‘Zero-tolerance’ and local control

Published 12:17 am Saturday, January 11, 2014

Conservatives who have rightly objected to the federalization of public education should applaud Attorney General Eric Holder’s new recommendations on classroom discipline. No matter what his motives — and he seems to be trying to address issues of race, rather than discipline — any return of local control is a good thing.

The Obama administration is issuing new recommendations on classroom discipline that seek to end the apparent disparities in how students of different races are punished for violating school rules,” the Associated Press reports. “Attorney General Eric Holder said the problem often stems from well intentioned ‘zero-tolerance’ policies that too often inject the criminal justice system into the resolution of problems. Zero tolerance policies, a tool that became popular in the 1990s, often spell out uniform and swift punishment for offenses such as truancy, smoking or carrying a weapon. Violators can lose classroom time or become saddled with a criminal record.”

Like mandatory minimum sentences, “zero-tolerance” policies appeal to our sense of law-and-order and justice.

But in practice, they often violate more conservative values — common sense and local control. Just as mandatory minimum sentences take power away from judges and communities, zero-tolerance policies take authority away from teachers and local school districts.

“Ordinary troublemaking can sometimes provoke responses that are overly severe, including out of school suspensions, expulsions and even referral to law enforcement and then you end up with kids that end up in police precincts instead of the principal’s office,” Holder says.

He’s right. We’ve all seen how zero-tolerance policies have been applied in the past. We’ve seen young boys suspended for eating Pop-Tarts into the shape of a gun, sent home for wearing shirts with the National Rifle Association logo, and expelled for taking Tylenol.

Yet one of the strongest arguments against zero tolerance policies is at the core of the conservative approach to government. Such policies limit local control.

“These ‘zero tolerance’ policies are too often applied with zero logic,” notes the Cato Institute’s Jason Bedrick. “They encourage bureaucrats to harshly punish students without considering extenuating circumstances, the student’s intent, or even common sense. It’s long past time that schools abandon ‘zero tolerance’ in favor of a more reasonable and proportional approach.”

Even Eric Holder agrees, and wants more authority given to teachers and local school personnel.

That’s why one of the new recommendations is to “Ensure that school personnel understand that they are responsible for administering routine student discipline instead of security or police officers.”

Now, even the Department of Education recognizes the problems of discipline that in most cases led to the zero-tolerance policies.

As AP noted, “Education Secretary Arne Duncan acknowledged the challenge is finding the balancing act to keep school safe and orderly, but when it comes to routine discipline the ‘first instinct should not be to call 911 when there’s a problem.'”

Local schools — and teachers in the classroom — are the best means for ensuring a good learning environment for all.