Breaking up is hard to do
 By Mark Forsythe The Kansas City Post Another Kansas City School District Superintendent has come and gone. The revolving door continues and it's now time to bring in the next administrator for his or her 18 month stint. When does it end? One of the hardest things to do is solve a problem when you're too close, or have too much invested in the outcome. The powers that be on the KCMSD School Board and their political allies (accomplices?) have no motivation in making any real change. Any person who would come in and effect radical changes to the school district would usurp the board's power and considering their positions don't come with a salary, power is all they have. So we have an out of control school board running an out of control, unaccredited school district. What are we to do? How do we fix the schools? This was a question asked repeatedly at campaign forums during the city council race. What I really wanted to do was answer that questioner with the question "When are you going to stop electing fools to the school board?" Common sense dictates when a job is too big, you break it up into smaller more manageable parts and begin to work on them individually. With 47 elementary schools and 7 high schools scattered across miles of different neighborhoods with miles of different needs, I think it's time to explore breaking the district into smaller, more manageable parts. One or two high schools per district, and dedicated feeder schools. Let each small district have its own board, preferably made up with a certain percentage of parents. Smaller districts, leadership with a stake in its success and the ability to adapt change quickly - instead of the current system of political cronyism, infighting and blanket policies that benefit the policymakers instead of the students. It won't be easy. In fact, it will be downright impossible without intervention from the courts or the State of Missouri. Hopefully our lawmakers from Jefferson City will be willing to step in and help the KCMSD help itself. Or we can just keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Maybe that should be the new district motto. |
posted by Mark at 8:37 AM
Comments on "Breaking up is hard to do"
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Locomotive Breath said ... (7:04 PM) :
post a comment"...considering their positions don't come with a salary..."
I guess it's true. You get what you pay for.
I agree with your idea to break up the school district. For too long the KCMO school district superintendent position has been a "park and hide" job for people far more interested in their own benefits package than in educating some of the city's most vulnerable children. The problems faced by the district are so vast and varied that it takes a few years to even figure out that the superintendent is totally ineffective and possibly corrupt. Smaller districts would offer smaller paychecks and fewer excuses for lack of progress in achieving goals and therefore attract superintendent candidates who are more interested in education and problem solving than 6 figure salaries and car allowances.
"When are you going to stop electing fools to the school board?"
I would have loved it if you and actually used that response on the campaign trail.
I agree wholeheartedly about getting better Board members.
However, I'm not convinced that micro-districts will work, for two reasons:
(1) management & maintenance and operational aspects may require a certain amount of scale for any kind of reasonable operational cost structure;
(2) if the secret to good education are two things: good teachers and involved parents - then I would anticipate some micro-districts will suffer because the ultimate issue in the KCMSD is the lack of parental involvement, ultimately. Parental involvement means people are watching, and doing all the right things, including putting up and electing a decent Board.
I would anticipate that some micro districts would be even worse, because of the lack of parentalinvolvement. We'd have a bunch of ying-yangs trying to run things in a smaller setting.
I am a district teacher and one of my pet peeves is people who criticize the KCSD while doing nothing to help.
So why don't YOU run for school board?
micro-districts?
they're called neighborhood schools.
They worked forty years ago, but if you propose reverting back to them, you'll be called a racist, no doubt about it.
It's going to take someone with guts to get this passed.
We've got to have debates on the subject, and not sidestep the real issues. If neighborhood schools would really work best, propose them. If you're called a racist for proposing them, talk about how racial covenants are long gone and the only thing that truly affects the demographics of a neighborhood is income, and to have a good income, one must be well educated.
The way to break the segregation in this city is to have well-educated youth who will become educated citizens.
Let's fix this system once and for all.
Call for a debate of the issue, invite representatives of all points of view. Have the teachers elect a rep, the school board elect a rep, a few other representatives of whatever rational viewpoints arise.
Not next week, there's no time to schedule, and the primaries will overshadow it, but soon, truly soon, it only takes one person with a strong willpower and a place to meet to make this happen.
Let's fix our schools.
For too long the KCMO school district superintendent position has been a "park and hide" job for people far more interested in their own benefits package than in educating some of the city's most vulnerable children.
Um, most of the superintendents where fired only a year or so into the job. And they seem to have been fired BECAUSE they wanted to change things and clean up corruption. Amato didn't hide at all. If he had gone the "park and hide" route, then he would still have his job. He was fired because he did not "park and hide".
The problems faced by the district are so vast and varied that it takes a few years to even figure out that the superintendent is totally ineffective and possibly corrupt.
Your comment doesn't make much sense. When was the last time a superintendent was in for a "few" years. Maybe one out of the last 20 superintendents lasted for a few years.
However, I'm not convinced that micro-districts will work, for two reasons:
Your reasons are absolutetly correct, but micro-districts could still work. Just look at the charter schools. Each charter school is basically it's own school district. They have zero economy of scale, but many seem to do just fine.
On your second point, charter schools vary widely. I would say the best school in KC is a charter school, but I would also say the worst school in KC is a charter school. But many small towns across the state would have smaller district than a KC micro-district. If small town Missouri could make a micro-district work, then why couldn't we?
I am a district teacher and one of my pet peeves is people who criticize the KCSD while doing nothing to help.
So why don't YOU run for school board?
I have sent my kids to both KCMO public and charter schools. I was very active in both, but found the charter schools much more responsive to parents feedback.
I liked the teachers and admin at the district school,but they were unable to be very responsive to parents. Not because they were bad, but they just didn't have the authority. I think it goes back to the one huge district may not be best.
At the charter school, parents could talk to the admin about some problem and get a solution worked out. At the district school, the parents would talk to the admin, but admin would say they didn't have authority to fix X, or that orders came down from higher ups, etc..
An example would be Amato's reading curriculum. That curriculum didn't really fit in with Montessori teaching. The parents at the district Montessori schools were not happy about the new reading program, but the Montessori schools didn't have much of a choice since Amato wanted this program district wide. The Montessori staff was then placed in the situation of listening to the parents or telling Amato his program didn't really mesh with their teaching style.
It is then very hard to say "we want an exception for our one school."
how about trying a voucher program?
why not make the public school truly compete for its funding against other schools who could possibly more efficiently put to use each kcmo student's taxes?
Ding. Ding! DING!!
A voucher program is precisely what is needed to kill the disfunctional government school monopoly.
http://locomotivebreath1901.blogspot.com/2008/02/history-of-disfunction_04.html
(If linking is not allowed, many apologies)