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bzirk -> RE: Who Owns Your School District? (7/10/2008 2:25:15 PM)
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It's true that school board meetings are typically not well attended, and for the most part they have never been well attended. Nothing political is well attended unless there is a very hot topic to hash out or there is a celebrity status attached, e.g., Obama. But to attend for purely civic duty? No, most people don't do that and historically haven't. So lack of attendance at a school board meeting is not where the problem lies.
The problem of inefficiency in districts is mostly how school systems are structured, which includes how they're funded. They are structued to have allegiance to the state and the feds, and teachers and adminstrators are well aware of this. Basically, they know who holds the purse strings, and it's not the taxpayers but rather a governmental entity that has a bit of a disconnect from the taxpayers in the minds of a lot of teachers and administrators. Oh, and the ACLU has hamstrung schools to a degree as well.
But as to school board meeting attendance, I'm curious how many of you posting have attended a school board meeting or more than one or two or ten. No need to answer that, but I am curious. Having said that, quite naturally I will tell you I have attended much more than ten, and only occasionally it was to give input about something I was not happy with, but no matter the reason I was there, I have always come with solutions or possible solutions (hopefully thoughtful solutions based on study of the situation) and never just complaints. I also sat on committes that were expected to give input to the school board, and that's the reason I've been at so many meetings. But what I found interesting among the parents who were not involved at that level is how they felt it was pointless to give input at these meetings or to complain in any way. It was stunning how many parents were afraid their complaints or just desire for things to be done differently would reflect badly on their children. Basically, I just ran into fear among many of these parents when it came to dealing with school administration. They seemed to feel they were going up against city hall, and after witnessing the absurd bureacracy (mostly handed down by the state and feds), I can understand why so many of them feel that way and don't do anything until things get so bad they feel they have no choice, and then most people just move away or move their kid to another school. I can understand that. I didn't move away, but I did move my kid out of the school.
Just to be clear, my opinion is that it's not necessary for most parents to have ever attended a school board meeting in order to be a supportive parent of a public school student or to have a good school district. Not at all. I hope my previous post made it clear that parents invdividually involved with their children's education are really the key, and no school board can bring that about, or should I say can bring that about easily. It just happens because like minded people tend to group together. However, I do think there are some instances where an administrator made a big difference in the integrity and achievement of a school - even when the socio/economic situation was against them. Books and movies usually record those intances they're so unusual. [8D]
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