referendum for an elected school board in chicago.

[mopinko]

i am curious what the folks in this forum think about the issue of elected vs appointed school boards.
for years we voted on the board of trustees for the illinois university system. nobody knew or cared who they were voting for. this exercise in futility was ended in '95. nothing has changed that i can see, but it would be interesting to see a serious research project on this.

the chicago school board here has long been a nest of bloodsuckers and cronies. i don't really know how much power they actually have over much besides purchasing. i think it is better than it used to be, if for no other reason that it was pared down from (i think) 17 members to 5 when ritchie daley got control.
but there is a move afoot to get a referendum (advisory) on the ballot to move to an elected board. i think a big part of the motivation is aimed at penny pritzker, who is one of the richest citizens of chicago.
i just don't think the voters will give a shit. they already grumble about voting for judges. and it will be the wealthy trust fund babies who have time and money to run and win.

does anyone think this will help at all?

[Mponti]

1. Pick your poison

in this era of corporatizing public schools, i favor elections. Rather have stupid voters than ideological appointees.

[YvonneCa]

2. What you will have is a more...

...political and more polarized board, IMO. If what you are trying to help is children in public schools...or public education, in general...I'm not sure electing board members will help either. It may be a 'going from the frying pan into the fire' type of situation.

IMO, any member of a board of education... elected or appointed... needs to understand child development, curriculum and instruction, pedagogy IN ADDITION TO the current issues in education, such as the education reform debate. When boards lack this knowledge, they can be manipulated by anyone with an agenda...education reform, textbook purchasing, testing, evaluation, etc.

I think there are a LOT of school boards out there with well-intentioned but under-informed members making some VERY critical decisions for their school districts. Will electing board members lower the number of low-information board members? Probably not. Will the voters care about having this added responsibility for their schools? They will when things start to go wrong...

[mopinko]

3. will those elected come from the same pool of people as those appointed?

likely, imho

[YvonneCa]

4. That's a good...

...question. I agree that that is likely. But I think the appointed pool of people is a subset of the elected pool...think of a Venn Diagram.

The elites' are in that larger pool, as are educator-types. Who gets appointed likely depends upon who has that job (the Mayor?). GOP would probably appoint elites and business-types...while Dems (in a more perfect world) would appoint educators. Sort of like appointing a Supreme Court nominee...

Now if Rahm is the mayor...


If board members are elected, then we must depend on the skill, focus, motivation, intelligence and information-level of the electorate...

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I think the people in a community should have the right to elect a school board

It's undemocratic to have them appointed.

The one I work for is elected, by a slim margin of voters. The last election, only 6% of registered voters bothered to vote. But I still think they should have the right to choose their own school board.

That doesn't guarantee a functional and competent board but the people deserve a voice, don't they?

[mopinko]

6. like taking snake oil, the most damage is from the lack

of doing the right thing, while you chase this shiny object. i think it is a waste of time better spent.

[RobertAustin]

7. Good idea, but not enough.

Of course, voters should have a say, but merely having an elected school board won't fix everything.

Appointed and elected school boards around the country hire too many administrators, pay them too much, and then many of these administrators let power go to their heads, become petty tyrants, and start terrorizing teachers. These abused teachers, in turn, get criticized by everyone when their students underperform. This problem starts with our nationwide army of administrators who do far more harm than good, and, to deal with this problem, we are petitioning Congress to fix this problem, by cutting their pay through federal legislation. With the monetary incentive lessened, the abusive administrators will find other work, leaving only the small fraction of decent administrators who are willing to work for reasonable salaries.

The petition explains itself. If you agree with it, please sign it, and pass it on. Here is the link: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-c-a-p-education-reform-proposal-save-america-s-schools-by-cutting-administrators-pay-with-federal-legislation