[Winona Online Democracy]
"> I would add to Paul's comments the following: When shareholders begin
to hold boards responsible for bad decisions by declining to rubber stamp
all proposals and elections, boards may then become cognizant of whom they
represent."
This actually leads me to the underlying motivation of my post. For too
long we have been told that our education system is failing and that it must
be recast in the mold of our business model. I believe this is exactly the
opposite of what needs to happen. A strong and vibrant middle class has
been the backbone of the US economy and the bedrock of that middle class has
been public education. The ethics of business just don't work that well in
the classroom (and I would argue that our current business ethic doesn't
even work that well for business). I don't think ANY public school has ever
failed as miserably as Enron did and we simply cannot afford to allow our
schools to fail. If anything our businesses model needs change to try and
replicate the almost unprecedented success of our public education system
from the end of WW II until the very recent past. It is a system that was
once the envy of the developed world. I don't think it is simply
coincidence that our attempts to apply business practices in education have
fairly nearly coincided with the deterioration of our public schools. The
dynamics of a free market just aren't appropriate for a system that is as
diverse, challenging , long term, and essential as our system of education.
I'm just not willing to trust the future of my children to some "unseen
hand".
IMHO
Bryon Bothun
----- Original Message -----
From: "David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Online Democracy" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 02, 2006 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Winona] School Administrators/NPR bias
[Winona Online Democracy]
On Jan 2, 2006, at 10:49, Paul Double wrote:
[snip]
Bryon, I think most if not all of us would agree that there are a few
CEO's
whose cost clearly does not represent a good value for the corporations
they
represent. Until Boards of Directors become responsible to their
stockholders and not to the CEO little if anything will change and more
and
more disclosure information will help stockholders stop some of the
games.
No individual, in my opinion, is worth or worthy of any compensation for
their work, not ownership, beyond 40 percent of the people they directly
supervise. In the case of very large corporations which will involve
many
layers of employees that will by the organizational tree generate more
for
those at the top. But the abuses of boards for many very large
corporations
to enable this to continue, not in the interest of good management but
rather, the politics of retaining a good old boy network.
For most, CEO's and owners, the poor examples of the big boy's greed is
not
a model that we respect or want to copy. We have enough outside and
foreign
competition to fight without having to deal with internal rapist of our
corporate assets.
[snip]
I would add to Paul's comments the following: When shareholders begin to
hold boards responsible for bad decisions by declining to rubber stamp all
proposals and elections, boards may then become cognizant of whom they
represent.
Currently there are few examples of boards being challenged, credibly. The
current high-profile example of a board being challenged involves Carl
Icahn and his idiotic attempt to protect AOL-Time Warner's shareholder
value. Where was Carl Icahn when AOL's Steve Case was ripping off Time
Warner shareholders? The point remains that shareholder activism needs and
boards of directors need improvement.
********************************************
David Dittmann
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