Some of them are trained in corporate America's ideas, but the real problem is they may know a little bit of pedagogy, can deal with the parents a bit, but they don't know squat about employment law, special education law, and how to deal with people they supervise. Employee relations are what get these kids in trouble, and these principals ARE kids--time was when principals weren't much under fifty and were most likely just a few years away from retirement, meaning well into their sixties. They used to get these jobs in order to increase their retirement benefits, but they had the maturity and wisdom to deal with their workers. Of course there were bad principals, but it isn't like it is now. It seems bad administrators are rife in public education.
They are younger than their predecessors, have less experience in the classroom and are, most often, responsible for far fewer students. But their salaries are higher and they have greater freedom over hiring and budgets, handling a host of responsibilities formerly shouldered by their supervisors.
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Nearly 80 percent of the city’s principals were not on the job in 2001; Chad A. Altman, the 28-year-old head of a Bronx elementary school, was still studying public policy at Carnegie Mellon University when the mayor was petitioning Albany for school control. Indeed, 22 percent of today’s principals are under 40, compared with 6 percent in 2002; about 20 percent of them have less than five years of teaching experience, double the percentage in 2002.
This is scary shit. What the fuck is a 28-year-old doing in charge of a school? There is NO real classroom experience there. There is no experience and no maturity there. Age discrimination against older workers is rampant in education, and if principals sack you, they don't understand that lying under oath or committing perjury, even if it's an arbitration hearing, is not only a criminal offense, but they can have their licenses revoked. That's what happened to me in my case as my principal, who committed perjury at my hearing, was only 39 years old and had been a principal for five years. Many are not knowledgeable about special education law, so they try to cut corners on the law and threaten teachers if they don't get their way. These and other problems are exacerbated by the fact principals have almost unlimited power, since there is no real oversight by superintendents and school boards, neither of which is on site. And when these principals are in trouble when teachers complain, the higher ups do everything in their power to keep these unstable types in their jobs.
Why is the quality of principals so poor? Karen Horwitz over at NAPTA has a theory:
On a business level, Education has to be able to attract bright, competent idealists since idealists do not care about money and will work diligently for low salaries. If the truth comes out that being a teacher is not an opportunity to really help children, and that teachers do not have equal rights, idealists would avoid this profession. EducRAT$ would be left with only materialistic types. Given that materialist’s value money, only those with unmarketable skills consider teaching and do so out of desperation – it is a relatively easy degree to obtain and they will be hirable. Hence incompetent and unstable types will increasingly dominate a marketplace known for limited salaries, while idealists will use their marketable skills where they feel respected and can find meaning.
This explains the increase in teachers with odd behavior, including those having sex with their students and those who cannot spell, do math, or even possess common sense. This profession has opened the door to a different caliber of people in order to maintain the kind of army that EducRAT$ need to hold our schools hostage from parents. I suspect that the courts realize that allowing the truth about teachers being denied constitutional rights will diminish the quality of teachers even more and thus they need to keep the truth from the public. As the courts work to support the EducRAT$ that are intentionally dumbing down our schools, they are a huge part of the reason reform will not happen in our schools. Rather than face the fact that we have criminals running our schools, our courts are trying to plug the holes in the dam that these criminals are causing and advance an agenda of deceit to attract better teachers. Not only is this foolish, but it makes a case for what our forefathers taught us: if we stop becoming a nation of laws, our nation will self-destruct. Since, as it pertains to teachers, our courts legislate from the bench rather than follow the existing laws, they remove the checks and balances against the criminals running our schools, while euthanizing the only governmental watchdog.
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Since principals are usually promoted from within, school districts have a much worse pool from which to select. Currently there is a shortage of principals nationwide, and few but the most unscrupulous, unethical, or just plain stupid people apply. The really good ones have tended to take early retirement.
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