It is often said that public schooling is the bedrock of democracy. It prepares children to be knowledgeable citizens, and some believe that it exemplifies democratic governance through its control by locally elected school boards. But what if such control is a bug, not a feature? What if it elevates the concerns of adults, many of whom do not even have children, over the children the schools are supposed to teach? And what if it turns education into a gladiatorial political arena rather than a peaceful realm for learning?
No Adult Left Behind sets aside the bromides, asks these tough questions, and reveals the dangerous flaws in democratically controlled education.
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No Adult Left Behind: How Politics Hijacks Education Policy and Hurts Kids
For decades, Americans have debated why our students consistently score lower than their peers in other developed countries. While most debates have focused on school spending, curriculum, teacher quality, and teachers’ unions, No Adult Left Behind argues that local democratic control is the root of the problem. Elected school boards govern local school districts, but only adults vote in local elections – most of whom don’t have children or care about academics. This leads to educational debates that are centered around issues that adults care most about, such as partisanship, identity politics, property values, and employment concerns, while the needs of students get left behind. In identifying the misalignment between the interests of school children and the political and policy agendas of the adults who control education, No Adult Left Behind stands to become a landmark study on modern education politics.
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