Abolish School Boards

Abolishing school boards would release intended education dollars to their intended targets – students.  At the moment far too much of that earmarked money is skimmed off at the school board level for: a) for junkets and expensive conferences/professional development for trustees, administrators, consultants, etc. many of whom have little direct relationship with students; b) professional services such as public relations advice, legal services, and other non-student related fees; c) entrepreneurial businesses and recruitment of foreign students meant to add income (profits) to the budget but which may actually yield serious expenses and costs; d) misspending due to faulty accounting and reporting procedures; e) etc., etc.

This is my essay “Abolish School Boards” published on the blog Report Card, a production of the Education Reporter, Janet Steffenhagen, for the Vancouver Sun.

Abolish School Boards

(by Tunya Audain, 091122, published in Report Card blog of Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun Education Reporter on story, “Trustees have tough job but no power, columnist says” 091122 http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/reportcard/default.aspx)

“District’s new decals a sign of poor management”. That’s the title of a letter to the editor by Craig Johnston to the North Shore News, who, in true whistleblower fashion, alerts us to what he perceives as misconduct of the school board and a waste of taxpayer dollars.  This self-aggrandizement, he says, is “nauseating”.  (This item was discussed in a previous blog story.)

Were it not for citizen watchdogs alerting us through media channels I fear that the public would never see how public institutions such as school boards are abandoning their intended mission – that of serving the best interests of children instead of their own perverse needs.

It’s no wonder that there are increasingly more calls for abolishing these twisty and twisted school boards of today.

Coincidentally, in the same issue of the North Shore News as was Craig’s letter, a regular columnist, Bill Bell, has some very harsh words regarding school boards as pretenses of local government.  In a previous article he calls “School trustees Victoria’s puppets” and this state exists regardless of the political ideological regime, whether NDP, Social Credit or Liberal. http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/news/viewpoint/story.html?id=95b2a310-5421-43b5-9646-f975e8883d78

In his latest column as reported above, Bell, a well-know media person, ramps up the “Abolish School Boards” movement.  From citizens in this education blog ever more frequently calling for the demise of this dysfunctional and counterproductive structure, to school board candidates (I was one last fall whose main plank was to work to abolish school boards), to an ex-superintendent, Doug Player, arguing for dissolution of the boards, we now add a media voice to the call.   http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/reportcard/archive/2009/10/11/dissolve-school-boards-and-move-education-to-municipal-councils.aspx

It is definitely time for more citizens to add their voices to dismantle the present inefficient model of education delivery.

In the cause of liberating education dollars away from the vested special interests – and there are dozens of categories here (teacher unions, administrator groups, teacher training institutions, burgeoning legal outfits, public relations consultants, early childhood education lobbies, etc., etc.) – and bringing commonsense and local autonomy back to the grassroots, we must challenge this cancerous behemoth that suffocates. No wonder they call themselves “stakeholders”.  The “stakes” are indeed high!

More citizen voices need to be raised against those powerful groups who insidiously and consistently block needed reform out of selfish greed. Yet, and we see it all the time, they say they do it for the children!

A philosophy that trusts local parents and local teachers to produce educational results is a far better and much simpler form than central control and thousands of middle men and suckers who feed off the opportunities so easily exploited. The present school board model invites misspending, corruption, diversions and adventurism.

It is downright unethical and immoral what is going on under the cover of school boards.  The Detroit public school scandal is a cautionary tale of just how evil this can become.  Look it up.

The model school board that HAS proven most successful over time is the one that exists at the local school.  That has stood the test of time – the one room school house, the private independent school, the parent-participation pre-school, the charter school.  The dollar already is supposed to follow the child.  Bring it back to the local school instead of channeling it through the school board offices where it is mercilessly skimmed before reaching the classroom. Whether it be vouchers, charters, tuition tax credits or some other model, we need to recover those precious dollars that are needed for our precious children and grandchildren – FOR THEIR EDUCATION AND SPECIAL NEEDS.
091122
 

More Reasons to Abolish…….

15.  Unruly School Boards Need Rules of Behavior

Even though School Boards are supposed to work as a team, or a corporation, divisions do occur.  But, their handbooks and training are supposed to produce a unified front once decisions are made.  And the reason School Board Public Meetings are generally “civilized” (too civilized some would say to the point of being mechanical), is that REAL discussions are usually held in secret, behind closed doors.  A good article written by a former trustee in BC talks about this issue.

However, sometimes Boards do become publically fractious and dysfunctional.  Then the provincial Ministry of Education steps in and disbands the board and provides an administrator to govern.  This has happened in BC several times in my memory in a number of districts.

Nova Scotia has just introduced new legislation to help boards maintain “discipline and decorum”.  Comments to the newstory
add more flavor to the issue:

Why doesn’t the province just take them over, and run them? After some of the problems in the past it seems to be a good time to do it!!

I fully support this bill. Our public servants should be serving the public and not wasting their time on personal vendettas and power struggles. It’s about the students.

 
 

 More reasons to Abolish SBs……..

13.  When an educator says their “hands are tied”, that is code talk for a union contract taking precedence in decision-making.

How many times have we heard, coming from the mouths of principals, superintendents or trustees – “Our hands are tied.”? I’ve heard it MANY times.

A newstory from Surrey just begins to highlight some of the issues that arise when powerful unions are involved in school decision-making.  See online story from Janet Steffenhagen, Sun Reporter here.  Do read the other links in the story and maybe you can sort this out better than I can.

Anyway, I see some issues emerging which beg attention:
-    Should union members who work for a School Board run for trusteeship?  To me this is rank conflict of interest and we need to tighten conflict of interest provisions in public office.
-    The president of the local CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees), an incumbent trustee, was asked about this issue:  “if students rights should trump those of unionized employees”. Her answer was that CUPE was the governing body for Special Education Assistants and offered to set up a meeting with the parents “to have an open dialogue”.
-    Why is the union (CUPE) the “governing body” for Special Education Assistants? I thought the School Board was THE governing body in this matter?  What kind of a loose contracting system do we have here?  Can we get some details? How appropriate is it for the union to be setting up meetings with parents for dialogue?  Who are the responsible authorities here anyway? What’s dialogue going to accomplish?
-    Union contracts perpetuate” seniority”, not qualifications or suitability in jobs. In the story you will see another candidate, (heaven help us) also a CUPE member, saying she worked successfully with some children, but “because of low seniority” wasn’t able to continue.

WHAT CHANCE IS THERE AT ALL FOR PARENTS TO BE ADVOCATES FOR THEIR CHILDREN WHEN ALL THESE COMPLEX CONTRACTUAL UNION ENTANGLEMENTS STAND IN THE WAY OF “THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILD”?
 
Furthermore, isn’t it SAD that parents are reduced to the state where they can only get some answers at all-candidates meetings, which come once in three years?  Their only chance for attention is the hope that there might be a reporter in the crowd who would report some of their frustration and grief.

And, furthermore, I am also running in a School Board election at the moment in West Vancouver and I see parents at meetings asking similar desperate type of questions.  What kind of accountability and accessibility is there when parents have to come, cap-in-hand, to AC meetings to ask potential trustees what they would do? 

By the way, I first ran for School Board 33 years ago when I wanted to make things better for my children and their peers in their lifetime.  Now, I am a grandmother and am running again, mainly to point out that “the system” is as stagnant now as it was then as far as responsiveness  to parents goes.  It’s run for the convenience of the establishment..
 

Reason #11 in my rapidly evolving 101 Reasons to Abolish School Boards from my site:

http://abolish-school-boards.org

11:  School Board administration offices far exceed furniture standards in local schools.

Why the inequity?  Where are the priorities?  Does your school have shaky fiber-glass chairs for the children to sit in vs $800 chairs for once monthly trustee meetings?

Please see discussion in this online story from Sun Reporter, Janet Steffenhagen : Beautiful and Not So Beautiful Schools

And comment as below:

Wendy Smith said:

I have been in and out of many district administration centres over the years, going back to the years when they were simply called "board offices."  I have yet to find any classroom or other student facility in any district which approaches their grandeur.  Eight hundred dollar board chairs while kids sat in stackable fibreglass chairs, many of which were cracking and wobbly, birds’ eye maple board tables, expensive and unnecessary renovations–I’ve seen a lot of it.  And, consistently, the schools in the lower-income areas of the district were particularly shoddy and shameful in comparison.  I live for the day when students in each district are working in facilities equivalent in quality.  Realistically, I know it will never happen.  (I did, however, respect one superintendent who told me that he’d furnished his office at his own expense.)

Wrap it all up in whatever wrapping you choose.   Check out your local district administration centre, then go to a school in an economically-deprived area in the district, check it out, and draw your own conclusions.
October 28, 2008

(PS:  My Comment on this issue:  Do we, in the social sciences, have a Hypocrisy Scale?  If not, let’s design one.  Tunya Audain)
 

More….101 Reasons to abolish….

9.  School Boards and other public education bodies love to hear speakers who denounce standards. 

Currently, the most popular speaker against standards, testing, homework, and merit pay is Alfie Kohn, a frequent flyer to BC.

Most of his talks are to educators, who are then urged to spread his message to parents.  These are some Kohn quotes from the Salt Lake Tribune, Oct 20/08

When the scores go up, it’s not just meaningless. It’s worrisome”

The best teachers spend every day of their lives strategically avoiding or subverting the Utah curriculum,"  

See the whole story here.

Also, please see this take on Kohn to the Concord Review by Will Fitzhugh , Parallel Universe.