What was assumed to be needed was a new leadership style, one that could reorganize the talent available and get better results. Managers and coaches played the same game of musical chairs that superintendents are now experiencing. If baseball's Sparky Anderson was a winner in Cincinnati, surely he would bring a winner to Detroit. If Barry Switzer was a football wonder at the University of Oklahoma, of course he could bring discipline to the Dallas Cowboys. The major difference is that professional sports finally got the message.
Education badly needs to get it, too.
Simply put, the message is that players make the difference. In sports, it's the quality of athlete teams can put on the field. In education, it's the quality of teacher schools put in the classroom. Here, too, we can learn a lesson from professional sports. Unions that protect the rights of athletes can and do coexist with free agency.