In the midst of a blog storm about something else, Mickey Kaus notes that there have been some sweeping changes proposed by the new superintendent for Los Angeles Unified School District. These include putting low performing schools into a separate governance structure. Kaus asks whether it would be considered good business practice  to “put all your most disfunctional (sic) units together on the grounds that somehow they will combine into a functional unit?” (scroll up through the miasma to the next story above – really there’s education stuff in there, Mickey just didn't put a link on it). 

Kaus' question is a bit like asking whether hospitals are a good idea. Hospitals are a good idea, despite the fact that they have high infection rates that stem from concentrating people who are ill into a small geographic area. Putting schools facing similar challenges into a cluster can allow you to make changes with some sort of scale and make it easier to assess implementation and make adjustments.  Although I’m uncertain as to what governance changes are afoot, part of this reminds me of Rudy Crew’s creation of the Chancellor’s District in NYC.   That was a success.  And one that Crew is trying to replicate in Miami.

Kaus also writes about this as perhaps paving the way to break up the district. Just like mayoral and state takeover, this is a solution that gets talked about in large part because people worried about L.A. schools need solutions to talk about. But centralization and decentralization each have policy virtues and problems. And, in the context of weighted student funding and Title I comparability, breaking up big city school districts is going to become a much more attractive solution to some folks.

If you look across the nation you’ll find charter schools grasping towards models that help them build scale, and school districts looking to find the best ways to deliver services that are responsive to and inclusive of the needs of particular portions of their community.  "Break up the district" has the virtue of simplicity. But real solutions will be more complicated.  (Shame on you if you thought I was going to be writing about this.)

Update: Russo notes "This is what happens when smart, not necessarily knowledgeable folk play education pundit." And, yes, he was talking about Kaus, not me.