Reply to testify to SAVE Mayoral control of DCPS

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "testify to SAVE Mayoral control of DCPS"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I understand things are better than 10 years ago but they still aren't good.

- How many damaged (ie fired/quit from other districts) have led DCPS under this one Mayor?
- Why can't the Council do effective oversight on basic things like how many nurses and librarians schools have?
- Why are school modernizations still being used as political tools?

Sometimes it is easier for a group of people to make "hard decisions." If the Mayor changes the school boundaries, it could cost her the election. If a board changes school boundaries, it might cost some of them their elections but they could share that risk. The other thing is public education should be a bit more steady and changes should be like steering a ship. Mayoral control leads to a lot of sharp turns and means that DCPS does not have to do long term planning well (because the Mayor doesn't care about DCPS in 2030).[/quote]

I don't know what you are trying to ask with that first question.

Can you describe what "effective oversight" looks like -- perhaps provide an example?  Is that cured by school board control?

I can't understand why improvement should NOT be something that a politician discusses as a win.  So...what's the point of your third question?

I will give you that shared political risk might mean more steady changes.

Regarding long-term planning:  no elected official with term limits cares about "the thing" beyond their term.  So that complaint is also true with school board control.[/quote]

DCPS is unable to attract the best, or even good school leadership. I blame the the current set up.

I just did. If you go to a DCPS budget hearing, it is amazing how little information the council can get from the current leadership. How many people work in the central office, why don't schools have computers, etc etc.

Moderizations are being used to punish neighborhoods that aren't "in-line" with the Mayor. For every need based school revo, another is done as a favor.

And I agree regarding terms. however with overlapping terms, you hopefully always have a group of people looking 4 years out every year.[/quote]

How would having SBOE control attract better principals?  Honest question.  Or are you talking about something else in terms of 'school leadership'?  Are you saying that the people that currently run for and are on the SBOE are bad because there's so little power involved that no one good bothers?

I do grant that DCPS's data collection is just straight-up bad.  But that seems true of everything about DC.  Some services are great but a lot of DC government functions are....well, they seem like a jobs program.  Which is fine!  But don't expect high-quality output if that's the case.

What does it mean for a neighborhood to be "in line with the Mayor"?  Meaning they voted for her?  I though school improvements were done on some 10-year plan?

I would agree that overlapping terms would be better.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics