Yes, there is some reluctance to see schooling differently. Schooling is a complex activity involving a variety of constituencies that often differ on how to achieve conflicting goals. It does appear safer for school boards, administrators, and classroom teachers that sustaining the status-quo. The stakes are high and the rewards are relatively low for those advocating change in public schools. Most educators consider their public school fairly successful when considering the resources and agreed or lack of agreed on goals.
Most students are successful at acquiring knowledge, make good judgments, and being good citizens.
Sure, there are some school systems, school administrators, teacher, and students not maximizing opportunities, but the large majority are successful in reaching their goals. Likely, public schools will not be significantly different in the next ten to twenty years. The current reward system does not provide the financial incentives nor career status to be a change agent as a teacher or administrator. More importantly, until there is sufficient time to plan, implement, and follow through on the impact of the innovative instructional arrangements and practices, there will be few school leaders who will be convinced that change from the relative success of the current instructional and organizational practices. For significant widespread change to take place in the public schools, the citizens must come together on what the primary purposes of their public schools should be and then provide the educators with the financial incentives and professional autonomy to take the risks necessary to promote and sustain change and innovation.