A Claimant to Power

Who should set policy for the nation's public schools? Traditionally, this power has been invested in nonprofessional school boards and professional superintendents. In the wake of several bitter strikes, teachers' organizations are demanding a bigger voice in the establishment of educational goals.

There is some justice in the teachers' claim to power. Those now in charge of the schools, particularly in the big cities, have failed miserably--and teachers cannot be blamed for overcrowded classes, inept texts, pre-Sputnik curriculums. Even the injection of billions of dollars in federal funds, designed specifically to spur innovation, has largely bypassed the classroom teacher. Of some 700 federal grants awarded last year in Michigan, teachers were not consulted in 80% of the cases.

Kicked on the Floor. In practice, school boards have relied mainly on top school administrators and superintendents to decide which new pilot projects, textbooks and course changes to try out. But as teachers insist on having a larger share in setting policy, notes Harvard Graduate School of Education Dean Theodoer Sizer, "the superintendent has been kicked on the floor--teachers are dealing directly with the school board."

In theory, a superintendent or principal is a top teacher who has earned promotion; shoving him aside seems self-defeating, even from the teachers' viewpoint. Yet the best teachers tend to shun administrative chores, particularly detest the humdrum courses in educational administration that many states require in order to qualify for supervisory posts. One result, concedes B. Frank Brown, the innovation-minded superintendent of Florida's Brevard County, is that many administrators are "former coaches, who get by with a pitch, a smile and flimflam." Others become mere paper-shufflers.

Potential Pedants. But if school boards lack technical knowledge and administrators get buried in bureaucracy, are teachers' organizations the best hope? Not necessarily. The trouble with many union groups is that they are dominated not by the best teachers but by mediocre timeservers primarily worried about job security and self-benefits. And as many supervisors point out, teachers do not fully exercise the discretionary powers they now have to try new approaches in the classroom. Although there are signs that more bright, open-minded students are taking up teaching as a career, the majority of new teachers are still potential pedants who have been trained in old-fashioned "methods" courses at second-rate schools.

Too Divisive. The biggest danger in the drive for teacher power is its divisiveness, setting teacher against school board, teacher against administrator. The obvious answer is cooperation and a spirit of partnership. One approach is that of the Pittsburgh schools, where a teacher-dominated professional advisory commission consults with the superintendent on all matters relevant to the education of students. Pittsburgh teachers even get extra pay to develop new ideas on curriculums and texts. In Chicago, union representatives meet monthly with the school superintendent to discuss educational policy and sit on curriculum committees.

While final decisions should be made by public boards, all three groups--boards, administrators and teachers--direly need to reach an understanding on just what sort of education is most needed in the schools today. And toward that end, teachers, who are in the best position to judge what is happening to their students, have a duty to handle their increasing power in a socially responsible way.

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