Sun News
Myrtle Beach, S.C.December 7, 2010
To the Editor:
Horry County Schools’ administration has decided how taxpayer money should be spent since the board of education surrendered this responsibility by discarding traditional governance and replacing it with policy governance in 2000. Since then, the board has been setting achievement goals and allowing the superintendent general and specific control of the means of reaching them. As long as the results are acceptable, the means are conceived by administrative employees of the board of education who are non-elected and not directly accountable to the public for the means they choose to utilize. This practice distances the public from numerous decisions, both philosophical and monetary, by placing too much control into the hands of those who traditionally were charged with carrying out the decisions of the board. Our current economic crisis should reveal the need to return to traditional governance in Horry County Schools.
A revised, projected shortfall of some $20 million for the 2011-2012 school year will virtually necessitate the board scrutinizing the use of taxpayer dollars. In order for our elected representatives to know better the thinking of its constituents, all resources, both human and nonhuman, with which the board may be only nominally familiar, need to be studied and debated publicly. Programs and other initiatives will also need to be evaluated and prioritized by the board for it to determine how best to spend the public’s money.
What might have been rubber stamped by the board in economic good times should not escape the board’s investigating eyes in a competitive environment for limited resources and should not keep it from exercising its appropriate, constitutional responsibilities to manage not only money but to be in charge of the means on which all major monies are expended.
Derisively called micro management by critics of traditional governance, the board’s obligation to direct public education and to be intimately involved in formulating major decisions should be called responsible management. Our form of policy governance is called coherent governance and provides for monitoring of the superintendent by the board. The board is removed essentially from much of the day-to-day operations and means for achieving the ends established by the board. This process is entirely inadequate, lends itself to irresponsible oversight by a well-meaning board, and creates a barrier between means decision makers and taxpaying citizens.
For too long, unfortunately, the public, including teachers, have remained silent and have not demanded their direct, informed input and consent, via their elected representatives, about how our hard-earned dollars are used. In fact, we the people, through our board of education, have turned this responsibility over to "professionals," thinking they should know what is best for our public schools. I, for one, as a citizen first and a teacher second, have never surrendered my mind to accept the belief that there are others, professionals or not, who always know what is best for all of us.
Now is the time, prompted by an economic crisis, to reclaim our individual and collective responsibilities to be significant participants in our constitutionally-established school district. We need to contact our board members and demand that they vote to reestablish traditional governance and put authority back where it properly belongs, with our board of education. Please study the extensive research I have conducted across the United States on this issue at http://policygovernancechandlerchimes.blogspot.com/.
Of most importance, we citizens, including teachers who are on the front lines, need to ensure that our board and the public are well-informed concerning all major issues by assuming our citizenship responsibilities and holding one another accountable to act in the best interest of the public.
Sincerely,
Bobby Chandler
722 Pine Drive
Surfside Beach, S. C. 29575
No comments:
Post a Comment