12/14/04 — Hundreds of laws and regulations are crippling the ability of public schools to do their jobs efficiently, reports Common Good, a bipartisan legal reform coalition.
The group collected all the laws and regulations governing a typical high school in New York City to illustrate the “over-legalization” of public schools across the nation, which is hampering the ability of school administrators to make even relatively routine decisions. [A chart listing many of these laws is included as an insert with this edition of School Board News sent to National Affiliate school districts.]
Over Ruled: The Burden of Law on America’s Public Schools, reports that, in New York City, it takes up to:
• 66 steps and legal considerations and up to 105 days to suspend a disruptive student;
• 83 steps and over a year to fire an inept teacher, including up to 32 steps just to put a note in the teacher’s file;
• 38 steps and many months to fill a teacher vacancy;
• 99 steps to replace a heating system;
• 99 steps to conduct an athletic event, involving everything from who can coach to the size of ear flaps to automated external defibrillators; and
• 35 steps and many months to suspend a special education student for up to 45 days, in addition to the 66 steps required for a regular suspension.
In all, the study found that more than 60 separate sources of laws and regulations, with thousands of discrete legal obligations, apply to public high schools in New York City.
They include, among other things, the 846-page New York State Education Law, 720 pages of regulations issued by the New York state commissioner of education, 15,062 decisions — contained in 43 volumes — made by the New York State education commission in response to appeals of decisions made by education professionals, the 204-page New York City teachers’ contract, and the 690-page No Child Left Behind Act.
“The examples cited in this study reflect the compliance tangle that school districts and school boards face across the country,” says NSBA General Counsel Julie Underwood. “They are not the entire laundry list of excessive regulation and litigation, but just examples of the many areas in which litigious groups from across the political spectrum choose to make the nation’s schools into their favorite battleground. We commend Common Good for calling attention to the burden of excessive law and regulation on our public schools.”
“The burden of law on schools has become staggering,” says Philip K. Howard, chair of Common Good. “Human beings have cognitive limits. If teachers and principals are forced to spend their time working through these arduous procedures, how will they have the energy, enthusiasm, and time to educate?”
“We need to lift this legal burden off America’s schools,” Howard says. “Educating our children — not compliance — should be the top priority for teachers. We should let the administrators and teachers use their judgment and then hold them accountable for their performance.”