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Mayor Should Scrap the Rhetoric, Work With School Board

Posted on: Monday, 15 August 2005, 03:00 CDT

It is quite interesting that Mayor Douglas Wilder has come up with another plan to improve academic achievement of city students. He has created a group to monitor Richmond's schools. This is the second piece of the Mayor's "school improvement plan," which includes a parent report card and an academic Olympics. What innovative ways to get every child reading at grade level, mastering algebra, history, and science! Does the Mayor truly believe these are solutions? It appears that when leaders have no vision, they tend to create a diversion that resembles a solution. In the case of creating educational diversions, I give the Mayor an A+.

In the past three years, parents and truly concerned citizens have stepped forward and done an excellent job of overseeing and stating both their approval and concerns about the state of schools. An excellent example is the lawsuit recently filed by parents of special-education students

against the School Board and the city citing concerns about accessibility. I would say they are paying attention.

What is lost in the Mayor's diversion is a focus on students. Students in city schools do not need a group to oversee the daily workings of the district -- that is the job of the School Board. What they do need are volunteers to motivate and encourage them, and to tutor them in the sciences, mathematics, reading, and other subjects. Instead of serving as additional overseers of the school system, the Mayor-appointed commission could spend time recruiting student tutors from VCU and J. Sargeant Reynolds. My suggestion is that the Mayor mobilize caring adults and get them to volunteer and tutor at after-school "homework centers" so that students needing assistance will have places to go to get help. Such centers, staffed with student volunteers from local universities and community colleges, would provide direct instructional assistance that would have a far greater impact on students' academic achievement than any monitoring group.

WE'RE TO believe that the Mayor is upset about the state of city schools! Well, he is 30 years too late with his anger. He has been in a leadership position in Richmond for more than 35 years, and he is just getting around to being angry? If the Mayor is unhappy about city schools, he needs to look no further than himself. Over many decades, the Mayor and his cohort have represented the citizens of Richmond, and during those years an excellent school system became one that parents ran away from rather than embrace. Apparently that was all right, because no one was angry. As long as a few students were excelling, that was fine. The education of the children, especially African-American children, was secondary to harnessing individual political power.

Everyone, including the current Mayor, turned a blind eye to what was going on in the schools. It's nice to finally see Wilder express anger, but he should have expressed this anger as a State Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor. I wonder: How many children, especially African-American children, would have been saved from a life of crime and prison if Wilder and his contemporaries had been outraged long before now?

THE MAYOR'S anger is directed at the wrong people, or maybe he is angry because he is seeing a picture of his inaction. Those of us who served in the recent past, including the current Superintendent, administrators, teachers, staff, and city business leaders have been trying to refloat the sinking ship we inherited. Contrary to what the Mayor thinks of our school system, I would say that these are the best times for city schools because the whole city is now talking about education. These are the best times because citizens, white and black, are participating in our schools in ever- increasing numbers and are engaging in meaningful discussions about the future of Richmond's schools. This focus on education started long before the Mayor took office in January, 2005. I am proud to be part of School Boards that made it fashionable to have a discussion about schools -- good, bad, or ugly.

I supported electing a Mayor-at-large, and especially Wilder. My hope was that we would have a Mayor who would work with the School Board to create a continuous vision of educational excellence and use his positional power to rally the city to support student achievement. Was I fooled!

The Mayor has a right to be angry; RPS is not yet what we want it to be for our children. However, I ask that he not demoralize and insult the teachers and staff, the volunteers and partners, and the administrators who toil day in and day out in a thankless city and work with a significant number of students who need services above and beyond teaching and learning.

In holding people accountable, Wilder should not stomp on the very people who are in the trenches working for an unappreciative city. My hope is that he will wise up and work with the School Board to create a vision for city schools. Part of what has gotten us in this rut is the need for control. Let us put the objective of educating children at the forefront. As a career politician, the Mayor has benefitted from elected power; however, to date, his power has added zero value to the lives of our children.

Perhaps the Mayor soon will realize that the position of Mayor is the last of his political legacy. It is time for him to dispense with the rhetoric and get busy on bringing together all segments of this city for the benefit of our children.

FEEDBACK

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Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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