Education Law

Don’t forget school leaders, Mr. President

According to the Washington Post, this week will be an important one for urban leaders and the White House.  The president will be holding a day long conference today to discuss its urban policy and is expected to announce a national tour of cities to discuss the issues they face (sounds a lot like the Arne Duncan tour).  While campaigning, President Obama mentioned his desire to focus attention on cities, especially since prior administrations haven’t spent the time or money that he thought they deserved.  We can only hope that this is the beginning of a longer conversation, that includes school leaders.

Adolfo Carrión, the director of Urban Affairs says:

“For too long government has operated from the top down…we’ve always heard why does the national government send down these unfunded mandates, under funded mandates, mandates that are not necessarily universally applicable. The bottom-up approach speaks to the need for this to be flexible.”

We agree, and if cities are truly looking at issues from a bottom-up approach, schools need to be at the table and included in these conversations.  After all, where else do you have such a critical piece to your future than in urban schools?  School leaders are often the most connected to what the community is doing, saying, and feeling about their neighborhoods, and they know what’s important locally.  While business development, crime, and real estate values may drive what a city council or mayor’s office is doing, the school board and superintendent are just as aware and important to what’s happening around any city in the U.S.  If we are looking at urban issues from the bottom up, let’s not forget the students in urban schools.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on July 13, 2009 (boomark / email).