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 However, the commitment and integrity that used to mark school boards has been replaced by personal, political, and hidden agendas held by adults who are not intently focused on the educational challenges confronting schoolchildren.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.