Baltimore County Public Schools in a nutshell

Peggy Noonan has an excellent article today called Revolt of the Accountants.

This paragraph -- if you replace "American" with "BCPS" -- captures the vibe I often get when I speak with school bureaucrats or attend a school board meeting:

there is a growing sense—I should say fear—that the weighty, mighty, imposing American government [BCPS bureaucracy] itself, whether it meant to or not, has for years been contributing to American [BCPS] behaviors that are neither culturally helpful nor, as we now all say, sustainable: a growing sense of entitlement, of dependency, of resentment and distrust, and an increasing suspicion that everyone else is gaming the system. "I got mine, you get yours."

That's what I see at BCPS: lots of people gaming the system. It's not healthy and it's not sustainable.

And these bits from Noonan's piece remind me of last year's big controversy/fiasco at BCPS: AIM*:

Washington is turning America into Paperwork Nation.
...

No matter what level of life in which you operate, you are likely overwhelmed by forms, by a blizzard of regulations, rules, new laws. This is not new, it's just always getting worse.

The more I learn about the inner workings of Greenwood, the less I like it.