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Schools Can Help Students Achieve Socialization By Modifying Their Thinking.

Effective government is not identic to "big" government, nor is big government inherently effective government, but effective government ought to be "reliable" government. President Lincoln noted in The Gettysburg Address, "...We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." If people are not served well by their government when they need it most, what good is the governmental bureaucracy? Those that perish, perish in vain, indeed.

Gulf Coast evacuees depended on their government to help them when they needed it most. Most of those needing help were black and brown tax-paying citizens. Why is this the case? Many were treated like third-class citizens, being shuttled en masse from water to domes; from wind to prisons. The race and ethnicity of these evacuees is observably related to their economic means, and their economic status is certainly related to their race. The American system of education can and must perform more urgently and more appropriately in rescuring its students from the storms in their lives. If not, what good is the educational bureaucracy? It must be "for" the students and, in part, "by" the students.

If educational bureaucrats will help Hurricane Katrina student victims and their own local students fit into society and excel, they must take a fresh, non-defensive look at their organizational beliefs and bureaucratic strategies, and they must birth a new freedom to ask and answer some simple but key questions and consider a "new" government of education. I call this new system a "neocracy."

Educators can learn from Hurricane Katrina. It is time to change the American system of education. This is a clarion call for educational "neocrats" to catalyze this business of rescuing students from societal storms.