Australian defense economist/YouTube PowerPoint superstar Perun has provided another insightful video which is must-see viewing for anyone seeking to understand politics.
US Navy Procurement Disasters – The Littoral Combat Ship and Zumwalt Class Destroyer is a cautionary tale for anyone seeking to expand the role of politics in life and should be mandatory viewing, full “Clockwork Orange” style if necessary, for anyone seeking any office.
Given that the runtime lasts over an hour, I’ll do my best to summarize. At some point, Navy wargamers discovered that a scenario closely resembling “Iran attempts to close the Persian Gulf in part by using shore-based missiles and drones” proved very difficult for players controlling the U.S. Navy. Think of all the problems the already obsolete HIMARS systems gave the Russian army in Ukraine, but apply those “shoot and scoot” tactics to ships.
The Navy brass decided they needed a new type of warship to counter such a threat: the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). It needed to be fast, stealthy, and multifunctional. That last part drew inspiration from modular ships in the Danish navy. In this context, the idea developed into modules that could be put on/off the ship to expand the capacity to fight shore-based opponents, sweep sea mines, or combat submarines. 
Okay, so the disaster begins to unfold when the Navy does not settle on a single design but instead on two designs. From an operational standpoint, this made absolutely no sense, complicating a whole suite of requirements to train crews and repair ships. However, it made all the sense in the world in one important way: politics. By adopting two different ship designs, you made many members of Congress happy.
This disaster is just getting started, however. Both ship designs have serious problems. One of them had a super advanced propulsion system, but it is delicate and requires specialized contractors to repair it. The other ship’s design had a problem keeping water out.
Next up, while modules might be a great idea for the Danish navy, the Danish navy rarely sails very far from Denmark. This is not the case for the U.S. Navy, which sails around the globe. If the modules are to be very useful, you need to be able to change them out, which means they must be proximate to wherever you are going to use them. When the Navy wargamer nerds played subsequent games of Navy Dungeons and Dragons, the nerds playing the opponents put the destruction of modules sitting onshore somewhere near the top of their to-do list. Hopefully, you like the module you are using now; you won’t be making any changes anytime soon.
These ships were such a disaster that the Navy tried to retire one of them only five years after it was commissioned. I say “tried” because you’ll be shocked to hear that politics intervened again, as Congress did not want the ships retired.
A scenario very similar to the original wargame broke out in the Red Sea last year courtesy of the Houthis. The U.S. Navy did not send forth the mighty LCS to combat the Houthis’ shore-based missile and drone attacks on commercial shipping, preferring to use, you know, functional warships. Unable to retire these duds, the Navy has decided to pop the minesweeper module on them and use them to replace aging minesweepers. Without a doubt, these are the most catastrophically expensive minesweepers produced in human history.
My telepathic powers inform me that some of you dear readers are wondering what any of this has to do with K-12 education. Thanks for asking! Running a public school system, just like procuring new ships for the Navy, is a political process. Politics can (sometimes, hopefully) involve reason and logic, but far more often it runs on the self-interests of lobby groups and politicians. Deciding to order two deeply flawed ships instead of zero made no sense if you wanted to fight and win a war, but it made perfect sense in serving the interests of the players in this political game. Lucky you; you get to pay the bill.
Politics gifted us with costly minesweepers with overpowered and delicate propulsion systems or issues with floating. Likewise, politics has straddled the United States with one of the most costly and ineffective school systems in the world. When it comes to the education of your children and grandchildren, politics is not a game you want to play.