Let Teachers Have a Say in Hiring Their Principals

Originally Published in Brooklyn Daily Eagle, feb. 2011

Every once in awhile, there are reports of principals ruining schools by harassing teachers, trying to fire them on flimsy grounds, looting the budget for their own personal reasons, etc. The teachers, and often the parents, complain about the principals, yet can do nothing.

This calls into question the way we hire principals. As I understand, principal candidates must be certified, then appear before school districts, who then make the choice.

But if the teachers will be the ones who deal with principals on a day-to-day basis, why should they have no voice in the hiring process?

In today’s America, people talk constantly about democracy, but democracy really functions only in a very narrow sphere. In the workplace, whether public or private, things operate in a top-down manner no different than those found in any foreign dictatorship.

Instead of having a few administrators select the principals, why not have the Department of Education, which certifies supervisors, provide a list of qualified candidates to the schools themselves? Then, a committee of teachers would interview the principal candidates and make their selection on real criteria — what it would be like to deal with that principal on a day-to-day basis.

While the teachers’ opinions wouldn’t be the only ones counted, they still would be an important part in the selection process.

Then the students would get a real lesson in democracy, not just from the pages of a book.