Could Covid Finally Disrupt the Top-Down Education Bureaucracy?

By: Philip K. Howard

The Covid crisis could be the impetus that finally pushes the broken machinery of America’s schools over the cliff. Everyone is scrambling to figure out how to educate in a pandemic, and the answers will differ depending on the infection rates in particular communities and many other variables. Work rules, legal entitlements, and one-size-fits-all bureaucracy are impossible to comply with.

Who decides? This is where the centralized education apparatus collapses of its own weight. Teachers unions want to control when and on what terms teachers return to work. Education regulators in Washington, D.C., and state capitals want to dictate answers with a new set of rules. They expect the Covid-19 education framework to come out of negotiations with unions, who have already threatened to strike if teachers must go back to the classroom.

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