IT’S INCREASINGLY OBVIOUS THAT THEIR JOBS HAVE NEVER BEEN ABOUT ENSURING THAT CHILDREN LEARN: Bureaucrats Declare War on Learning Pods. They’ll Lose. “Experimentation with such alternatives has been given impetus by government schools’ widespread inability to master online learning even as teachers unions resist efforts to return kids to physical classrooms. Just this week, the union representing public teachers in Washington, D.C. added to families’ uncertainties by torpedoing the district’s plans for reopening schools.”

Plus:

That officials are motivated more by hostility to learning pods than by a bureaucratic notion of helpfulness is apparent from Oregon’s huffing that “these groups also risk leaving out students who are already underserved by our school system.”

Oregon’s phrasing echoes the Denver Board of Education’s complaint that it was “deeply concerned about the pods’ long-term negative implications for public education and social justice” and feared “that further flight will exacerbate academic and opportunity gaps among our children.”

The implication is that families dissatisfied with the floundering government schools and capable of doing better by their children should instead hold the kids back out of concerns for equity. It’s Harrison Bergeron transformed from cautionary tale into policy.

That government school officials face an uphill fight in their efforts to stop the exodus of students to alternatives is obvious from trends and from public opinion.

Good. They’re bad for kids and should be replaced. Or, better still, not replaced.