Last week's editorial, "The death and life of great American education organizations" captures well the reality of institutional responses to societal conditions, as well as the circumstances-some external, others internal-that cause public organizations to change. Some adjust or adapt, some make radical shifts (which often speed their decline), while still others simply implode. The Jacobs-Greenwich Village-North End metaphor is a particularly appropriate one because, with organizations, it is less important that we preserve structures out of sentiment for a by-gone era than hold onto frameworks that allow for reinvention and renewal. I appreciate your thought-provoking essay.
Max McConkey
Chief Policy & Communications Officer
WestEd