School Boards & Superintendents Won’t Have Much Clout

Radio Commentary, WMVV 90.7 New Life FM, October 22, 2010
By Sue Ella Deadwyler

Good morning, Jim. Right off the bat, in its October 10th article the AJC revealed that school boards are in the cross hairs. Having declared that Metro Atlanta has some of the best and worst school board members, the article quoted this condescending statement by a national trainer of school board members: “School board members, on average, are like nurses and teachers. They mean well. They go into that line of work because they really care. A lot of them are qualified, competent people, but a lot of them aren’t.” Instantly, I knew the term “dysfunctional” would soon appear in that article and it did. Decades ago, the education establishment tagged locally elected school boards as “dysfunctional” and began strategizing to get rid of them.

I, personally, like the idea of elected school board members. If students can’t read, write and do math without a calculator, elected school boards can be replaced by voters in their district. In fact, long before outside forces took over education, American students finished school at home or at the local school-house and graduated with a REAL education. They became engineers, writers, inventors, teachers, businessmen and women, who made the U.S. the most exceptional nation in the entire world! All that happened BEFORE education was controlled from the top!

But, now, even stricter control is coming and the carrot is federal grant money, which is enticing states to “voluntarily” relinquish control over 85 percent of the content of English and math courses. When the federal Race to the Top plan is implemented, school boards won’t have any power over education. Race to the Top gives federal funding to states that adopt the Common Core Standards, which are NOT based on the needs of U.S. students, but on international standards. Believe it or not, Governor Perdue co-chaired this initiative, signed onto the plan, applied for the grant and obligated Georgia to implement the Common Core State Standards, which the State Board of Education adopted July 8th.

A new State School Superintendent will be elected November 2nd, as will many local school board members. They’ll face this new federal control over education and learn whether it’s a done-deal or whether it can be changed or neutralized. Meanwhile, please vote wisely for the State School Superintendent and for your local school board members, while they still have a little power. Georgia is rushing head-long into so-called “world-class” education, which further reduces the academic accomplishment of students, but promises to graduate 12th graders who are “college- or career-ready,” without explaining what “college- or career-ready” REALLY means. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.