Urrrgh. For the second year in a row, I had to miss Muses and could only experience their parade through the swag Dan brought back. Four Parades In A Row + One Extremely Tired Little Guy = Mom And Little Guy's Early Exit From The Parade Route.

And then I turn on the radio and hear the author of a certain Atlantic article being interviewed by Scott Simon.

First, Kill All the School Boards :

I asked Marc Tucker, the head of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce (a 2006 bipartisan panel that called for an overhaul of the education system), how he convinces people that local control is hobbling our schools. He said he asks a simple question: If we have the second-most-expensive K–12 system of all those measured by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, but consistently perform between the middle and the bottom of the pack, shouldn’t we examine the systems of countries that spend less and get better results? “I then point out that the system of local control that we have is almost unique,” Tucker says. “One then has to defend a practice that is uncharacteristic of the countries with the best performance.

“It’s an industrial-benchmarking argument,” he adds.

Some intriguing conclusions by Matt Miller:

What of school boards? In an ideal world, we would scrap them—especially in big cities, where most poor children live. That’s the impulse behind a growing drive for mayoral control of schools. New York and Boston have used mayoral authority to sustain what are among the most far-reaching reform agendas in the country, including more-rigorous curricula and a focus on better teaching and school leadership. Of course, the chances of eliminating school boards anytime soon are nil. But we can at least recast and limit their role.

In all of these efforts, we must understand one paradox: only by transcending local control can we create genuine autonomy for our schools. “If you visit schools in many other parts of the world,” Marc Tucker says, “you’re struck almost immediately … by a sense of autonomy on the part of the school staff and principal that you don’t find in the United States.” Research in 46 countries by Ludger Woessmann of the University of Munich has shown that setting clear external standards while granting real discretion to schools in how to meet them is the most effective way to run a system. We need to give schools one set of national expectations, free educators and parents to collaborate locally in whatever ways work, and get everything else out of the way.

My legs are achy as all hell, and I must rest for today's parades. Talk amongst yourselves. Next year, Muses for Mama!!!!

Oh, and I had to look this up, because I saw this graphic on the side of an NOPD Mobile Command unit at the beginning of one of the parades:

and all I could think of was a silly SNL skit. The explanation behind the name is a great deal more serious than what I thought, though. I suggest NOGAP change the name pronto.