"David Jennings took his name out of consideration today for the job of Minneapolis school superintendent." -- http://www.startribune.com/stories/1592/4142982.html
First, since when should a very small group of people with loud voices get the privilege of approving or disapproving the hiring by elected boards such as the school board?
WM: I wouldn't be so quick to say that a "very small group" did this alone. It was a very small group that voiced the concerns of much, much larger group whose conerns are legitimate.
Second, the chief executive of many large public institutions with multiple funding sources are chosen more for their political connections and ability to lobby and persuade than for their ability to operate the organization precisely because in such organizations getting the revenue to do the job is crucial, and there are plenty of other executives and managers who will have and use their operational skills to make sure the organization is run well.
WM: If it is the case that Jennings' experience is crucial to the school district (and I'm willing to so stipulate), then the position he is in, or a second in command position works quite well for the district and lets the district meet the state requirement to have a superintendent with certain credentials.
The Minneapolis Public Schools are in exactly the situation of needing funding from multiple sources, most of which are politically controlled, and most of which comes from the state legislature.
WM: Well, not exactly. The district deals with k-12 education while a Colorado college deals with higher ed.
He's also an intelligent person who is intimately familiar with the MPS system, having worked there the past 21 months in the number 2 leadership position.
WM: I would question that 21 months is enough to be "intimately familiar" with a system as big as the school district.
Forcing Jennings out is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It's a bunch of self-important racists with a bogus sense of entitlement playing a new kind of "stealth" race card.
WM: I'd be mighty careful who I accused of being a self-important racist and there was nothing stealth about it--it was all over the media.
"You cannot cut the people out of the process!" they shouted. Wrong.
WM: Politically smart, though, to allow the "people," presumably parents of children in the schools, to air their questions and concerns and take them into account before hiring a superintendent. Then the board does not have to look like it stepped in the dooky.
Mob mentality is not part of the process.
WM: What mob? Now the concerns of parents for their children's education is "mob mentality?" Hearing the parents' concerns has been in short supply for a long time. Finding solutions lags pretty far back as well.
As long as the board followed the law, and it appears they did despite inflammatory rhetoric to the contrary, there is nothing wrong with making a choice without the public's approval.
WM: But it's politically stupid, even if it follows the law to the letter. An open hearing on the issue would not have been a very big deal to accomplish and would have headed off some of the consequences which ensued.
WizardMarks, Central ________________________________
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