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By  Dr. Phillip Rozeman, Founder and Board Member Alliance For Education

This appeared as an Editorial in The Times (Shreveport) on Sunday, May 3 2010)

Bureaucracy is like sitting in a closed room without air conditioning in August.  It is stifling.  Cutting through bureaucracy is the intent of the “Louisiana Red Tape Reduction and Autonomy Act” authored by Rep. Jane Smith and supported by Governor Jindal.  This bill is about letting teachers teach and letting leaders lead.  The sheer number and magnitude of rules and regulations enacted over the years by the state of Louisiana related to education make compliance difficult for everyone involved.

Outside the world of education, it is hard to fathom living under regulations where the number of minutes in the school year or the prescribed minutes for a particular subject or summer remediation are mandated.  In my profession, I can’t even imagine someone mandating the use of 120 minutes to do a cardiac stent procedure when I can get a great outcome in 60 minutes.  In this bill, school systems would be judged by outcomes – not mandated time schedules and process. 

Rep. Smith’s bill is about local control of schools.  The topic of conversation among education leaders is often the lack of control over their own destiny.  Now is their chance to make changes they believe could improve schools in their district.  Everything is on the table except federal mandates and accountability requirements. The bill is built on the premise that the person closest to the work is in the best position to make decisions.  If enacted, this legislation would allow school districts to put more of the day to day decisions about the education of children in the hands of local policymakers, education leaders, and teachers.  This management principle is a foundation of successful organizations in any sector.

The recipe for common sense education policy is combining reduced politics in school policy decisions with a system that funds education programs that work and ends those that fail.  The closer decision makers are to the actual work, the more likely common sense will prevail.The “Red Tape Reduction and Autonomy Act” is voluntary.  Each school district has a choice of whether or not to sign up.  Nobody is forced to participate.  No unfunded mandates.  Just more freedom to develop solutions to address the challenges in local schools.

Reducing bureaucracy…Letting teachers teach... Local control...Hands on leadership.  Rep. Smith learned what it takes to make a great school during thirty years as a successful teacher, principal, and district superintendent.  This legislation gives people the freedom to develop solutions to problems that heretofore have been “out of bounds” for them.  Every system is designed to get the results it gets.  A system of greater freedom and choice will spur greater innovation and imagination.  Allowing for these missing ingredients will build better schools for Louisiana’s children.