The Shame of Our City ...

The members of the City of Richmond School Board need to find their best "listening ears."

The hissing contest between the City of Richmond Public School Board (RPS) and City of Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones has escalated to epic alpha-male proportions.  

In terms of sheer ego alone, the battle now resembles a monster-truck rally with former City Manager Robert Bobb's consulting firm being paid $35,000 by the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce to advise Jones and his hand-picked 10-member advisory task force on ways to cut the schools budget.  Meanwhile, veteran political consultant and commentator Paul Goldman (and others) in the community have (for no financial gain) quietly tried (and failed) to convince RPS Superintendent Yvonne Brandon and the School Board to work together to identify ways not only to save, but to make money.

With the notable exception of the courageous Second District School Board member, Kim B. Gray,  no one on either side is listening or seems to realize that this will inevitably end up hurting the very people both sides claim to care the most about -- the children.  Gray's repeated efforts to convince the administration and board to focus on educating the children have fallen on deaf ears.  Nor, does it appear that the members of this school board are inclined to listen to what Goldman or anyone else has to say.

This is an election year, after all.  But, enough is enough.
  
More's the pity then that the the remaining eight School Board members fail to realize that they brought this disaster on themselves.  By cheer-leading and genuflecting to the superintendent and her "experts"for the last 3.5 years, the board seems to have suddenly awakened from its slumber and is desperate to have something to claim as an accomplishment.  

Having done its best to assassinate the character of the only board member who has ever attempted to hold them or the administration accountable, plus having virtually ignored the rest of the schools in the system while hyper-focused on the fledgling charter elementary Patrick Henry School for the Arts and Sciences (PHSSA), this board has nothing to bring to the big game in November.

As evidenced by the potential list of cuts that was presented to the task force recently, this School Board and Superintendent really don't get it.  In both symbol and substance, threatening to cut programs like the Governor's Schools, the International Baccalaureate, Spanish immersion, athletics and field trips, while at the same time not eliminating a 1 percent across the board raise for employees -- roughly $1.5 million -- is utterly obscene and politically tone-deaf.  Just how stupid do they think we are? How can they possibly believe that the people of this city will not be offended by such a ham-handed manipulative tactic?

To be sure, budgets are moral documents that reveal the values and priorities of the people who make them. The entrenched refusal of the School Board to cut even a nickel from current RPS budget proposal reveals a cynical and corrupt culture maddeningly determined to damn the torpedoes and destroy itself. Once again, the children and taxpayers of the city are the ones who suffer the greatest collateral damage. 

There are plenty of "alternative cuts" that RPS can realistically put forward rather than toss a grenade like this into the mix, especially if RPS says it is not their position. Reminds me of the old bromide about the mayor of a small west Texas town who tells the local school superintendent that cuts to the budget need to be made. Rather than make the cuts, the superintendent strides onto the field at the next Friday Night football game and tells those gathered that the Mayor has declared that the schools need to cut the football program -- a declaration that was intended to get people upset and angry with the mayor.  

Jones' desires "to fix" the schools are laudable considering that he served as a member and chair of that body from 1979 to 1986 and clearly had a hand or two in creating the current mess.  Regardless of whether he may be attempting to deflect heat from his own administration's missteps concerning the controversy to build the new city jail, fixing the schools is the right fight at the right time. 

It is the most important fight there is not only for the sake of our students, but for the future economic well-being of our region, state and nation.

Despite Gray's best efforts to encourage and challenge her colleagues to do the job they were all elected and swore oaths to do, the School Board has repeatedly ignored its statutory duty and opted to play the role of cheerleader to an administration that sadly stands for little more than protecting the status quo and the job security of a select few.

The School Board brought this mess on itself by repeatedly refusing to do the job it was elected to do.  And now, in an election year,  rather than run on its non-existent record of accomplishing anything constructive, eight of nine members of the School Board have chosen to grandstand in the schoolhouse door.  Were the RPS School Board and Brandon's administration able to cite bonafide accomplishments and concrete plans for future successes, few would dare to begrudge them the money.

As our children prepare to take the Standards of Learning tests (SOLs) in the coming weeks, the citizens of Richmond face an even higher  high-stakes test.  When will the good citizens and taxpayers of Richmond realize that whatever color our skin, we all have skin in this game?

When will the parents, good citizens and taxpayers of Richmond awaken to the fact we have been paying a hefty education "tax" for far too many years with far too little to show?  This "tax" makes the "car tax" that former Governor James Gilmore famously revoked seem a mere drop in the bucket.

When will the members of the School Board realize that by accepting the status quo, they are engaging in what George W. Bush and others have termed "the soft bigotry" of diminished expectations.

And, for the record, there never ever has been anything "soft" about bigotry. Until the members of this School Board understand this, they might as well just go home and leave the hard work to someone else.  As Mark Twain once opined:   “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made school boards.”