Everybody is accountable in the new education army

By Jennifer Solis

We may never learn what happened in the back room in Sacramento to get the teachers’ unions, both Los Angeles and state, to switch their position and endorse Mayor Villaraigosa’s plan to take over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Fortunately, we received some insight when KPCC reporter Larry Mantle interviewed United Teachers of Los Angeles president A.J. Duffy, during which the union president revealed the new concept of responsibility that will become district policy under the mayor’s supervision.

Rather than try to make an interpretation of the proposed paradigm, I’ll allow you to make your own conclusion from the partial transcript of the conversation.

Mantle: “I understood that Mayor Villaraigosa’s efforts to take over governance of the school district was to make it clear with whom the buck stops. Who is the individual held accountable for the performance of the district? It would seem that under this compromise plan, that’s less clear than it is right now. Is it the school board that is responsible? Is it a superintendent, who has considerably more powers under this? Is it the principal or the teachers who also gain more authority at the school site? With whom do parents interact to make their concerns known?”

Duffy: “The answer, Larry, is yes – it’s everybody!”

Mantle: “Well, then it’s nobody, isn’t it?”

Duffy: “No, that’s not true – now hear me out, Larry. From the very beginning of this debate about mayoral control, we have said that we are opposed to mayoral control because it doesn’t work. We are in favor of partnership between UTLA, administrators, the mayor, the district, parent community groups, business and industry – everybody is accountable, and that’s what needs to happen in public education. The whole model of one person being accountable is nonsense. What we want to see is everybody working together – and everybody is accountable. And everybody buys into the process, because it’s going to take everybody’s efforts and passion and abilities and desire to make public education work. We don’t believe in the one person is responsible model. We believe in the partnership model.”

Mantle: “But the question is, who ultimately has responsibility? If it’s human nature that there are going to be some individuals, who, if it’s not clear to whom they are responsible, then where do you go to raise the level of that person’s performance?”

Duffy: “You know, let me say it again, Larry – we need to start thinking globally. Everybody has to take responsibility for improving public education. We want to get away from the one person is accountable model because it doesn’t work. Again, we have to change the paradigm. We have to stop thinking about the principal is in charge, the superintendent is in charge, the board is in charge. We all have to take responsibility. We all have to be generals and we all have to be soldiers.”

Well, folks, there you have it. We are all being recruited to join the education army. I’m not familiar enough with the military chain of command to guess how things work if we are all both generals and soldiers, but I’m sure it will be explained when we start boot camp.

I wonder if they’ll give me a smart looking uniform?