By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Exit interviews with public school officials can be useful, because they can finally speak their minds without worrying about retribution.

That’s exactly what Tom Brennan, outgoing superintendent of the Manchester school district, did during a recent interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader.

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As the newspaper put it, the five-year superintendent stressed his belief that “it’s time for the school district to be run in the interests of students, and not in the interests of the people who work there.”

Those are words that could be applied to just about any public school in America.

As an example of his point, Brennan mentioned an innovative district program that allows students to earn credits outside the classroom by working with various businesses or organizations in the community and gaining valuable experience along the way.

The problem was that the local teachers union insisted that all of the community learning activities be supervised by a “qualified teacher.” As the newspaper put it, that sort of self-serving policy is a perfect example “of the focus on job preservation that impedes creativity in developing new approaches to education.”

“So a teacher with one year of experience is better qualified to judge a student on a plumbing project than a plumber?” Brennan said. “We should be an organization dedicated to the advancement of children, not the adults who work in the system. And we are not an organization about children. It’s all about the principals and the teachers …

“In the next two or three years, unless we change, you are going to see a significant challenge to running public education from the private sector.”

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We’re convinced that the private sector would do a much more effective job of running schools than the teachers unions. The trick will be for school boards across the America finding the courage to stand up to the unions and do what’s right for students and taxpayers.