By Tom Ryan, Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel

This morning, I listened to Dr. John Covington and his Executive Cabinet (listed here) as they shared their perspectives and answered questions from the Kansas City Star’s Editorial Board. Covington and his team view education as a business.

Does this analogy, which is now their lens of reality, have merit?

If education is a business…what does this business produce?

If education is a business…how do they measure profit?

If education is a business…who are the business players? Employees…managers…board of directors…stockholders
…is this business private, or publically traded?

Teachers…how do you view “education”? As a business or something else?

Students, parents, taxpayers…does this business analogy help you understand who you are and where you stand in the business?

If the Kansas City Missouri School District is a business, who are the business’ competitors?

As a business, should the Kansas City Missouri School District join the Chamber of Commerce?

As a business, should the District partner with local businesses in order to purvey their products as workforce capital?

Is Tom Peters more applicable for faculty professional reading in the school district, than say Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Amiri Baraka, Zora Hurston, Langston Hughes or Gandhi? Do faculty members need more training or continued content-oriented education, or both…and to what degree? Heavy on the administrative or the content? Should we adopt Wynton Marsalis’ jazz analogy instead, to build teams and instill curiosity and fun to learning? (see how jazz can change your life)

Covington and his Cabinet should consider Marsalis' wise words and lose the business books.

If the District is a business, can it declare bankruptcy, pay out dividends, award bonuses, be acquired, or merge with another business?

The analogy may work until we walk into the exquisite wonderful intellectual laboratory called a classroom…

Education is not a business. Public education is a public trust to whom we entrust our children. Dr. Covington’s Team cannot shed their business-oriented suits because they are who they are…experienced business professionals.