Revealing the Underlying Rot

Where is the Board?
Commentary by Fred Stichnoth


Sometimes it takes a crisis to reveal underlying rot.  We can hope that MCPS' suit against the County fulfills this function.  It depends on us.  


Regarding the appalling suit itself:  those who function in the practical world know that bizarre and extreme measures usually are impractical and misguided.  How did the Board miss this prudential rule of thumb?  


The May 14 Washington Post editorial concludes by stating that the failure of compromise speaks poorly of Superintendent Dr. Weast, the Council President and the County Executive. The Board was not omitted because of the Post's perception of its prudence;  it was omitted because there is no expectation that the Board will exercise its statutory responsibilities.  The Board subordinates itself as a largely ceremonial office of the System.  


The Post attributes the "vacuum in leadership" to money, and "egos, conflicting personalities and political futures."  Yes, but more than those personal factors, the vacuum in leadership is about the collapse of political institutions.  The Superintendent's "leadership" without institutional checks is the riot of ego.  (The institutional checks are wanting.  A mid-level MCPS staffer argued that it is best that the Superintendent mislead the Council to believe in the consistent quality of the schools, in order to secure more funding for more of the same green zone glitter--the Post calls it "the county's golden goose."  A Board of Education member complained that MCPS staff routinely lies to and is otherwise uncooperative with the Board.)  A Board without politics is an arm of the emperor.  What, other than a collapse of politics, can it mean that the four incumbent Board members running for reelection are all without opposition?  


MCPS and its Board department have enshrined their politics-free institution in the Framework for Equity and Excellence--the central statement of Our Call to Action:  "This organizational culture also will serve to protect the ongoing work to promote equity and excellence from external factors that could possibly disrupt the work or distract staff from their focus.  These external factors include political factors, legal considerations, and economic realities."  The System opposes itself to reality.  Through its lawsuit, the Board manages to fly in the face of all three:  politics, law and economics;  true to its resolve, it absconds from the reality-based world.  


If the Board will not function, then it is up to the County Council to resist the bullying and to reveal that the emperor has no clothes.  Beyond the Board and the Council, it is up to us to restore MCPS leadership by returning it to the real world and to politics.