Time for Accountability 2.0 | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This post, by Bob Luebke, was originally published in the Civitas's online edition.

    Accountability - and our outdated concept of it - is a topic Andy Smarick of the Fordham Institute artfully explores in recent blog post "Public Accountability vs. Consumer Accountability".

    Too often the standard default mechanism for the public is to require a single government-controlled entity to oversee all schools in a given area. Other types of schools - many of which receive public funds like charter schools, voucher schools or virtual - are unwittingly placed into the same accountability system and expected to perform the same way and meet the same metrics; even when many of these schools are demonstrably different academically and administratively from the uniform public school and expected to meet the same goals and metrics. Such a system has many shortcomings, and Smarick insightfully describes them and then raises the ultimate question: How do we pivot to a better system?

• So maybe our state accountability systems all look alike and behave in ways we don't like because our century-old delivery system has forced their hands, not because policy leaders are uncreative, stubborn, or unwise.
• If this is the case, it stands to reason that a different approach to school delivery-one with great diversity of schools and operators and directed by parental choice-could allow, support, or even beget a new approach to accountability.
• Maybe we wouldn't need accountability systems to be uniform and statewide. Maybe schools could be held accountable through a wide array of measures that could vary from school to school. Maybe school report cards would become information-rich and user-friendly and help families make choices. Maybe all schools could be freed from burdensome rules. Maybe failing schools and operators could be replaced.
• If only there were places in America that had school and operator diversity and widespread school choice; then, maybe, we could think anew about accountability.

    The argument for school choice, also argues for a variety of public - non-governmental - accountability mechanisms. Parent groups, professional associations, policy and civic associations, neighborhood organizations are all well-suited to contribute to this ongoing experiment of self-governance - if we would only let them.