Our New CEO: Open the Dialogue

As our current ‘CEO’ gets ready to leave the position of Superintendent of Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools, the Parents Coalition of Montgomery County asks, what qualities do we want in the leader of our educational community?

For the past almost 10 years we have had a superintendent whose hallmark efforts have been devoted to turning our community of scholars into a multi-billion dollar business. As we have noted on these pages many times, of course, MCPS is slightly different from your average multi-billion dollar business: there is no oversight. The current ‘CEO’ model has gone so far as to not only award millions to questionable high-tech gadgets; but early on, was instrumental in forming the ‘Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education’ (MCBRE) In the end, unlike every other effort to form a partnership between the public schools, which usually need money; and the private sector, which usually donates the money; this one works in reverse. The taxpayers actually fund the private sector, so far did the “education as business’ model go.

So the question is, as we move on, what kind of person do we want to head our community of scholars?

Do we want another ‘CEO’ who funds business with our tax dollars, to the detriment of our children, our classrooms, our teachers and our civic life?

I would urge the citizens of Montgomery County to hire someone with some intellect, someone who believes that our children and our teachers participate in an intellectual community, a community of scholars.

I refer to the recent article, ‘Dehumanized,’ by Mark Slouka, in the current edition of Harper’s Magazine. Slouka’s thesis is that the Humanities have been so marginalized that even spokespeople for the disciplines are left to plead their case by writing of the value of the Humanities to the national economy.

Slouka asks, “Could there exist, buried under our assumptions, another system of value?

He goes on to write,

“Rain does not follow the plow. Political freedom, whatever the market evangelists may tell us, is not an automatic by-product of a growing economy; democratic institutions do not spring up, like flowers at the feet of the magi, in the tire tracks of commerce. They just don’t. They’re a different species. They require a different kind of tending.”

Slouka’s reference to our democratic institutions rings true especially in Montgomery County, where turnouts of less than 10 percent of the voters at election time are common in some areas. Public discourse is damped and at risk by the model of a ‘CEO,’ and a Board of Education that disdains public input and the civic life that results from a robust public education.

The discussion is open.