People like Arne Duncan, Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie and Merryl Tisch acknowledge that their efforts to improve the quality of teaching through school closings, teacher firings, relentless testing and Common Core, have failed miserably. What  they should do is identify the best teachers and school administrators in the nation, people like Carol Burris, Liz Phillips,Jamaal Bowman, Renee Dinnerstein, Karen Jennings Lewis, Avram Barlowe, Pam Lewis, Jo Lieb, Lucianna Sanson, Terry Preuss, Amy Nicosia Morillo, Kevin Glynn and Aixa Rodriguez ( these are people I all know personally and can “vouch for”) and ask them: what do we have to do to find great teachers and principals, keep them in the profession, and attract them to high poverty schools?

In no state, in no national forum, has this kind of discussion ever taken place among the most talented people who have spent their lives in the public schools. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if policy makers looked to the people who have succeeded, every day “on the ground” rather than business leaders, lawyers statisticians, and hot shot Teach for America types who thinks two years in a high poverty school qualifies them as an “expert?”

Maybe this can start  in your community, your city, and in your state?

Having lawyers and politicians and business leaders shape school policies over the heads of teachers, principals and parents has been an unmitigated disaster.