Sometimes, government can be a vehicle of positive change. Other times, it can be an obtrusive burden. Good policy should work to ensure the former and prevent the latter. Recent Obama administration education efforts have not accomplished this.

According to The New York Times, the Obama administration is mandating that an equity in experienced and high-quality teachers exists among school districts. The measure is especially aimed at helping minority and impoverished students. While helping underprivileged students is of course admirable, poor public policy should never go unexcused. 

Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a conference call with reporters that, “It is important to remind our states that one step in front of the other is the way to begin to deliver for all our students … We are all dismayed by the lack of compliance and lack of satisfaction and delivery on this point.” 

The problem with these efforts is that although they are laudable, they are not true solutions. Daria Hall, K-12 policy director at the Education Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates for racial minority students and low-income children, told the Times that, “The very real risk is that this just becomes a big compliance paperwork exercise.” 

If someone working to curtail education inequity considers the Obama administration’s policy ineffective, then Washington should rethink its approach. When dealing with high-quality education disparities, policy makers must not only take a quantitative outlook, but also a qualitative one.

Joshua Starr, superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, puts this idea into perspective. Starr told the Times that it is not effective to, “just find the best teachers and best principals and put them where they need to be.” Instead, Starr argued that, “a teacher works in an ecosystem.”

Instead of artificially approaching education inequality, both federal and state policy should focus on the socioeconomic factors that lead to a decrease in the quality of education in impoverished districts. Educators should be given more incentives to teach in such districts. Additionally, federal and state education departments should allocate more funds to districts for hiring teachers and providing adequate supplies. 

Overall, federal policy aiming to bridge the inequity gap is well-intentioned. However, wasting administrative time without addressing socioeconomic realities is ineffective and a drain of resources. 

To ensure high-quality education, we must first implement high-quality policy. Hopefully the Obama administration keeps this in mind.