accompanying this global phenomenon. Because there are no established global norms and standards for operating in highly industrialized as well as emerging markets simultaneously, the rules of the game are uneven, unfair, and sometimes unethical. On the one hand, you have countries that customarily subsidize certain industries and accept bribes, and on the other, there are countries which routinely operate with conflicts of interest because they mix public policymaking with private sector interests. These kinds of cultural and political idiosyncrasies make for a real hodge-podge across nations and cultures.

The realities of the global marketplace are forcing all of us to evaluate whether or how much global companies and financial institutions should be socially or ethically responsible for the practices they engage in. The primary focus of most private companies is financial, i.e. profit maximization; however, a good majority of them also hold themselves socially accountable to their internal and external constituencies. The continual evolution of the global free market should self-determine whether companies will gradually respond to a pull to be financially and socially responsible corporate citizens.
 
The popular reaction, here at home, has been to try and reign in the greed that is rampant on Wall Street, by capping executive compensation and ramping up government regulation of the financial industry. Improving standards for transparency and accountability for Wall Street firms may assuage the fears and hopes of some, but this won’t change human behavior which is rooted in taking and managing all kinds of risk. Policymakers and taxpayers can slow down the perceived fraud, greed, and abuse in the high finance world by not using the services of the investment banks, not patronizing their corporate and institutional clients, and not incurring so much consumer debt. This will dry up that money train quicker than any new government regulation.

Realistically speaking though, our lives and interests are inextricably linked to the products and services that are the result of much of the Wall Street wheeling and dealing—cars, food, travel, homes, electronics, retirement savings, and investments -- you name it, investment bankers finance it somewhere along the way. Policymakers need to resist their knee jerk reaction to always over-legislate or increase regulation when there’s uncertainty, because ultimately, unbridled or inordinate regulation negatively impacts market competitiveness for American firms and industries, at home and abroad, in terms of job creation, implementation costs, and costs to the consumer. Instead, what we need are regulators, policymakers, financiers, and global companies that are committed to interpreting the global market complexities in new and creative ways that produce financially, socially, and ethically responsible global corporate enterprises.

Not in a million years should anyone give credence to the fears and anxiety being conjured up because of recent legislative and political setbacks at the state level, which have not been too favorable toward school choice and reform efforts. This turn of events was surely expected when you consider how deeply systems and structures must be overhauled in order to expose the root of the problems in schools and districts. We’re talking about messes that have lain dormant for decades. We can be almost certain that the plan was for none of the fraud, negligence, and mismanagement to ever be discovered. After all, it has been business as usual for a very long time and no one asked hard questions or offered workable alternatives to the status quo until the real school reformers stepped up a few decades ago. The traditionalists and their cronies are going to fight hard to avoid being exposed for their decisions and actions that can truly be described as criminal when you consider the permanent damage that has been done to the lives and potential of this generation of young people. The millions of dollars being dedicated to the policymaking and political arenas is essentially a testament to the growing strength of the larger school reform movement. If some people could have their way, public education will never return to its glory days, because their primary concerns are basically job security, padding their pockets, and promoting their agendas, never mind educating the students.

We’ve known for a very long time, that real, substantive, and lasting transformation of public education would be a very long and arduous fight. Some people have the scars to prove how tough the fight has been. There are far too many constituencies in K-12 education, and most of them have their own hidden and self-serving agendas. They are not about to allow change to take place without a serious fight to save and protect what they perceive as theirs. Too many education stakeholders are threatened in their psyche and in their careers by reform that they didn’t create or can’t shepherd. In their minds, they have too much to lose. What they are failing to acknowledge is that it is the students who have too much to lose if we maintain the status quo. People are not going to sit back and watch their ideas, pet projects, influence, and financial and career stability be replaced by innovation and creativity, even if it has been proven to benefit students.

At the end of the day, those of us who care deeply about American public education can’t be deterred or distracted by temporary legislative and political defeats. We cannot allow eleventh hour strategies to derail progress, whether it is big or small. Our eyes must stay on the prize, because we are already witnessing the dawning of a new day in K-12 education. The range of success stories is all the evidence we need to gain the public’s confidence in our intentions and our results. The reform genie has been out of the bottle for a long time and the train left the station two decades ago. America’s schools are on their way to something much greater than what we’re witnessing today. It’s going to take endurance to withstand the opposition, fear, and rhetoric whose goals are to distort and confuse the success stories that are emanating from all corners of the landscape. This is the battle that we have chosen to participate in and we must maintain our patience, perseverance, and positivity, because the day of reckoning is closer than we think.

Most of the discussion surrounding school improvements relates primarily to the impact that enhanced teaching and learning will have on the academic achievement of students. Rightfully so, our attention and resources are being focused like a laser on ways to elevate classrooms and schools so that all students gain access to a high quality education, in suburban, rural, and urban districts. As cities and states strategize about where to build new schools and how to develop resource and space sharing solutions within shrinking budgets, their property leases and acquisitions are likely creating opportunities for other people, firms, and organizations that want to provide or market goods and services to students and their families. Perhaps unintentionally, school leaders are playing a role in the ultimate development of healthy, productive, and sustainable environments where students and families live, learn, work, and play. School construction efforts are essentially creating atmospheres that are conducive to all kinds of services and retail activity. Educators and their partners are sharing in the revitalization of downtown and urban areas by simply relocating or rebuilding crumbling school buildings in places that had become depressed or suffered due to economic downturns or business relocations.

The elephant in the room is the reality that high performing schools can make or break the appeal and vitality of neighborhoods and communities, in the eyes of parents as well as prospective community stakeholders such as real estate developers, residents, and businesses. As the lowest performing schools face closures, many of the surrounding neighborhoods will undoubtedly suffer as well, because most of the schools have existed for decades and represent stable community institutions for the neighbors. Similar to the loss of retail outlets, grocery stores, libraries, and recreational centers, the closure of a longstanding school can create the kind of void in a community that can almost suck the life out of places where they’re already barely holding on. This explains why members of some communities lobby hard against closing schools in areas that are already struggling to maintain a sense of relevance. The emergence of K-12 schools in distressed areas is one of the best decisions being made by education leaders because of the potential for growth and vitality across so many sectors of a community. This not only benefits the academic needs of the local student population, it also creates environments that attract enterprises like ice cream parlors, dry cleaners, gas stations, and movie theaters, all of which respond to the everyday needs of students and their families.

Recent philanthropic announcements remind us that billionaires are just as compassionate and charitable as any average citizen. Some want others to believe that financially prosperous people are not altruistic or caring citizens. For some strange reason, there is this myth that billionaires and the wealthiest among us are all greedy and self-consumed, and could care less about those who happen to be less fortunate or the suffering and hardship that is all around us. There is a tendency to demonize individuals and institutions for their wealth accumulation and how they choose to spend their resources. Legitimate or not, these criticisms cannot be ascribed to wealthy philanthropists who dedicate much of their treasure to causes much greater than themselves and their own circumstances. Contrary to popular belief, our nation has historically been inspired by the willingness and capacity of wealthy elites to donate large portions of their fortunes to needs and organizations that impact people’s lives in profound ways for generations. For people all across the economic spectrum, personal philanthropy choices and decisions are very often grounded in the belief that “unto whom much is given much is required.” This sentiment knows no boundaries and is exhibited by people and organizations that possess large as well as small fortunes. Real, meaningful, and lasting philanthropy originates from the heart and must not be judged or critiqued. 

Bill and Melinda Gates, along with Warren Buffett have established a new model and precedent for billionaire philanthropists. Their recent challenge issued to fellow billionaires to donate most of their riches to address the major issues confronting us domestically and abroad is an amazing call to action, especially during an era in which unusual times do warrant unusual sacrifice. This goes well beyond the notion of equal sacrifice. Aside from the fact that the Gates family fortune has been primarily dedicated to very large and seemingly intractable social and public health challenges, this level of giving sets a new standard and displays real philanthropic leadership. These kinds of efforts dispel the myths and criticisms that are so easily hurled at financially prosperous people. The wealthy class of society is no different than any other economic class, meaning some wealthy people and some not so wealthy people are more inclined toward philanthropy. The ties that bind us are our concerns for the conditions around us and a sense of compassion that causes us to share our wealth in ways that respond to human suffering and social needs. Surely we can all rejoice and be glad about a spirit of generosity that leads to the mitigation of suffering for many as well as solutions to social or health problems that have persisted far too long. Ultimately, philanthropy in and of itself is better than none at all, especially if there are no strings attached.

The beauty of K-12 education is that teaching and learning take place in ways that accommodate collaboration and teamwork among teaching professionals across grades and cohorts. Unlike postsecondary education and beyond, early cognitive learning and maturation occur along a continuum of skills and aptitude development that is not necessarily quantifiable by a certain grade level or attributable to a particular teacher or class. This uniqueness about elementary and secondary education underscores why it will be difficult to devise teacher evaluation methods that focus primarily on the success of the individual classroom teacher. Just as tests are not always good indicators of student achievement, evaluating individual teaching professionals is not the panacea for measuring classroom success. It is true that classroom teachers must be evaluated based on their own competence, preparedness, and professional development, as one critical component of an evaluation process; however, a larger aspect of the assessment process must concentrate on the efficacy of teacher cohorts. The very nature of K-12 teaching requires the kinds of evaluation systems that account for not only individual capability but also the art of collaboration and teamwork among lead teachers and those not as experienced.

Developing teacher evaluation systems that make sense in the context of how teachers teach and students learn is going to be one of the most difficult aspects of elevating the delivery of K-12 public education. Even though most agree that an important element of the evaluation process is student achievement, there is a wide range of opinion about how to isolate and measure the range of factors that affect the teaching and learning that goes on inside and outside of classrooms. Not only is it virtually impossible to identify all of the sources of learning in young people’s lives, it is hard to categorize objective measures of teacher effectiveness because you don’t always know what or to whom to attribute success. For example, is the teacher, parent or personal tutor responsible for the reading progression of a child? It does seem evident that new means for measuring teacher effectiveness will have to incentivize and reward teaching professionals based largely on the work of cohorts. This makes the most sense and it also places the responsibility on school administrators to recruit and train highly competent professionals for their classrooms while also creating school environments that are conducive to the kinds of collaboration and teamwork that produce great teaching and academic success for students across the learning spectrum.

Many of the proposed teacher evaluation systems that are being reviewed don’t even fully account for the fact that student learning and development that is occurring beyond classrooms and schools is not necessarily measurable or even attributable to classroom teachers. A fair amount of student academic success being exhibited on assignments and tests, and expressed in classroom activities is a result of dedicated academic exercises in their homes, private tutoring sessions, or academic initiatives sponsored by community organizations, churches, and other enterprises. These family and community interventions highlight the need for teacher evaluation methods to focus more on teacher cohorts. Placing individual teacher effectiveness at the heart of any evaluation system could unfairly reward individuals for student academic success that may not be to their credit, but could be the result of externally-sponsored enrichment programs and initiatives designed for school-aged youth in targeted schools and communities. It would make more sense to reward an entire teacher corps, as opposed to individual teachers, especially in schools and districts whose students and families are participating in programs and activities that are being funded by outside entities or the families themselves. The efforts of classroom teachers, families, community organizations, and all kinds of stakeholders reveal that teaching is truly an art of collaboration that links everyone who cares about teaching and learning at the K-12 level.

As everyone struggles to come to grips with whether America is still in the midst of an economic downturn, the reality is that there has essentially been an economic downshift. Families, businesses, philanthropists, and governments at every level are redefining how they invest, spend, and save in an environment that is increasingly uncertain and competitive. Economists and pundits are desperately trying to forecast the point at which our economy will kick into overdrive once again, but they’re failing to acknowledge that consumers and investors do not intend to return to the undisciplined and overzealous patterns and behaviors that caused so much financial and personal hardship for families, enterprises, communities, and governments. While financial institutions and retailers are hoping and praying that buyers and sellers have not lost their appetite for greed and excess, people and entities are exhibiting more fear and austerity than anything else. People’s worlds have been turned upside down as their home values and investments have declined dramatically and their upward mobility is not as promising as a few years ago. When you add up the disappearance of personal wealth and equity, you get a populace that is downsizing in every way imaginable. The ripple effect of personal decision-making on growth and profitability in the business sector spells corporate downsizing as well as business dissolutions. Private sector investment, marketing, and distribution strategies are going to have to shift in ways that account for a consumer base that has shifted toward frugality and basic necessities and away from an inclination to overindulge.

As government downsizing reshapes the extent and form of benefits and aid that is provided to recipients, the shock waves are proving to be hard to digest for everyone affected. The impending cuts in entitlement programs and the elimination of targeted government agencies promise to alter the fiscal habits of people across the income spectrum. Even though most people recognize the need for governments to address deficits and debt levels in a substantial way, it becomes real when you realize that there is pain and sacrifice to be felt by practically everyone. This new age of austerity for federal, state, and local governments means that economic and social gaps will have to be filled by citizens, volunteers, communities of faith, nonprofits, and all kinds of firms and organizations who may have the human resources and expertise necessary to respond to the kinds of needs that people are accustomed to receiving from the public sector or purchasing on their own. These are opportunities for entities in every community to create new avenues of relevancy and efficiency in the surrounding areas. There has to be a renewed sense of volunteerism and altruism as we all cope with and adjust to the kinds of cutbacks and setbacks that people and enterprises will continue to experience as America’s economic paradigm shifts.

The day of reckoning has finally arrived as governors and state legislatures struggle to close budgetary gaps that have been mounting for years. Shrinking revenues, underfunded pension liabilities, increasing healthcare costs, and expanding entitlement program costs have blown large holes in the budgets of states large and small. Fiscal watchdogs have been predicting for quite a long while that states would eventually have to make tough decisions which would dramatically impact the expectations and benefits of public employees, retirees, and recipients of social programs. Were it not for the current economic climate, state officials probably would not be so intent on implementing drastic changes in their revenue and cost structures. The economic uncertainty and fragility are perhaps a blessing in disguise because the hard financial decisions must be made sooner rather than later. Some states have already waited too long and passed the buck too many times. Whereas states used to be able to depend on cash infusions from the federal government, that is a thing of the past because our federal coffers are depleted and in the red, and will be for a very long time. These are moments in history that will reflect whether policymakers can summons enough courage to restore the fiscal health of their states to a point that will once again signal prosperity and stability for future generations.

The path toward fiscal soundness at the state level will require equal sacrifices from all public sector beneficiaries as well as a hard and honest review of all public expenditures. The unfortunate realities of the current fiscal crises is that expenditures in areas such as public education will be largely impacted as they account for a large percentage of the overall budgets and have been expanding dramatically for years. Regardless of the shouts for not cutting education spending, states must reign in the waste and inefficiencies that continue to cause too much money to be spent on school administrative costs versus classroom costs. While school infrastructure and curriculum costs do justifiably warrant increased levels of spending, nonessential personnel and excessive overhead costs need a hammer applied to them. We all support funding initiatives that recruit, train, and compensate highly competent classroom teachers, and we fully comprehend the need to elevate how and what students learn. However, most people want honest and open dialogue and negotiations among all education stakeholders about the real costs and benefits of public education finances.

There’s no more time for posturing and politicizing about classroom costs, teacher compensation, and school renovations, to name a few. The timidity that allowed policymakers to procrastinate about making hard and painful cuts in social programs and public employee benefits packages will no longer suffice because everyone’s back is against the wall. Benefits and pay cuts will likely affect existing public employees as well as retirees. Everything’s on the table now – collective bargaining rights for public employees, benefits programs for those who are currently employed and retired, and the accounting for the liabilities which underlie public pension obligations. Across the board scale-backs will be more palatable if the public sees that everyone is sharing in the austerity measures. The challenge for governors and legislators alike is to sacrifice political allegiances and politics for sound fiscal policy decisions. These times demand leaders and decision-makers who can resist the temptation to do nothing substantive but exhibit the kind of boldness necessary to produce fresh new ideas that will transform state fiscal policies.

We are still justifiably trying to figure out why so many students are performing so poorly in schools, what we can do to transform teaching and learning, what accounts for the sharp decline in high school graduation rates, and how we can reclaim our nation’s academic prominence at the K-12 levels, just to name a few of our concerns about the state of public schools in America. Did the world change that much over just a couple of decades? Have our culture and priorities shifted in such a way that we’ve forgotten that a strong educational system has been the foundation for our global preeminence? Who dropped the ball? Did our national commitment to educational access and equity for all children change? These are all rhetorical questions that describe the education quagmire that continues to befuddle and mesmerize anyone who is even remotely concerned about the future for the younger generation. It’s not fair to say that our young people are more distracted and care more about being “cool.” Generations of students have always cared about being “cool” and socially acceptable, and distractions are not a new phenomenon. The difference today is that media and technology have provided young people with sophisticated tools for communicating and sharing with each other. What’s also different now is that parents and educators have fallen behind the students in terms of understanding how young people view and organize their academic and social lives. The adults must continue to embrace the positive aspects of social media and networking because there are infinite ways of using these phenomena to more fully educate and train students academically, socially, and culturally.

Are our challenges in public education more a function of the adults’ inability to properly interpret the shifts and changes going on around us all? Are the adults so unwilling to move beyond the status quo and tradition in education that they will fail to embrace the kinds of new teaching and learning methodologies that can be tailored especially for a generation of students who will learn, create, develop, and communicate in an era of technological explosion? Are we missing opportunities to advance elementary and secondary education to levels that reflect the realities of this century?  Is it ultimately the grownups in the room who are the ones stunting the academic success of the younger generation, and not the youngsters’ antipathy toward education or the so-called distractions and preponderance of media and technology in their lives? W e know from years past that parents, classroom teachers, school officials, and the larger communities are responsible for role modeling and setting the stage for our youth as they define their priorities and interests in life. This hasn’t changed – we just need to step up to the plate and be honest with ourselves and the young people who we must steward and teach so that they can be successful leaders, citizens, and managers in a world that will be unlike what we have known to date. Our youth deserve courageous leaders who are willing to step aside or step down and allow education innovators and entrepreneurs to come in and implement the kinds of teaching and learning practices that reflect fresh ideas and perspectives. At the end of the day, the guardians of our youth must do the hard work to create the right academic solutions for a generation of students who are indeed gifted and talented, but may only respond academically to innovative teaching and learning that incorporate the tools that have become indispensable to them.

With all the promising school reform initiatives springing up in cities everywhere, one of the unfortunate realities is that many of our lowest academic performers will not be beneficiaries of these innovative efforts for reasons that have nothing to do with the mission of schools. Even as most people understand how critical it is for those at the bottom of the performance ladder to have highly competent and experienced classroom teachers, this truth is being ignored in the most challenged districts. Given the need to supplement in-school time with afterschool tutoring and remediation programs for those groups of students who are not reaching their academic potential, we are discovering that school leaders are rejecting these interventions without substantiation. While research and practice reiterate the importance of what’s essential for basic academic achievement, there are still scores of young people in the lowest performing school environments who may not benefit from the best practices and innovations in teaching and learning that are being implemented in schools that are committed to their mandate. The dysfunctional school cultures and incompetent leadership that are plaguing school systems that are supposed to serve the most vulnerable students and communities leave the casual observer pretty much speechless. There has been no time in this country’s history whereby we have witnessed patterns of apathy, fraud, and irresponsibility among school leaders in underserved communities like we’re seeing now. There is simply a blatant disregard for responsibility in leadership and a gradual deterioration of concern for educating the young people in the most academically challenged school communities.

The school systems that are producing the worst academic performances among student groups are being hamstrung by school boards who make personnel decisions that have nothing to do with the record of a superintendent, principals who care more about job security than exhibiting courageous leadership, and teachers who would rather provide answers to a test than actually teach. Students simply don’t have a fighting chance when the school culture breeds low expectations, cronyism, apathy, and no accountability. It’s unconscionable that so many school officials in the toughest communities seem to be unfazed by the effects of poor academic performance on their students. These realities are absolutely a tragedy that will reverberate in a variety of ways in the young people’s lives, families, and surrounding communities. The kids are victims of their circumstances and are being used as pawns in the games being played by the adults whose mandate is to educate them and provide educational leadership. Just as people all across the nation are recognizing the urgency surrounding the state of public schools, the educational establishment in some of the most vulnerable school districts is essentially making a mockery of its role as educational steward for the young people they are supposed to serve. The only saving grace for the students is that these educators are being exposed and will have to give accounts for their irresponsibility and apathy.

The changing economic landscape, domestically and globally, is creating opportunities for American citizens in particular to reexamine how we govern our individual and family lives, our values and priorities regarding personal consumption, spending, investing, and responsibility, and how and whether we possess the will to hold corporate and governmental institutions accountable and responsible for their fiscal and social decision-making and practices. The real power lies with the individual, their families, and larger communities when it comes to deciding whether or how financial resources are spent and allocated, which companies benefit profit-wise, and how taxpayer dollars are being prioritized. In the marketplace, our power is evident as we choose which companies to purchase from and invest with. In politics, we elect and remove legislators who don’t fulfill their promises to us. Citizen groups reject the expansion efforts of certain retailers into their communities if they deem them to be disruptive or unappealing. Now more than ever, the public at large must refocus and shift away from the undisciplined and irrational habits of recent years. We need to enforce our economic, social, and political capacity to be more responsible and informed consumers, investors, citizens, entrepreneurs, and voters.

While our tendency has been to want to blame someone for our pain, we really need to look in the mirror and examine our roles in creating the economic mess around us. It was individual zeal and greed that fueled the economic frenzy which has left so many consumers feeling duped and angry. We want to throw hot coals at those corporate and financial giants that reaped the financial rewards as a result of the public’s excessive consumption. The fact that so many of these firms are still standing while workers, families, and communities are still reeling from job losses, abandoned and foreclosed homes, and shrinking budgets breeds contempt in the same marketplace whose growth and exuberance was created by intense consumerism and patronage. People fail to realize that you can’t have it both ways -- you either consume more wisely or you suffer the consequences of unbridled spending and investment practices. Contrary to popular belief, the free market is not set up to benefit solely firms and entrepreneurs with large amounts of capital to expand and invest at their leisure. An important cog in the wheel of capitalism is the decisions and choices of the individual and corporate customer that spur economic activity at the lowest levels. The American consumer must exert its economic power in the marketplace and rethink its economic priorities, which will serve as a reminder and clarion call to the companies and financial institutions that rely on our deposits, investments, and purchases to maintain their own profitability and competitiveness.

As families, businesses, institutions, and governments scale back and redefine how they invest, hire, lend, fund, and spend resources, an era of austerity and frugality is being ushered into the American psyche that is long overdue. The irony is that the same companies and banks that produced goods and services, and engaged in marketing and advertising practices which motivated excessive consumer spending are now in a position to help people dial back their spending and consumption habits in ways that should produce moderation and sensibility. The current economic, social, and political challenges in this country should help us all refocus on what we value personally, spiritually, corporately, and as a nation. The shifting global landscape is causing individual firms, global conglomerates, and sovereign nations to adjust to the decisions being made by foreign investors as well as global competitors. The kinds and extent of government intervention that marked the 20^th century are truly a thing of the past, and the sooner people realize it, the better off they’ll be. The chickens may have finally come home to roost as it relates to government spending and the fraud, waste, and abuse that has accompanied too many of our federal government programs. America’s bad habits and fiscal irresponsibility render that kind of government intervention impossible in today’s climate. The politicians who are still trying to force new heights in government economic stimulus are doing so at the expense of our nation’s fiscal soundness and fiscal credibility around the globe. For those who refuse to see these attempts for what they really are or who want to believe otherwise, should only hope they aren’t still living when the ball drops on the American taxpayers. The power to change our bad habits is at hand; our task is to choose to embrace the opportunities to shift our thinking and practices to match our personal and national values and priorities.

I’m not sure when or how we allowed ourselves to slip into complacency regarding the importance of education in this nation, but somewhere along the way the role of academic achievement or advancement has diminished to a level unseen in previous generations. As far back as the eye can see and the mind can remember, a critical element of the American way has always been to strive to enhance one’s basic knowledge, information, and skill set, whether through K-12 education, postsecondary schooling, professional training, continuing education, or even on-the-job training. At a minimum, it was understood that a person would at the very least graduate from high school and either enter the work force or pursue higher education or some other form of training. Dropping out of high school used to be at a minimal level and certainly not even close to the 50% dropout rate that we’re witnessing nationwide. For years, colleges, universities, vocational, technical, and trade schools have offered the gamut of degree programs, licenses, and certifications in practically every profession and vocation imaginable, which has served to accommodate the widest range of academic and career interests. There is literally no excuse for the level of apathy toward educational achievement that we are witnessing, because there is a training and education format available in the marketplace to fit practically everyone’s liking or circumstance. While we can hypothesize about how we got to this place of seeming indifference toward educational success for all students, it seems we must first reestablish our commitment to the critical role that educational achievement has for every young person, regardless of their station in life.

Recent history reminds us that Americans from all walks of life valued education to some extent, as a means toward improving their own marketability/employability and life choices. What we are facing today is a popular culture whose priorities and values ignore the basic principles for how we became a great nation. High performing public schools and strong student academic performance have always been the underpinning to our prominence as one of the most successful industrial nations. America’s commitment to high quality K-12 schooling continues to be the first step toward making sure that we maintain our strong competitive and influential positions around the world in so many spheres. Families, schools, communities, and the government have consistently been critical stakeholders for securing academic success for every child. There used to be a shared responsibility among parents, teachers, and everyone else to fulfill the larger mandate for an educated and informed citizenry. How we got away from such a broad-based commitment is hard to figure out still today. Perhaps adult preoccupation with self-gratification and materialism coupled with an unwillingness to work hard at defining what’s gone wrong in our schools might be at the core. The range of distractions being lobbied at young people today may be making it impossible for certain groups of students to even understand why a basic educational foundation is necessary. The younger generation will be responsible for shepherding in a new era marked by global, economic, and geopolitical shifts like we’ve never seen in our history, and all of us have a part to play in making sure that they are well prepared for the kinds of demands, challenges, and uncertainty forthcoming globally. The whole village has to act like and communicate to all who will listen that education will always be the gateway to ensuring that this country has the highly skilled, informed, and trained leaders, workers, managers, and citizens needed for us to maintain global preeminence across the board.

If we didn’t know before, we surely know now that everyone who fills the role of classroom teacher is not necessarily called to the profession. The challenges that we are facing across the teacher corps is partly due to some adults choosing teaching or being placed in the classroom for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, many have chosen the profession because they believe that the requirements for tenure and stability are not as demanding relative to other careers. Others entered teaching because someone provided them with an employment opportunity when everything else failed. Still others somehow entered through a back door when no one was paying attention. While each of these cases may be a legitimate reason for gaining employment in the profession, they are also explanations for why educators must be more discriminating as they hire, recruit, and train classroom instructors. We can’t afford to be lackadaisical when it comes to teaching because it is proven to be the most critical component in a child’s education. Aside from possessing the requisite teaching credentials and academic qualifications, the best and most effective teaching professionals are successful because they are passionate about teaching and want to impact the lives of their students. Successful classroom instructors carry a sense of pride, integrity, and dedication into their classrooms each day. It is a labor of concern and commitment from their perspectives that motivates them to create, discern, and nurture the academic potential of all of their students.

With all the proposals being considered by school districts related to teacher recruitment and training, we really need to come to grips with the fact that even the best training and development cannot transform a person into a really good or great teacher, if that person is not called or destined to be in the profession or lacks the zeal or skill set to help students reach their academic potential. Professional development is effective for ensuring that teachers have the “hardware” that is necessary for the classroom; however, it is very difficult for teacher training to engineer passion or impact the “software” aspects of teaching, as these components are intangible and not altogether teachable in a seminar or conference. Teacher hardware includes curriculum guides, classroom pedagogy and management, and other instruction-related issues that lay the foundation for curriculum content and instruction. The software of classroom teaching relates to a teaching professional’s intuitive, distinctive, and personalized capacity and know-how that signals teacher effectiveness and sets really good instructors apart from others. While all teachers are not destined to be great instructors (and we certainly want to help train and develop them toward becoming the best teaching professional as is possible), the reality is that some are simply in the wrong profession and would do themselves and our children a favor by stepping aside and pursuing work in a field more closely aligned with their passion, gifts and abilities.

There may be a crescendo of advocacy across the nation regarding K-12 school reform. People from all walks of life are responding to calls to get involved in grassroots efforts to back changes that can raise the academic achievement of local students while also holding educators accountable. The leadership changes in school districts, venomous relations among school board members, and austerity measures as a result of shrinking state budgets are a sampling of recent events that may be causing the public to really take note of what is going on at the highest levels of school leadership. Media coverage that questions the dismissal of effective school leaders and displays how dysfunctional school board meetings have become allows people to truly observe and understand how some decisions being made have little or nothing to do with whether student academic performance is actually improving. The apparent sense of urgency at local levels is certainly being fueled by state budgetary cuts in education expenditures and the needless and raucous dealings of school boards in too many places. Parents and communities are wondering why the grownups in charge of schools are spending so much time arguing over matters that have nothing to do with what’s going on in classrooms. The public is confused as to why district leaders, mayors, and city councils continue to use old arguments to reject proven and innovative ideas to improve schools, while insisting on the utilization of systems and methods that have failed school aged youth for decades. The American public may not know what’s really going on in the trenches or behind closed doors, but somehow I get the sense that we’re at a place where people will demand more answers and accountability from those who have been making promises for years and failing to deliver. Perhaps the groundswell that we’ve been hoping for over the past decade has finally arrived as families, communities, and governments get a clearer picture of the shenanigans preventing real school reform.

Back in the day, communities could count on school boards to do the right things on behalf of schoolchildren. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that anyone who served on a local board was indeed committed to ensuring that the schools were high quality places of learning and promoted academic priorities for the students. Aside from persons who used a school board position to launch a long-term career as an elected official, board members tended to serve with a sense of purpose that helped keep superintendents honest and focused on students, teachers, classrooms, and schools. However, the commitment and integrity that used to mark school boards has been replaced by personal, political, and hidden agendas held by adults who are not intently focused on the educational challenges confronting schoolchildren. The bickering and nastiness that is permeating board meetings in many places is unconscionable when you consider the low academic performances of the students in the schools where this negativity is occurring. The adults are spending so much time battling one another that they have forgotten about their mandate to oversee and provide high quality schooling.

Similar to what we are witnessing among teacher and administrative ranks, grownup school board members are more interested in maintaining their positions and influence instead of reforming classroom teaching and learning. How we got to a place where the adults in so many of our education professions are more concerned about pushing their own platforms and agendas is the most difficult question for those of us who care deeply about educating youth. It’s both sad and shocking because young people are counting on the grownups to provide the leadership necessary to improve K-12 education. At the very least, the adults could act professionally and with some integrity as they come together to try and develop solutions. How can we ensure that elected school board members work effectively to do right by the students? What is it going to take to get school leaders, elected and appointed, to make decisions that align with student needs and not with personal and political interests? Perhaps the biggest obstacle to transforming America’s public schools is the leaders’ inability to lead with the kind of integrity and conviction that ignore personalities and hidden agendas. When the adult school board members and school leaders begin to act maturely then maybe we will move closer to world class K-12 education for all students.

Recent election cycles have proven how exasperated a large segment of our citizenry has become with political processes and all of the propaganda that comes with them. While voters across party lines have increasingly become disenchanted with their respective party representatives, the more independent voters are determined to elect only those who exhibit a greater commitment to principles and policies that are fiscally sound and good for the nation as a whole. This block of voters has pretty much become the fastest growing segment of the electorate, and how they vote is determining how elections turn all over the country. Independent voters are more focused on choosing representatives who espouse positions and beliefs that align with their own, without much regard for party affiliation. Recent legislative bills passed by the Democrat and Republican parties indicate how difficult it has become for elected officials to tow traditional party lines. The domestic and foreign policy challenges that we are facing has not allowed them to adhere to politics as usual. Instead, they are being forced to do what’s right for the country, which has meant stepping outside of their political comfort zones. Ironically, moving beyond the walls of political traditions and party allegiance is precisely what Americans want from politicians. Strangely enough, it may have taken crisis moments to actually get elected officials to focus on real policy as opposed to their political agendas.

Current economic, geopolitical, and national security trends call for political leadership that is courageous and free enough to make decisions that reflect sound judgment. Recent domestic and global events have dictated degrees of government intervention that make everyone nervous and uncomfortable. Because Americans are not accustomed to the unprecedented levels of spending in Washington over the past two years, we have become even more impatient with partisan bickering and the lack of fiscal accountability. Now more than ever, people are demanding policy solutions that will not bankrupt this nation and not steal more of their hard earned dollars. Whichever political party is willing to provide the right political leadership should acquit themselves well during these uncertain times. We are living in an era that demands leaders who are more principled and independent, and less partisan and beholden to politics. While it may be too much to expect, the war times and financial crises confronting America and the world ought to be reason enough for politicians to favor sound public policies over politics.

The results of the 2010 mid-term elections ought to be a clarion call to politicians of all stripes to get their act together and start to seriously listen to and act upon the concerns and priorities of everyday citizens. The tidal wave of political change that marked these elections proves that people are not misinformed or don’t understand. Instead, they know precisely what is going on in Washington politics, they don’t like what they see, and the expression of their expectations resulted in a profound and historical shift in American politics. Americans have had enough as they’ve watched their retirement savings, investment portfolios, home values, and job security decline. The consensus was a repudiation of government that overspends, incurs massive amounts of debt, and creates unprecedented deficits. Anyone who believes that the voters were saying something else is under strong delusions. Voters reacted resoundingly against a Presidential administration and Congress that threaten to shackle us for generations with spending, debt, and deficit levels that suspend most imaginations. Taxpayers don’t want the government taking more of their hard-earned money and spending it in ways that will ultimately raise their taxes even more because our nation’s pockets are not deep enough to afford the trillions of dollars that will be needed to service our debt to other nations and to execute the new legislative mandates that have caused so much angst among voters. The electorate understands very well that our national credit rating and credit worthiness are at stake.

A broad lack of confidence in the will or ability of Democrats and Republicans to govern has essentially led more people to describe themselves as Independents. This trend toward political independence is meaningful because it proves that people are indeed paying attention to the political circus and how it’s affecting their livelihoods. After all, this is how a democracy is supposed to work. Elected officials have shown a greater commitment to their ideologies and special interests than to the needs of constituents and the broader public for a long time. Both parties have consistently failed to serve the people in ways that make sense, fiscally, physically, and morally. Liberals and conservatives alike criticize the Tea Party; however, this grassroots movement exemplifies the essence and energy of a fully functioning democracy. For a political force that is barely two years old, these activists and concerned citizens have gotten everyone’s attention and promise to be a force to be reckoned with in the foreseeable future.  All of the haters should take note of the Tea Party’s ability to organize and galvanize themselves as a strong and enviable political voice.

President Obama now has to prove whether he is able to rise to the occasion and show executive leadership. His effectiveness as CEO of our nation is going to be determined by his capacity, or lack thereof, to do the right thing and make tough, smart decisions regardless of their political ramifications. He could possibly regain the confidence of the American people by showing a greater commitment to doing what’s good and right for our country, rather than bowing down to political ideology. The President’s challenge may be even more daunting, given that he lacks experience in leading or governing. Executive management is still new and uncharted for him when you consider that he was a U.S. senator for about two years when he decided to run for the Presidency. Even though he has no proven record of balancing budgets, cutting costs, or building consensus as a governor or executive, this is a great opportunity for him to show what he is really made of. Will he continue his unprecedented spending spree and multiply the size of government bureaucracy or will he regroup and attempt a marked policy shift toward the center?

Our only hope for real accountability, fiscal responsibility, right-sized government, and bipartisanship in American politics is for the electorate to continue to send categorical messages via the ballot box and the growth of grassroots movements like the Tea Party. The state of American politics is sickening when you consider how tainted the processes are by special interests, propaganda, money, hubris, and corruption. One can only hope that the outcome of the 2010 midterm elections portend a renewed sense of purpose by our elected officials to do the people’s business, fulfill their constitutional mandates, or risk being replaced. It doesn’t matter what your political party affiliation is, this country simply cannot sustain the levels of spending that we have experienced during this first decade of the 21^st century. If political leaders don’t sense the urgency of where we are headed, then we are likely to follow the course of Greece. Not only will we be bankrupt and unable to pay our bills, we will be the laughing stock around the world because of our fiscal irresponsibility.

If Americans don’t figure out how to respect each other’s ideas, opinions and perspectives, especially when they differ from one’s own ideology and politics, then we will always be viewed as hypocritical and schizophrenic around the world. How can we expect other nations and their citizens to take us seriously when we don’t even treat our fellow citizens respectfully when we disagree? We promote and preach democracy, freedom of speech, openness, religious freedom, and human rights on the international stage but far too many of us lack the will or maturity to acknowledge and appreciate the fact that our citizenry represents ideas and thoughts that are quite diverse. Our public square is being contaminated by those who possess an inability to disagree without personally attacking people’s character, beliefs, or family members. To make matters worse, we are surrounded by a media environment that has largely lost its journalistic integrity and objectivity. We can’t even rely on news reporting anymore because of the emphasis on sensationalism. We desperately need civility in our public, political, and social discourse, especially in light of the reality that paradigms and demographics are shifting quickly. We will not be able to manage and interpret the breadth of global changes and uncertainties unless we get our own house in order first. America’s capacity to overcome its ugly past has allowed us to build from our diversity as it relates to immigration, cultural experiences, ethnicities, and ideas. We can and must talk.

I recently read an article that contrasted Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin’s ideas about American public education. One of the more profound differences between the two men was perhaps that Franklin worked to ensure that education was accessible to all citizens, regardless of race, class, or gender. While Jefferson had professed his interest in educating the masses, he never actually worked toward educational equity and access for all. Whereas Jefferson appeared to harbor a kind of disregard for the potential and capabilities of common people, Franklin seemed to appreciate the range of skills and competencies of students across the social spectrum. In his view, students should be given the space and time to discover and develop the breadth of their talents, whether with their hands, minds, heads, or bodies. Jefferson displayed his elitist tendencies as he promoted the implementation of traditional or classical curriculums and preparation for those professions that the elites considered desirable. He espoused a level of intellectual arrogance that almost certainly delimited the opportunities and potential of many who occupied the lower classes of society.

The two views also reflect the existing foundational differences between those in education today who are traditionalists and want to maintain the status quo versus those who are reformers and are pushing for greater innovation, openness, and creativity in 21^st century schools. Although the competing visions for contemporary schools may not be defined in class, income, or gender terms, their underlying themes hearken back to the contrasting approaches that Franklin and Jefferson proffered. Franklin’s legacy is synonymous with those who want more innovation and creativity, e.g. education entrepreneurs, while Jefferson’s legacy parallels those who think education does not need to adapt to the demands of this century or the shifting education paradigm, e.g. educational elites and traditionalists. Even today, there is that group of educators who don’t seem to appreciate the breadth of aptitudes and abilities that young people possess and only want to utilize traditional curriculums. Conversely, the group of educators which recognizes that student competencies are intellectual, artistic, creative, and athletic is working hard to expand teaching and learning to reflect greater flexibility and relevance. Students deserve schools that accommodate their diverse career and vocational interests, not elitist assumptions from the adults in their lives that seek to force them into narrowly defined and traditional work and life choices that are not reflective of their own hopes and desires.

Real and substantive school reform will largely occur where there is strategic and effective collaboration across constituency groups that are strong advocates in neighborhoods and communities and are committed to the work of K-12 schools. Professionals and organizations representing faith communities, private industry, the philanthropic community, civic groups, public entities, the education industry, and community development financial institutions are examples of key stakeholder groups whose ideas, resources, and energy can be beneficial to efforts to implement greater school choice and systemic reform in rural, suburban, and urban school districts nationwide. Cross-sectoral collaboration is an important means by which school transformation can become reality in places where there has been resistance to drastic school changes. By securing the support of community leaders and parents, reformers and educators stand a better chance of adopting policies and practices that can elevate teaching and learning in our schools. Education entrepreneurs will be viewed as well-intentioned partners when they develop plans and initiatives that reflect not only their innovative ideas but also incorporate the academic priorities of established constituencies in the towns and cities being served. The buy-in of local stakeholders is made so much easier when collaborative approaches are employed.

Partnerships that bring together different sectors, interest groups, and professions locally can help ensure that the interests of those who are most affected by major reforms are accounted for as decisions are made about school closures, dismissal of principals, teacher evaluations, and young people’s education. Parents most assuredly must buy into reform efforts that are broad and revolutionary. Influential community institutions that have a longstanding record of service and advocacy are also essential to any attempt to shakeup the status quo pertaining to local education models. Communities of faith have always been prominent and influential in the life of families and communities and are significant intermediaries or advocates for school changes that are far-reaching and sometimes perceived as drastic. If we are ever going to realize the kinds of synergistic relationships and alliances among business people, educators, nonprofits, faith organizations, academics, philanthropists, and everyday citizens that can yield creativity and innovation in schools, then we are definitely going to have to embrace reform efforts that make some of us uncomfortable and fearful about a shifting education paradigm that looks nothing like public schooling of the past. There’s no such thing as too much reform, too fast. By definition, reform requires significant changes, overhauls, or restructuring vis-à-vis business as usual. If done right, in a respectful and collaborative manner, reform can be absorbed and implemented in profound and unimaginable ways.