I may be on the way to finding Blagojevich more humorous than annoying with his permanent campaign. The campaign against the State Board of Education in general and Robert Schiller in particular really creates two sides of which neither is terribly sympathetic.
I’ve got to say that proposing $2.2 Billion in school construction money around the state over the next four years is brilliant reelection strategy as well as a great pork inducement to getting what he wants by shutting down the State BoE.
I have rather mixed feelings about the State Board of Education. On the one hand they could provide a helpful infrastructure to deal with school districts that need serious help. On the other hand, there are ways to do so without the degree of the bureaucratic structure that exists under the State BoE. Particularly the rural schools could use assistance in finances and teacher training and recruitment, but the State BoE and the regional superintendents aren’t well organized for either of those tasks other than emergency help.
That said, the State BoE and regional superintendents are designed the way they are because that is what the Lege wanted. G-Rod holding up the regulation book is just as cheap as when Reagan did it. It isn’t the bureaucrats fault that they have to make lots of regulations, it is the lawmakers fault.
Instead of seeking to create a more support oriented agency combined with accountability measures for local districts, Blagojevich decided to go to war. And he’ll probably win with $2.2 billion to pass around the state. And he’ll be able to have a press conference in front of every damn one of the schools built with the money during the next campaign while Pat O’Malley rants about home schoolers.
The question of what should be done is a bit harder. An independent agency works quite well in Missouri–other than dealing with failing districts. Neither party wants to take over failing districts and so they languish. In Illinois the same problem exists as District 189 in East Saint Louis continues to languish with a Board that has no capacity to run the District fighting with the financial oversight panel which does, but doesn’t have the full authority. Would an agency with a political appointee do any better? Probably not–neither party really wants to deal with such districts because the problems appear to be intractable.
Leaving the question still open…which is better? I don’t know. It may not matter if G-Rod wins.