My colleagues, Bob Maranto and Gary Ritter, along with former Teachers College president, Arthur Levine, have a piece in Education Week arguing that education schools could improve their quality as business schools did several decades ago. I suggest you read the article to judge their case for yourself.
What I wanted to do with this post is to anticipate the inevitable argument that business schools are somehow responsible for the recent economic meltdown or that ed schools are no more responsible for the quality of K-12 education than business schools are for the economic collapse. I’ve heard this line from a bunch of education officials, so it must be in the talking points.
Here’s why this type of argument is hogwash. Business schools are not responsible for the economic collapse because (among other reasons), biz schools do not work with business unions to get the government to require attendance at business schools and government certification before one can open (most) businesses. Some business people have attended business schools but most have not.
Ed schools, on the other hand, work with teacher unions to get the government to require that (most) educators receive training from ed schools and certification from the state before they can teach. The vast majority of educators, including the vast majority of teachers, principals, and superintendents have been trained and certified by ed schools.
I’m happy to let ed schools off the hook for K-12 performance if they actively lobby for ending their cartel on the production of new educators.
Posted by Jay P. Greene 
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