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| Voters can reduce political influences in our public school system by voting YES on November 6th for Escambia County Schools to move to an appointed superintendent model. In 1967 this very same question failed county-wide by the margin of ONE (1) vote. Imagine where we might be 51 years later if that vote had passed? |
People are sick and tired of politics. Every day, in the news, infused in our
life…politics.
On TV, online, on the radio—everywhere.
It’s almost a dirty word because we’re all so
sick of it.
Unfortunately, we’ll never be able to take politics out of
every aspect of our lives—most people understand this reality.
But “politics” has no place in educating our children!
And there’s ONE thing each of us can do on November 6th
to minimize the political nature of our education system locally.
Vote YES for an
appointed superintendent at the end of your ballot.
Vote YES to
empower your Elected Board of Education to engage a professional committee to find
the very best educational specialist--from a nationwide search--to administer
Escambia’s schools.
Vote YES to make
our top schools administrator a professional position--NOT a political one!
Because Escambia’s children deserve a professional, non-political
administrator focused on student achievement –NOT a politician driven by political
pressure, donor whims, fear of negative media, and the ever-present
election-cycle calendar.
Say YES to allow
your school board to set the performance standards, enforce policy, and supervise the
administrator.
Leave the politics to our elected board of education, where it should rest. Make your voice be heard through their elections.
After all, every two years county voters have a crack at
multiple members of the elected board of education.
Under our current, antiquated system, the elected board and the elected superintendent can shrug their respective shoulders, and play the blame game back and forth ad nauseum… "It’s because of Tallahassee and their lack of funding…” or “We need more [fill in blank] …”
Under the modern, well-accepted appointed superintendent model--the board can immediately remove the superintendent if performance targets are not met or if board policy is not dutifully and faithfully implemented...no more waiting 4 long years until the next election. No more politics of the election calendar stifling and stymieing decision making.
Under our current, antiquated system, the elected board and the elected superintendent can shrug their respective shoulders, and play the blame game back and forth ad nauseum… "It’s because of Tallahassee and their lack of funding…” or “We need more [fill in blank] …”
It becomes cyclical Kabuki theater that allows all concerned to avoid responsibility—and a politically
comfortable status quo is maintained in perpetuity to the detriment of our students while the same politicians are elected over and over and over and nothing changes.
comfortable status quo is maintained in perpetuity to the detriment of our students while the same politicians are elected over and over and over and nothing changes.
We must do better though--our students' collective futures demand no less!
Under the modern, well-accepted appointed superintendent model--the board can immediately remove the superintendent if performance targets are not met or if board policy is not dutifully and faithfully implemented...no more waiting 4 long years until the next election. No more politics of the election calendar stifling and stymieing decision making.
Skeptics of this change need only ask themselves these simple questions:
If you found yourself
in the terribly unfortunate circumstance of being diagnosed with a
life-altering medical condition, and you could seek out the best treatment
available in the world, would you self-limit your treatment options to only the
doctors and only the hospitals located in Escambia County Florida?
If you were on the
board of directors of a large corporation and you needed a new CEO to improve poor
performance—or else your company would face insolvency--would you self- limit your CEO search ONLY to current company employees and ONLY in the geographical area in which
your company was incorporated?
If you were a trustee
of a top Division I College, and a decision was made to hire the best
coach for your school's struggling football team from “out of the state”—would you
really think that idea was bad?
The answer to each question above is NO—and you know it.
So, let’s change Escambia’s educational paradigm locally and
appoint the BEST professional school administrator
like 48 of 50 U.S. states already do in 2018.
Let’s elect solid, passionate school board members and
mandate that they hire the BEST administrator to run the schools like more than 99% of our nation’s 15,000 school systems
already do in 2018.
Under an appointed model:
-Qualified local
applicants for the Superintendent position are
allowed and encouraged.
-Voters are given
MAXIMUM power over the performance of the system by demanding their school board
member(s) perform—otherwise they may be voted-out of office via two-year
staggered elections.
-Your voice and your
vote are NOT lost—they are
intensified and magnified.
On November 6th ---we can improve Escambia’s
public-school governance model.
But it depends on you.
Please put students, parents, and teachers ahead of politics.
Please vote YES
for Escambia Schools at the end of your ballot on November 6th.
1 comment:
A good read after drinking some afternoon coffee as a pick me upper. I agree! We need to change the system so we can bring the best and brightest to Pensacola!
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