Professional summary for educators of the article “OPINION: It will take patience and courage to fix K-12 education without the Department of Education” by John Katzman (published in The Hechinger Report, November 19, 2025) 

In his compelling commentary, John Katzman invites the education community to view the recent dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) as a rare and urgent opportunity to redesign K–12 governance from the ground up. He argues that despite massive increases in per-pupil spending since the ED’s founding in 1980, U.S. students continue to lag international peers, with chronic absenteeism and school-opting-out rising sharply—symptoms, he suggests, of a system mired in outdated structures and bureaucratic inertia. 

Katzman begins by noting that over the last 45 years, federal and state reform efforts have largely focused on curriculum standards and compliance metrics—but these efforts, he contends, have failed to move the needle. According to him, the textbook era model of “every student learning the same thing at the same time” has not only been ineffective, but may have contributed to a 13-year decline in academic performance.  More troubling, he points to the “dense fog of regulations” where educators are constrained by overlapping mandates rather than empowered to innovate—a governance problem more than a teaching problem.

The heart of Katzman’s argument is that we should not simply try to tweak the existing system, but re-imagine it. He proposes a bold two-phase reform plan: first, the creation of a “Center for K-12 Governance” housed at a university school of education or public policy, gathering interdisciplinary teams (labor, data, funding, technology, transportation, etc.) to design a coherent framework for how K-12 schools should operate; second, after three years of design, a ten-year pilot of an alternative governance model in a state, running in parallel with the legacy system and compared on metrics such as graduation rates, college completion, teacher retention, civic participation, and student/family satisfaction. If the new model proves superior, the state would shift all schools to it. 

For educational leaders, the implications are profound. Katzman asserts that governance—who makes decisions, how money flows, how accountability operates—is at the core of systemic failure. He challenges superintendents, principals, and district leaders to participate in this broader redesign: to ask big questions (e.g., “What do we expect from schools? How will we measure success beyond standardized tests?”), to engage stakeholders, including families, charter and private operators, and to treat this moment as one of institutional possibility rather than retrenchment. 

He also emphasizes the importance of experimentation and evidence. Unlike many reform efforts that are rolled out en masse, Katzman’s model calls for voluntary pilot systems, side-by-side comparisons, and rigorous measurement over a decade. That patience and long-term view is countercultural in K–12 discourse, which often demands quick fixes and immediate returns. Yet without calm and courageous leadership willing to invest time and trust teachers, the same cycles of reform and disappointment will repeat.

Equity is central to his vision, though not always explicitly stated. By giving districts and schools greater autonomy, the new model could empower historically marginalized communities to tailor schooling that fits their needs rather than conforming to a one-size-fits-all federal template. Katzman warns that if we fail to address governance, we ensure the “continued decline” of schools and, by extension, the social engine of democracy and economic mobility. 

In summary, Katzman’s piece is a call to arms for educational leaders to step beyond the familiar terrain of standards, tests, and programs, and to engage with the architecture of the system itself. He invites you to imagine a future where governance is adaptive, research-driven, locally responsive, and owned by those closest to students. For administrators, the message is clear: find ways to engage in governance redesign, prioritize pilot innovation, involve stakeholders, document what matters, and invest in system-level change—not just programmatic tweaks.

Original Article

Citation: Katzman, J. (2025, November 19). OPINION: It will take patience and courage to fix K-12 education without the Department of Education. The Hechinger Report. Retrieved from https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-it-will-take-patience-and-coura... The Hechinger Report

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (4) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com