See Part V

Education regulation is about making sure that specific highly publicized abuses of the system never happen again. Undoubtably, the U.S. Department of Education will promulgate regulations and paperwork to prevent the next Edward Kame' ennui from leveraging his role as a government advisor to enrich himself, and to make sure that Department officials are completely aware of actual and potential conflicts.

Unfortunately, the abuses discussed in this series are merely symptoms of a much deeper problem and the new regulations are band aids. Public education may be on its way to a market in school improvement on paper, but the culture of the system remains akin to a Kombinat of Cold War East Germany. It has hardly surprising that the rank-and file civil servant in the U.S. Department of Education is not eager to move out of its comfort zone. The Bush Administration, with its pro-market rhetoric in support of vouchers, is another matter. It is at least worth pointing out the irony of its choice to institutionalize its own pedagogical ideology – phonics, rather than foster a results-market in school improvement. Our world has turned topsy-turvy when the defenders of the transition to a market are the very Democrats who helped President Carter fulfill his campaign promise to the NEA by creating the Department.

The winner here is certainly not students, teachers, taxpayers, the new school improvement providers – or their investors. It’s the status quo providers – the multinational publishers. For all the talk of Scientifically Based Reading Research, their products look pretty much as they did before No Child Left Behind. and have about the same proof in evaluation.

The chaotic, biased nature of market regulation under No Child Left Behind will not change until a Secretary of Education is appointed who sees AYP and SBR as the means of creating an equitable  market in school improvement. This requires a fundamental change in the kind of person asked to become a political appointee. For example, if this were Bush I, the Secretary would have been David Kearns and Lamar Alexander would have been his Deputy – although Alexander is nowundoubtably the elected Republican best qualified to be Secretary. But at least as important is making sure that the second, third and fourth tiers of appointees to the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education are committed to a marketplace based on results, and reorganizing the Office of Innovation and Improvement to build the staff capacity for even-handed market regulation.

By convincing the Department of Education's Inspector General to open the can of worms labelled Reading First, Bob Slavin, the well-connected, well-respected education program co-developer of Success For All, proved that results can show up the status quo. He proved the pay-off to investment in political action. School improvement providers who walk the talk of scientifically based research - reading or otherwise - need to form their own trade group and start lobbying hard for a market based on outcomes rather than advertising. Their investors need to get behind them or push their CEOs into it.  Rather than standing around as Congress maneuvers to cut the program by well over half as propopsed by the House Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, this group could be telling them how it can be run right. There is a way to make this a victory for research-proven programs, if only providers can find the will.

Absent this, expect to see the Department's culture change at a pace that will make watching paint dry exciting by comparison. And if you are a provider or investor in a research-driven provider, you will be walking away from a potentially great business opportunity without ever actually leaving the table. For shame.