According to a 1992 Pioneer Institute study, Boston's mandated programs and collective bargaining agreements leave individual school-based management teams with discretion over less than 5 percent of their annual budgets. Finally, mainstream education reform seeks to establish rigorous academic standards that all students and schools must meet. On paper, this is a highly laudable initiative. In practice, however, it is unclear that the vision can be fulfilled. The problem is that academic standards are not like dinosaur fossils, just waiting to be discovered.
Academic standards are highly charged intellectual and political issues.
These are not simple questions. Nor are they questions on which everyone can agree. Indeed, these are questions that are now causing heated debate on college campuses. The Massachusetts Department of Education is attempting to piece together a document that represents something approaching consensus, but has not yet succeeded. My fear is that they will ultimately succeed by creating milquetoast.