From Sea to Shining Sea

is the problem of lousy principals; it is hardly unique to NYC. The quote I mentioned the other day summed up the dire situation in public education administration, and it has always been thus:

"In a dairy, the cream rises to the top, but in education, it is the crap that rises."

People who are in education because of the kids do NOT become administrators unless they are at the end of their careers and want their pensions to be bigger, as one of my former principals told me as to why she did it. But those people were typically the really good principals, but now those have gone the way of the dodo. Now there are nothing but mental cases and idiots running the schools.

I don't expect ANY principal evaluations anywhere in the United States be based on teacher feedback. If these principals follow directives from on high, keep those test scores up, and keep the parents happy, they can do whatever the hell they want with assurances the legal system will back them up.

We will see a LOT more teacher firings because of the fig leaf of "accountability" being used to set teachers up to "fail" or to be fired outright. As tenure rights are increasingly rare, it will be harder and harder for teachers to sue. It is almost impossible now.