I've written about the issues the St. Louis Schools are facing. A new slate of officials chosen by the Black Leadership Roundtable, Civic Progress (a group of powerful white business elites), and the Mayor, have made some real tough decisions about the schools. They've hired a management firm to slash and burn, privatizing services, closing schools, and firing staff. From what I understand they are also planning on bringing in some of the people responsible for the "Houston Miracle". What it looks like at this point was that the Black Leadership Roundtable bit off more than they could chew.
From what I understand they recently took their anger out on their head...in another example of how important it is to be an ELECTED leader.
The head of the Black Leadership Roundtable has been talking about issues of education (specifically the "black-white achievement gap") for years now, and he was one of the chief architects of the deal that saw the new slate elected. Sometime ago the Black Leadership Roundtable received a sizeable grant, and he was informed that he could oversee the grant....BUT that he had to resign his position as chair.
He did so...and was then informed that while his resignation was accepted, the oversight position would go to someone else.
Years down the line he could be viewed as a visionary, and the person who singlehandedly pushed the schools to save themselves. I doubt it for reasons I won't go into here.
But whatever the case, what happened to him is another reason why we need ELECTED leaders. The part I've been focusing on is accountability...we as citizens need to be able to hold these individuals accountable for their actions. But from their perspective, if they truly are going to attempt to engage in radical change (as opposed to say...holding a protest march, then leaving), they need to have a constituency that will protect them. Radical change usually involves shooting off more than a pinky toe, and folks usually react to change like this by doing more than pulling out a knife.
Posted by at October 19, 2003 09:48 AM | TrackBack