St. Louis School Board awarded no-bid deal to counter charters
The St. Louis school system is so bad that it's being taken over by the state, so what does the local school board do in two of its last acts? A)Spend $25,000 to hire a crony marketing firm to develop a campaign to attack charter schools -- and then, for good measure, B) Terminate the contract with Teach for America. Ya just can't make this stuff up!
I wish this was a rogue school board, but actually I think it's pretty typical -- which is a great tragedy for the children trapped in systems run by such school boards.
Two final thoughts on this: A) Stories like this really underscore the need for mayoral control. At least if a mayor did something this outrageous, he/she could be held accountable by the voters; and B) While the story doesn't mention it, I'd bet my last dollar that the four members of the board that voted for this are in the pocket of the local teachers' union -- which is the norm.
Here's an interesting piece of trivia: school board elections are typically not held on the same day as regular elections for other offices. As a result, voter turnout is abysmal -- often in the single digits. This raises the obvious question: why not have school board candidates on the ballot with every other elected official? The answer, according to former Secretary of Education, Rod Paige: the teachers unions have always fought this because they love low turnout, as it makes it easy for them to elect whomever they choose to school boards. Just imagine the resulting "negotiations" over pay, perks, hours, ability to hire and fire teachers, etc. Again, what a great argument for mayoral control!
St. Louis School Board awarded no-bid deal to counter charters
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/30/2007
The St. Louis School Board Tuesday awarded a no-bid contract to a marketing firm headed by a local radio show host with ties to two board members.
posted by Whitney Tilson at 2:55 PM
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