Critical though they are, matters such as equity and exit exams have generally escaped attention as journalists and the public have been subjected to a never-ending series of re-runs of the school wars drama. The plot lines never change, the script never changes, the actors never change, even the scenery never changes.

B.C. is refusing to let go of a past that imprisons us in old-fashioned ways of thinking and behaving. In the almost-always chaotic world of public schooling, we seem destined to relive the 1970s and '80s -- certainly all the bad parts. And here is where our new premier could stake out an important legacy that would really put "families first."

A horse and buggy school system

A good place to begin would be to reconsider the archaic structure of the current system and to face the facts. British Columbia in 2011 has an educational system designed in the mid-19th century. Almost all governance and administrative structures that support the delivery of public instruction are archaic. Classes are grouped into schools and schools are defined by grades. Schools are organized geographically into districts that are locally governed, provincially sanctioned and provincially funded.

Surely 21st century schools deserve 21st century pedagogy and technology. Last year, some 80,000 students signed up for at least one of more than 2,000 online courses offered by the province's "virtual school." This is a promising sign of a changing pedagogy. Still, we remain largely committed to an organizational system built for another age, and all the conflict that goes along with it.

Overseeing this system is an education ministry that is actually "a ministry without schools." It neither operates schools nor delivers school programs or services in any direct way. Although it is responsible for overseeing the K-12 system, connections between the ministry and schools are currently fewer and more tenuous than at any time in the province's history.

One hundred and thirty-nine years after its creation, the institution of public schooling is defined by three interlocking bureaucracies that serve -- intentionally or otherwise -- as agencies for the prevention of change. Public schooling, for the most part, is dominated by the Education Ministry, the British Columbia School Trustees Association (BCSTA) and the BCTF. Although rarely acting in concert, these organizations exhibit certain common characteristics. All are bureaucratic in nature, anti-visionary and unimaginative in outlook, prescriptive in behaviour, non-cooperative in manner, anti-technological in practice and committed to the status quo. Nevertheless, all three organizations rhetorically embrace the idea of change as long as it requires no actual alteration to their own organizations, or to the existing school system.

This organizational triad also projects an image of schooling as an institution that is quintessentially "public." In reality, however, the system revolves mostly around meeting the needs of insiders -- teachers, administrators, bureaucrats and trustees. The ministry's primary clients are school boards rather than students, and the school boards' chief clients are, in turn, teachers' unions, district bureaucracies and assorted interests, all claiming the status and legitimacy of "stakeholders." Students, parents and the public are rarely found near the apex of system priorities, or close to where decisions are actually made, despite torrents of verbiage to the contrary.

Not one of these three organizations appears interested in articulating a bold new vision for education, and no incentives exist for them to do so. All seem wedded to past practices through a mutual endorsement of what one historian has termed the "One Best System" approach to public school provision -- the singular and tradition-bound model that has historically defined state-supplied education.

Moreover, each organization -- at least publicly -- subscribes to an official culture of denial, maintaining nothing is fundamentally wrong with schools, as long as public coffers provide sufficient resources to satisfy annual professional demands.

For every problem -- pedagogical, social or political -- the solution is predictably and beguilingly the same: Just add more resources." In short, there is no point in going to these three organizations for solutions when they themselves are the system's greatest and most intractable problem.

No wonder, from any angle, the system now appears at odds with itself, a jumble of adversarial organizations and interests marked by discontinuity and discord. As it now stands, the system is fractured at its core and directionless. Put bluntly, we can't move forward without a fundamental reappraisal of our educational organizations and the toxic relationships that now engulf them.

If Christy Clark decides to open up the education file, she should be prepared to remain for the long haul. Despite the dangers, however, there are no better causes than British Columbia's families and children. It's time someone in government grasped the reins of leadership in public schooling and set us on a new course. All that is required is a will to do so.

[Tags: Politics, Education].