Not Allowing a Good Crisis to Go to Waste: Tapping into Transformational Power to Increase Utilization in Public Education as a Result of the Coronavirus

Abstract

Despite all of the disruption the pandemic introduced into public education, COVID-19 also serves as an invitation for leaders to creatively explore ways to better utilize existing resources for the benefit of all students. The pandemic is the crisis that educational leaders cannot allow to go to waste. Instead of striving merely to return to a pre-pandemic normal, all stakeholders involved in public education should explore ways to better utilize existing resources to support each and every child’s academic growth. In this call to action, we encourage public education stakeholders to work toward maximizing the utilization of time, facilities, funding, personnel, and instructional materials. We believe that this focus on maximizing utilization will result in the necessary transformational power to change the system of public education and will have a far greater impact on the improvement of public education than efforts focused on curriculum and instruction reform. This is not to say that curriculum and instruction are not important; rather, the systemic transformation needed represents the foundation of all that happens in public education.