School District chief throws in the towel

Dwight Jones resigned Tuesday as Clark County School Superintendent, a little more than half way through his four-year contract.

The quick exit is disappointing, and hardly sets a great example of perseverance. But a man with a compelling vision and right skill set just spent two years struggling to get this district out of the ditch, and finally threw in the towel.

At this point, throwing a succession of replacement superintendents into the breach without substantial reforms of the straightjacket that crippled Mr. Jones would be the equivalent of First World War generals ordering men “over the top” into the face of massed artillery and machine guns.

Dwight Jones is no amateur. After excelling as a classroom teacher and principal, Mr. Jones supervised 11 Edison Schools in Kansas, Missouri, and Maryland. He then became a superintendent in Colorado, narrowing achievement gaps for minority and low-income children.

Finally, as state Commissioner of Education, Mr. Jones guided through the Legislature in Denver a series of reform bills that gave public schools there the flexibility to turn the corner on student achievement.

No, Mr. Jones hardly sets a good example for the young by quitting with the job half-finished. He says he wants to spend time with his ailing mother, but his contract would have allowed a leave of absence.

And truth be told, the unwillingness of the district to release some of last year’s test scores — and especially the 2012 graduation rates at troubled local high schools — indicate the superintendent probably knew more bad news loomed.

But Mr. Jones had made some progress toward accountability, and most importantly understood that just throwing in more money — absent major reform — is not the answer. In his January, 2012 essay “A Few Lessons Learned,” he spoke of how “Key pieces of legislation were initiated and passed in a bipartisan way in Colorado in order to ensure sustainability and longevity” of needed reforms.

For example, (Colorado) “Senate Bill 10-191 allows educators to ... earn salary increases commensurate with the results achieved with their students ...”

Mr. Jones also declared “‘School choice’ is far more than charter schools. ... (Colorado) Senate Bill 08-130 ... was passed to allow schools to try new and creative ways to increase student achievement. ... Schools are granted greater autonomy and managerial flexibility with regard to staffing, resource allocation, and programming. In Colorado, this autonomy waived collectively bargained agreements and hiring practices and allowed principals and teachers to change the class schedule and coursework. ...”

These reforms are working elsewhere. But how were such ideas received, here? Mr. Jones was faced with an intransigent teachers’ union that has dominated our Legislature for so long that state collective bargaining law creates no incentive for real negotiation. Union representatives go through a ritualized pretense of negotiations before routinely “sending the contract to arbitration,” where an outside referee is required to choose one of only two offers ... siding with the union most of the time.

Meantime, an “evergreen” clause provides even more disincentive to bargain, since existing contract terms remain in effect indefinitely.

Mr. Jones discovered he didn’t even have the power to fire an inept principal — the most he was allowed to do was ask the gentleman, pretty please, if he’d accept a transfer.

Getting real reform through Nevada’s Legislature? Obstructionist lawmakers are clever enough to enact bills that sound like reform. (See “evaluating teachers based on student performance.”) But they usually end up calling for the appointment of some commission — loaded with a majority of entrenched educrats — to “work out the details.”

The frustration of voters after endless appeals for more funds make understandable their refusal last fall to hike taxes on themselves to fund more school construction. Nonetheless, Mr. Jones found himself stymied at every turn.

Clearly, as it stands, no single person can fix this problem. We need to stop looking for a a single messiah. It will require the entire community to take responsilbilty for education reform.

A number of major reforms are vital if any future superintendent is to have a chance of offering Nevada kids a top-notch education — without which we can forget about desirable new employers flocking here.

First, Nevada needs sweeping collective bargaining reform, eliminating the “one of two final offers” rule, as well as “evergreen” clauses. Second, to the extent that tenure limits motivation to excel, it must be reformed or eliminated.

Third, we must develop objective metrics on which to evaluate teacher performance and student achievement.

Fourth, Nevada needs real school choice. If parents had vouchers in hand, worth even 70 percent of what taxpayers otherwise pay to school their kids, more and better private schools — even apprenticeships for older kids — would spring up, creating dynamic competition for the customers of underperforming tax-funded schools.

Is some of today’s impenetrable bureaucratic clog caused by the need to respond to masters in both Carson City and Washington? Sure. So the state attorney general must also sue Washington, seeking an order to bar the federal Department of Education from any role here, under terms the 10th Amendment.