(This post was co-authored by Evelyn B. Stacey, the education policy analyst at Pacific Research Institute in Sacramento, California)


“American Schools can never be fixed as long as teachers and principals go through the day responding to rules instead of their common sense. We must let humans take charge again. The guiding principle should be to replace legal dictates with individual responsibility,” wrote Philip Howard, a lawyer and chair of Common Good, a non-profit legal reform coalition. His call is echoed from parents and teachers alike that it’s high time to replace excessive regulations with individual responsibility. A good place to start is giving principals the authority to reward good teachers and remove the bad ones, putting a premium on high-quality teachers who can actually teach, and most important, putting parents back in charge of their child’s education.