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."
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