The other day, I was speaking to a reform member of one of the local school boards. We were talking about continued union-backed resistance to reform. Some of the parents who’ve steadfastly supported the board, and continue to support their policies, have been asking, “When does it end?”
“When do you stop having kids?” was my initial, somewhat snappy, suggested reply.
A more satisfying one is the one given by Charlton Heston as Michelangelo to Rex Harrison’s Pope Julius: When we are finished.
Since it’s so easy for one school board to undo much of what’s been accomplished, at this point, reform boards need to keep winning elections. They need to do that in the face of union bullying, collusion with the PTA, staged demonstrations during board meetings, and coordinated attempts to undermine change.
Eventually, however, choice (for example) will simply be the Way Things Are Done. They’ll be the received cultural wisdom, and everyone will assume that things have always, and will always be that way. Merit pay, no union representation, end of tenure, these things will just be the way that schools operate.
The unions and their friends will never entirely disappear. But at that point, the fights will move from core issues to more marginal ones. It will become clear that the big battle – the battle to reshape how we think about managing our schools – has been won.
That’s when it ends.
