Not too long ago Vermont’s Commissioner of Education Armando Vilaseca wrote “Our children’s education is the message we send into the future, and we only get one chance to get it right.” (We get only one chance on education, Times Argus oped by Vilaseca, 2/15/09) And Mr. Vilaseca is now appearing before the legislature pushing that view by complaining about the number of schools we operate in Vermont. (Too many schools, too few students, Times Argus, 06/12/09)

While the first half of Vilaseca’s statement is certainly true under any circumstances, the second half is only true if we continue to demand more centralized control over fewer school districts and supervisory unions. Having one and only one chance is true if we follow his lead and put all our educational eggs in a single basket.

I do agree with Vilaseca’s contention that our current public educational model is obsolete. It was designed in the first part of the 20th century to provide a modicum of teaching to the ever increasing numbers of non-rural dwellers. The design itself was based upon one of the most efficacious processes available at the time: the assembly line.

Even now in the 21st century our kids are marched through learning factories. Like good Ford Model T components, these young folks are pushed to move from one point to another with the education system bolting on one piece of knowledge or another. These youth are moved along in factory like synchronicity from grade to grade … each child expected to be like the next with identical knowledge and skill sets defined by national and state mandated standards (most designed to help out corporate America, but that’s another story).

And, if the factory workers have all done their jobs, in the end we have an 18 year old with a diploma entitling this newly minted adult advancement into the military or college.

It is this assembly line factory paradigm that needs to go … not the schools. The buildings can disappear, but the local access to local educational resources needs to be maintained. We may be able to do with fewer superintendents, but we need to keep the school boards and empower them to seek out educational benchmarks (standards) that meet the needs and expectations of the local community.

We need diversity in our educational approach so our eggs aren’t all in one basket. We need de-centralization of our public education system so we will have many, many chances to get it right … instead of risking our message to the future with a singular approach … like that done way back in the twentieth century.

PS. I could go on about young kids spending ever increasing times being bussed to schools ever farther from their homes … but that too is another story.