Having a problem is less important than how you handle the problem

Said another way, leadership counts a lot. And management skills help a lot, too. And they are not the same. Being mission oriented will do wonders moving people towards the leader’s objective.

Less this sounds too academic, let’s be practical. The subject is the education of our young people, a vital national interest I suggest as a given.

First the confusion and disorder. The arrows are flying everywhere. Locations and experiences vary all over the place. Some locations are doing better in educating young people than other locations. Some perceived groups are doing better than other perceived groups. Public schools are too often dismally compared to private schools. Too much of the curriculum of the 3R types of things has been supplanted with less important subjects. Now even federal government and dollars, and government unions, are entering the fray. The old joke about what to do when things look really dismal in a football game comes to mind, punt. Another old joke also comes to mind. Things always appear dimmest … just before it gets totally dark.

Now here’s the good news, and some ideas to boot. There are a lot of public schools (K-12), public universities (local community colleges and 4-year), and private colleges still focused on education as the primary mission. And the nation is benefiting in their graduates time out to do public service in all the myriad of ways and means. And the idea of plagiarism is the best form of flattery still applies. Local school leaders don’t need to invent new good ideas, there are already gazillions of them with track records of success, or at least progress in the right direction. So why not pick up the phone and talk, and share.

And the obvious point is the value of local political leadership. Most citizens do not wake up in the morning wanting to mess over their kid’s education. And local leaders running for local school offices can point this out, since so often the big budget school systems have to date too often become a jobs program for adults. And the solution is in who the voters choose. The solution is not through the teachers, nor the union leaders, nor the school administrators. These groups need local political leadership, and we voters can make it happen.

Too often many parents just trying to raise and educate their kids in urban metropolitan areas have been forced to go private (when they could afford it). Over decades I have heard the theme of resistance to forced bussing in the name of racial integration. The parents have been branded with racial prejudice caricatures, though the real problem is cultural. The parents are just looking out for their kids best education, and interests, as all parents do. I suggest that, rather than punt, this pool of concerned parent leaders enter the local political fray, and change things with the local tax dollars. If they have to hire more lawyers with public money to fight the other side’s lawyers, so be it. This technique is basic, if people will just get on the phone. And in the old days, loser kids just got evicted from school as disrupters. There were no special schools for losers. It was the parent’s problem. The key point is that the focus was on the benefit to the classroom of regular kids. Local political school leaders can change this focus, as an example for the future. For those that object, let them pay for their lawyers, or slink back into the woodwork. Or again, hire more lawyers with public money to fight their lawyers.

Three ideas come to remind in conclusion. Punting is one option, which I hope most local potential leaders do not take. Reinforce success, not failure. Plagiarize the heck out of the winning ideas. Get on the phone about winning methods, and if necessary hire more lawyers to represent local political school leaders work. And last, educating our young people is in our vital national interest, and public education is part of this vital national interest.