This is going to be true for any group of professionals. Doctors, lawyers, software developers. Junior ones will do what they are told. Senior ones will push b

This is going to be true for any group of professionals. Doctors, lawyers, software developers. Junior ones will do what they are told. Senior ones will push back and say "this is stupid" when management tries stupid rules. Yet the senior professionals in those fields are valued. I suspect because their employer cares if the organization does a good job. I've seen school administrators range from mildly concerned to completely unconcerned. As long as the bosses' jobs aren't in danger, they don't care, and their jobs tend to only be in danger when something goes really really wrong, like a school shooting. So, like any other bureaucracy, they work hard to clamp down on anything out of the ordinary. I think school choice is important for getting administrators to care. Of course, if parents pull their kids out of school A and into school B, and some higher power (like a district) simply moves administrators over from A to B, nothing has been accomplished.