"Who needs school boards?" by Jay Mathews
The Washington Post
Published online on January 16, 2011
Like many areas of the school system these days, people are looking at whether school boards really are necessary or should they go the way of the dinosaur? Are school boards full of amateurs who know nothing about education? Would school districts instead be better served by superintendents or are they just looking out for their own interests and wanting to pad their resumes?
Mr. Mathews deals with some of these questions by talking with Gene I. Maeroff, former New York Times reporter and author of School Boards in America: A Flawed Exercise in Democracy, who actually got himself elected to a Edison, New Jersey School Board so he could write his book. Though Mr. Mathews saw some major flaws in the school board system, he has determined after examining the alternatives to school boards that “there is scant evidence that school systems would be better served if school boards did not exist.” He states that people who want to dispose of school boards have their own flaws, such as superintendents not staying at one school very long causing schools to not have a consistent long-term visions. However, he does expect the number of school boards to decrease further as their number has gone down from a high of 80,000 in 1950 to currently less than 14,000.
Mr. Mathews and Mr. Maeroff also mention that most U.S. citizens do not know who is on their school board, vote for the school board or attend board meetings. And those who do attend are usually angry about some issue and spend their time lashing out at the board.
This is another item that before I decided to become a teacher I did not even think about. To be honest, in all of my years (I sound old now!) I have only attended one school board meeting. Since my 16 year old son just attended one last year that means we are tied for attendance and I have 32 years on him!
Also, as pre-service teachers it is is good to know how the current school board/superintendent system works and how it not only will affect us, but how we can make a difference in looking to make it better or change it completely. As common citizens and taxpayers, it is also good to know about our current system, how we can get involved and that doing away with a school board completely might not make our schools better
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