Not getting it right

The editorial staff at the Ashland Independent thinks the Kentucky Board of Education’s legislative request to implement higher accountability for local school boards and superintendents is on target as far as superintendents go but misses the mark on holding local board members accountable.

The newspaper’s logic doesn’t wash.

At present, Kentucky school superintendents essentially have no more control than the local boards do in problem schools. The School Based Decision Making Council (SBDM) in each school is where all the power rests. A SBDM can thumb its nose at the superintendent just as effectively as it can snub the local board. So, under the current situation, it is no fairer to hang a superintendent than it is to go after a local board.

However, as we recently blogged, the real legislative proposal includes more than the Independent discusses. The state board also wants to modify SBDM authority so that superintendents will have the authority they need. Therefore, superintendents can be fairly held accountable. In the same vein, if the state board’s real proposal is enacted, local school boards should also be held accountable if they don’t act to remove a superintendent who just stands by while even a single school in the district founders.

Very simply, if even a single school in a local district isn’t performing, everyone involved needs to get in the act.

Right now, however, there is a problem with some local boards. They are dominated by elements supported by the teachers’ union, which puts up large sums of money to support allies and defeat opponents. Ideally, the boards should be accountable to the local voters, but it isn’t working out that way in some areas.

Thus, while nearly three dozen schools in this state have failed No Child Left Behind for more than six years in a row (the worst has failed for nine straight years), virtually no one gets fired, virtually no one gets transferred and few (if any) school board members lose re-election.

Meanwhile, the kids in those schools continue to suffer in poor performing schools that condemn students to lifelong consequences.

So, no sir, we think the Kentucky Board of Education has the right idea, this time.

First, restore appropriate authority to local boards and their executive. Then, second, hold them all accountable if necessary.

KERA was way off the mark in the way it destroyed accountability for both local boards and superintendents, and it’s high time to set that right.