The public school system is not a business.

It's not unusual for large bureaucracies to slowly rot from within and become dysfunctional.  This happens to large corporations on a regular basis.  When it gets really bad the board of directors will fire the CEO and appoint someone to clean house, usually someone who has no personal relationship with any of the senior managers.  These are often referred to as "hatchet men."

It's a pretty sure bet that everyone reading this immediately thought of Pia Durkin in response to that rather uncomplimentary term.  But there's a difference...

When a corporation begins to die the customers start bringing their business elsewhere, often accelerating the dying process.  Customers are people who understand the product they're buying and are free to go elsewhere without fear or punishment.  If I decide I don't like Stop & Shop I'm not required to notify or compensate them in any manner when I decide to shop at Market Basket.  Hatchet Men, often referred to as turnaround specialists in the business world are charged with one simple responsibility.  Their job is to return the business to solvency.  If that involves firing half of the management team and employees, selling off nonproductive sectors of the business, and causing massive economic problems for the communities where the business is located then that's what they'll do.  Quite often these individuals are facing a choice between two unpleasant situations: let the business go under in a few years and put everyone out of work, or fire half the employees today and stay in business.  The money is reputed to be quite good but I wouldn't want the job.  Some of these guys precipitate a level of hatred second only to the Westboro Baptist Church.

Segway to the public school system...

As the title of this post claims, the public school system is not a business.  There are no profit seeking stockholders, no board of directors who answer to those stockholders, no stock market where everyone watches your every move, and most important of all, there are no customers who not only understand the service they're receiving, but may decide to bring their business elsewhere.  The public school system is a public service entirely financed by taxes.  Students go there because they're required to and because for most of them, home schooling and private schooling are not realistic options.  The school system is also required by law to accept every student who comes through the door without prejudice.  That entails pretending that everyone from saint to psychopath is equal.

George Orwell referred to this as "doublethink" in his novel, "1984."

Turnaround Specialist a.k.a. Hatchet Person Pia Durkin cannot employ the same turnaround strategies used by business people.  She cannot sell off unproductive divisions, scrap and/or replace aging machinery, develop new and hopefully profitable products, explore new markets, or negotiate with local municipalities for tax deferments or abatements.  She especially cannot reduce the number of employees, otherwise known as downsizing.  She has to employ enough teachers to cover the unalterable number of students expected to show up every September.  All she appears to be able to do is toss a blanket of blame over the entire teaching staff and announce that half of them will be fired, or perhaps consciously uncoupled and replaced with new hires.  That leads to an important question...

Why half?  Why not 32% or 77% or some other number?

Elementary my dear Watson.

Most of the people reading this have given someone a gift card for $25 or $50.  I'm willing to bet that few, if any of you ever gave someone $32 or $77 for their birthday.  If you did, you'd have to explain why.  No one asks you why they received $50.  They just say thank you.  Receiving an odd amount suggests that it was given for a specific reason and that raises many potentially embarrassing questions.  Pia Durkin did not announce that after reviewing personnel records she was firing 32% of the staff for the following reasons.  Reasons would have to be explained and legally justified and she'll walk through fire to avoid doing that.  Tossing out a nice round psychologically pleasing number like 50% creates a situation where she doesn't have to explain anything.  No one ever said that 32% of all congressmen are crooks and idiots.  They say half of them are crooks and idiots.  It sounds good and requires no explanation or justification.

Back to Herr Doctor's grand strategy...

Pia Durkin has another problem.  She is stuck with trying to sell the idea that the teachers are the root cause of the New Bedford school system's problems.  Teachers are not the problem and everyone knows it.  But communities share a common behavioral trait with textbook alcoholic families.

ANYONE WHO DARES TO MENTION THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM WILL BE TOSSED INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE TO SUFFER IN HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY!!!!!!!!!

Now finish your vegetables children.  In the morning we'll all pretend this never happened.

Alcoholic families maintain a well documented structure.  There is the chief abuser, often the father.  The chief enabler is usually the mother.  The children usually fill the roles of the hero, the pet, the lost child, and of course, the scapegoat.  There are other roles as well.  In New Bedford, and a lot of other places the teachers are the obvious scapegoats.  Teachers who choose to look around their own classrooms a bit can probably name a few heroes who try to clean up the mess on their own, favored pets who can do no wrong, and lost children, many of whom end up being scapegoated as well.  In my opinion, parents are the chief abusers and everyone knows it.  The behavior that teachers and police officers witness on a daily basis is often role modeled by parents and no one will utter a word.  Remember that lake of fire?

Pia Durkin cannot mention the fact that parenting is an unregulated free-for-all where everyone makes up their own rules.  She's stuck with pretending that every human animal who manages to reproduce, from saints to psychopaths is equally competent.  And like every good alcoholic family, nothing will change until more people are willing to say what everyone knows.

Now finish your vegetables children.  In the morning we'll all pretend this never happened.

Good luck folks.