Broward School Board's policies/results are deal breakers. Let Murray be Murray!

My comments follow this Sun-Sentinel Broward politics blog post from yesterday and article by Anthony Man and Akilah Johnson today on the Broward School Board, and one of their typically bad PR moves, and the Hannah Sampson article on the same that appeared today in the Herald.

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Broward Politics blog
Broward schools want some federal bailout money
Posted by Anthony Man at 4:21 PM
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/school_board_elections/
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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/breaking-news/story/804598.html
Miami Herald
Broward School Board to vote on bailout request
By Hannah Sampson
December 8, 2008

Potentially joining the ranks of auto executives and banking mavens, the Broward School Board will vote Tuesday on whether it is going to ask the federal government for a bailout.

''We're certainly at the edge of a cliff and anywhere at the state or federal level that we can seek help, we will,'' said Broward Schools Superintendent Jim Notter.


The Broward school district is predicting cuts of $160 million for the upcoming school year. Already this year, the district has been told it will lose $34 million from the budget.

Board member Beverly Gallagher, who asked Notter to put the request on the meeting agenda, said she has been getting e-mails from worried parents for weeks asking what the board will do to counter the cuts.


''This is a good start,'' Gallagher said. She said she hoped the request for federal aid would get the attention of state lawmakers, too.

''We know they don't have any money, but we'd like a bigger slice of the pie from them,'' she said.

The board will not vote on a specific amount of money Tuesday. The request says the assistance would be for construction and operating costs.


Broward's vote comes just weeks after Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho called on the federal government to rescue public schools with a bailout.
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www.sun-sentinel.com/news/schools/sfl-flbschools1208sbdec08,0,2449279.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Board might request federal bailout include Broward County schools
Two members say education should be included in Barack Obama's plans to broadly assist the U.S. economy
By Anthony Man and Akilah Johnson
December 8, 2008

Wall Street got one. Detroit automakers may get one this week. Some governors have put their hands out for federal cash, citing their difficulties coping with the national economic crisis.

Now, the Broward School Board is pulling out its own tin cup.

"We will ask Barack Obama for bailout money for public education," School Board member Beverly Gallagher said Sunday. "We think if he bails anybody out, it should be public education."

Gallagher said she has asked Superintendent James Notter to prepare a resolution for the board to consider Tuesday. She expects the proposal to pass.

School Board Chairwoman Maureen Dinnen said Sunday the district would be "derelict within our duty if we didn't say, 'Hey, here is our list of things that we need you guys to pay attention to.'"

President-elect Barack Obama announced Saturday that his administration will institute a massive public-works initiative for such infrastructure projects as repairing roads and bridges, while also increasing technology and so-called green jobs.

"Certainly, schools rank as high as a roadway or a bridge or something," Dinnen said.

Gallagher agreed, saying schools deserve special consideration from federal taxpayers."

If you don't have a strong public education system, you don't have a strong work force." Gallagher said.She didn't have a specific dollar amount in mind.

She said she'd like capital funding to help improve older school facilities and operating funding to help pay for work-force training.

After slashing $94 million from this school year's budget, the district, the sixth largest in the nation, expects to lose about $160 million for the 2009-10 school year, according to the preliminary request on Tuesday's agenda.

Notter said in November that he expects more cuts will come when the Legislature meets in the spring.

The district will continue its freeze on filling non-instructional jobs, while looking for other ways to save money, he said. Construction projects have either been scuttled by the state or put on hold by the district.

"It is critical that the federal government include public schools in any financial relief efforts in order to ensure economic recovery in the State of Florida and throughout the nation," the preliminary request reads.
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$160 million loss expected
After slashing $94 million from this year's budget, the district, the sixth largest in the nation, expects to lose $160 million for the 2009-10 school year, according to a resolution drafted for Tuesday's meeting.

Reader comments at:
http://www.topix.net/forum/source/south-florida-sun-sentinel/TPNO8B1H27O5Q5E9T
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Tried to put a shortened version of this on the Herald's website comment area, below the article, but it kept cutting too many words. Hence...

If this foolish idea were actually allowed to reach fruition, don't we already know from experience what we'd be hearing about months from now?

An avalanche of after-the-fact reporting on the closed-to-the-public Workshop/Retreat in Naples or Captiva or somewhere that the Broward County School Board, James Notter & Co. would have to take, so they could focus and concentrate their energy on what they'd spend the money on.

A lot of Broward voters in District 1 like me voted for Ann Murray for Broward School Board over personable Rick Saltrick precisely because despite some very appealing qualities, he was TOO MUCH LIKE the current Board members in policy outlook, and probably wouldn't fight hard enough for taxpayers and parents against either poor administration or union policies when confronted with them.

I met Saltrick a few times in the weeks before the election, in both Hollywood and in Hallandale Beach, and would certainly strongly consider voting for him in the future for another political office.
Hell, I wouldn't mind exchanging him in a heartbeat for about two dozen people I can think of who are currently in office hereabouts.

But for Broward School Board, I felt that his strong connections/ties to current and past Broward education administration types/lobbyists/fixers, which he thought was a plus, and certainly was as far as raising campaign money and producing high-quality campaign literature, became a negative at the ballot box at a time when people really want to see increased accountability.
Or at least say they do.

Perhaps too much "get along" and not enough signs of clear-cut independence.

Apparently, as the vote showed, I wasn't alone in my intuition.

Murray's rhetorical question towards the end of the campaign about why he would spend so much money for a part-time job really hit home with a lot of voters I spoke with, too.
Even ones in his redoubt of Hollywood who had voted for Saltrick in the primary.

Meanwhile, Murray's stated position that her work experience gave her a clear insight into the system's bloat, as well as ideas as to where the bodies were hidden, resonated with voters.

She deserves the chance to use her new position on the Board to do more digging and make those sorts of arguments from the dais, and make the relevant information/policies public before the Broward School Board gets one more cent.

With the exception of Murray, the existing Board members seem to be Educrats in complete denial about how bad most of even the "average" schools are in their system.

Even worse, they seem to fundamentally misunderstand what a deal-breaker that sort of pronounced mediocrity -and inability to effectively deal with crime- is for many companies and individuals/families who are genuinely interested in relocating down here, even after they get over the unjustified housing costs.

And incidents like the one this spot-on Glenna Milberg story from the end of November highlights,
about an incident in Hallandale, only make their apathy and unwillingness to re-examine existing policies look more stark and pathetic.
16-Year-Old Accused Of Bringing Knives To School, 20 Students Expelled For Weapons This Year POSTED: 6:11 pm EST November 24, 2008
Video at http://www.local10.com/news/18053278/detail.html

Sunshine or not, the combination of high housing costs and mediocre, crime-plagued schools is a deal breaker!

The School Board needs to accept that reality, and stop making the same bad mistakes and political arguments, over-and-over, and move on to changing the dynamic with tangible results and less flippant chatter from the likes of Beverly Gallagher.

Until then, save Murray, they simply aren't trustworthy -period.

For more, see this post from the Herald's Naked Politics about my email and post of August 12th
Broward blogger complains about school campaign against amendments 5, 7 and 9
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2008/08/broward-blogger.html

It was written after having seen the School Board's website and reading this August 12th post:
School Board member starts political action committee
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2008/08/school_board_member_starts_political_action_committee.html#more