Bears repeating – Our own teachers don’t like the way Site-Base Councils run schools

– And, our TEACHERS run the councils!

The new “Leaders and Laggards, A State-by-State Report Card on Education Innovation” report from the US Chamber of Commerce will, as I mentioned earlier, raise some eyebrows.

Here’s one great example that got somewhat hidden in my first post. It bears repeating with emphasis.

After you consider some data in the Chamber’s report, it becomes clear that our School Based Decision Making Councils (SBDM), often called Site-Base Councils, don’t impress Kentucky teachers.

The Chamber cites a federally conducted survey that shows only 31 percent of Kentucky’s teachers like the way our schools are being run. That is less than one teacher in three that thinks their schools are running properly.

That doesn’t even match the national average.


Now, here is the kicker. Our schools are run by the SBDM. Furthermore, by law, teachers form the voting majority on every single SBDM in Kentucky. If our teachers don’t like things, they have the power to change them. But, they clearly are not, or cannot do so.

Thus, the data in the US Chamber’s report leads to a conclusion that the SBDM are not functioning very well, and our own teachers say so.

This insight into the SBDM becomes important as the Race to the Top Fund competition heats up. Kentucky is still trying to argue that SBDM are a suitable replacement for the state’s lack of charter schools.

Well, with an assist from the US Chamber of Commerce, that argument just got shot full of holes – by our own teachers.