The questions surrounding education policy in the United States have to do with what purpose education is supposed to serve. The education system is not only meant to educate in terms of academic achievement but also in terms of creating functional members of society. An example of this secondary goal of education is the general desire for our education system to reflect our greater values, especially equality. Thus any policy that impacts the American education system needs to not only have a positive influence on overall achievement but also promote equality or at least the possibility of equality. As a capitalist society based largely on pursuing upward mobility, having equality in the end is unimportant and even undesirable provided that everyone has equal opportunity to be successful at the beginning. The ideal policy would increase both achievement and equality. However, even if there was a policy that successfully performed this function it may not be politically or economically feasible. The keys to the successful implementation of policy lie in the often conflicting interests of parents, politicians and teachers. The students themselves obviously play a large role as well but their role has more to do with their response to the implementation of policy as opposed to the actual implementation. The politicians implement policies that they view as low risk and politically appealing in order to avoid failure that could cost them their jobs. Risk taking comes at times of desperation when the situation is dire enough that not making a change is no longer viable. Parents are not worried about the system as a whole. They are concerned with their own children and what is best for them. Activist parents are the ones that exert the most power on both teachers and political decision makers. Any policy changes would have to address the desires of those parents with the loudest voice despite the fact that those parents tend to represent the higher achieving kids or at least the kids with the most access to resources. Meanwhile, teachers do not want to be told how to do their jobs. They welcome greater resources but want the flexibility to use them as they please. No matter what policy is implemented it will not be effective if the teachers do not buy into it. The teachers are the ones who control what occurs in the classroom no matter what any policy says. For these reasons it is very difficult to implement any new policies let alone effective ones. For the politicians a policy must be found that appeals to enough people that there is not a large political risk. If a policy is deemed to be high risk then a location that is willing to try anything to improve, like a failing school district, would have to be found. The parents need to be convinced that whatever policy is implemented will be beneficial to everyone especially the children of the vocal parents who tend to have the power. Teachers need to be included in the decision making process and their input must be absorbed into the greater framework in order to insure that they buy into the policy. Policies concerning general structure would be more effective in terms of not needing each and every teacher to adhere to the new policies. Policies that relate to in class interaction may or may not be followed by teachers. More concrete changes are easier to monitor in terms of execution. Regardless, good teachers tend to be effective independently of what the general education policy tells them to emphasize.
