On this episode, Ladner speaks with the director of national research at EdChoice about the latter’s new report entitled, “The Accountability Myth.” The report takes aim at the commonly argued position that traditional public schools are a superior education option because they are held financially, democratically, and educationally accountable to the public.
McShane argues that the public education system suffers from a lack of accountability by those three measures: They are not financially accountable due in part to opaque school spending formulas that make data difficult to obtain; they are not democratically accountable due to institutional bureaucratic dysfunction and off-cycle school board elections; and they are not educationally accountable due to a lack of consequences when the system delivers low-performing results for many students.
Ladner and McShane discuss potential reforms that could help improve accountability in public education.
“We’re always going to argue about education – as long as we’ve had recorded thoughts, it’s been people arguing about how to raise kids. There’s no system getting rid of that … We should talk about what schools teach and how they teach it. But there are ways to channel it to more productive ends.”
EPISODE DETAILS:
- How school systems make it difficult to track funding and school spending
- How off-cycle school board elections make it possible for special interest groups to control democratic positions with low voter turnout
- The problem of poor educational outcomes for large numbers of students and the lack of accountability measures levied on schools that fail to deliver
- How education choice can help create better accountability in the public education market
