How the DC education system is structured - and why oversight of the mayor on DCPS is needed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So imagine for a moment:

A small group of white supremacists gets a school board member elected in an "off" year. This is possible because 1) half the school board is elected in non-Presidential years, and 2) there are low turn-outs in those off years, and 3) only a small percentage of voters (parents) conceivably care about school board members.

So that person gets on the council and just decides that Council should focus on removing CRT from schools, or ending OOB lotteries, or crusading to make education "present all sides" of the Holocaust.

That person is not responsive to the general population, because of the election structure.

In DC it'll be more likely to be some one of the Trayon White belief system, but you get the point.

Sounds like you are arguing for voter suppression

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So imagine for a moment:

A small group of white supremacists gets a school board member elected in an "off" year. This is possible because 1) half the school board is elected in non-Presidential years, and 2) there are low turn-outs in those off years, and 3) only a small percentage of voters (parents) conceivably care about school board members.

So that person gets on the council and just decides that Council should focus on removing CRT from schools, or ending OOB lotteries, or crusading to make education "present all sides" of the Holocaust.

That person is not responsive to the general population, because of the election structure.

In DC it'll be more likely to be some one of the Trayon White belief system, but you get the point.

Sounds like you are arguing for voter suppression

Sounds like you support white supremacy.

[Anonymous]

see how easy it is to argue in bad faith?

[Anonymous]

Personally I think the Deputy Mayor for Education should be elected and the mayor appoint the DCPS chancellor.

[Anonymous]

Most states have a superintendent of public instruction or something similar, it's a small elected position without a ton of power. But it allows focus. Would a DC without an elected attorney general have done as much as Karl Racine on the legal advocacy front? I really doubt it. Could a small elected office become captured or irrelevant? Possibly.

Generally, though, I favor those choices being left up to democracy. A bureaucracy responds to the internal management chain, not to the public. If people have other models of managing public services that would work better, I'm sure I would be interested to find out about them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most states have a superintendent of public instruction or something similar, it's a small elected position without a ton of power. But it allows focus. Would a DC without an elected attorney general have done as much as Karl Racine on the legal advocacy front? I really doubt it. Could a small elected office become captured or irrelevant? Possibly.

Generally, though, I favor those choices being left up to democracy. A bureaucracy responds to the internal management chain, not to the public. If people have other models of managing public services that would work better, I'm sure I would be interested to find out about them.

We don't actually live in a direct democracy, though. So I'm not sure what you mean by "left up to democracy." That the Council should pass legislation on this subject? Should the Council be able to pass legislation mandating that every agency head be elected and independent of the Mayor? That seems catastrophic and like it undermines the separation of powers set out in the Home Rule Act. And I'm not sure about your thesis that an elected agency head somehow focuses better than an appointed agency head. Literally none of what you wrote is intuitive or the only possible solution.