New Denver school board member Andrea Merida is tech savvy. She is using social media to promote her agenda in ways that are unprecedented in Denver.
Whether you think this is a good or bad thing probably depends on how you feel about Merida’s agenda. But in any case, it’s a fascinating development. Merida has a Facebook page, a blog, and she uses Twitter.
In the past few days she has questioned how DPS calculates graduation rates (“I’m not sure I buy the Superintendent’s explanation, so I’ve asked for the breakdown, because it doesn’t jibe in my mind…probably not in yours, either.”); blasted the district’s system of incentive pay for central administrators – bonuses — (“I’m having a lot of trouble justifying these bonuses in a district with a 48% graduation rate, with the impending likelihood that more than $30 million in cuts will need to be made in the DPS budget in the near future…Frankly, this just seems obscene to me. If this kind of performance happened in the business world, a 48% rate of return would have serious consequences.”)
So, readers, what do you think? Is this a new and effective form of accountability, and connecting with voters? Is it a not-so-subtle attempt to undermine the superintendent by a board member currently on the losing end of a 4-3 board? How do you feel about it?
My initial reaction is that while I disagree with Merida on key issues, this is the wave of the present and future, and other pubic officials would be wise to emulate what she’s doing.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Whether Ms. Merida is on the losing end of 4-3 vote does not make a difference to her requests for information. Finally, we may have someone who will hold the Superintendent accountable for the information that he spews. Not to say that he is not correct, however, when he, or anyone on the old school board (except Jimenez and Kaplan) are asked to clarify issues, all they succeed in doing is muddying the waters even more. This is akin to talking out of both sides of your mouth, or the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. The more they try to clarify things, the more backpedaling they have to do to cover their tracks. Hopefully, Andrea, you will get the answers that you want and that the taxpayers deserve to know. Thank you for being such a strong voice!
Yawn. Merida talks on her website about the bonuses and makes a comparison to the business world. This false equivalence makes me want to scream. We hear stupid things like it all the time from conservatives and others who know very little about education.
I hear Sarah Palin knows how to use Twitter and boy, is that helping her career or what?
I agree it is a false equivalence and I wish we would not use it again as a motivation to change the teacher compensation system in DPS. Since this is a data driven organization, I think data on what works would be a better starting place.
The practices of the business world were also used as motivation to create the new principal pay system referenced above so whether it makes sense or not, the equivalence does sort of apply (though maybe not in the way people imagine).
Please note the agreement of this Kathy with the first Cathy above.
No wonder we are collectively gagging on it.
Nobody should complain about “equivalence comparisons” when public school districts are being operated like privately-held corporate entities to begin with. The only thing public about this entity is where it gets its money and the volume of people its operations affect. Insofar as the operations themselves, the public has always been told to keep its mitts off, and anything that can be done to change this should be done, including Ms. Merida’s blog and other outreach endeavors.
I’ve never found anyone focused along with me on state constitutional provisions that were intended to set Colorado on a different course altogether: Colorado had envisioned a series of elected officials serving PAID four-year terms called County Superintendent of Schools who could be recalled, were responsive directly to the populace, and were to have “managed the operations” of schools within their respective Counties, without experiencing these “Board” problems or being required to respond to community dissatisfaction over district educational goals or achievements. The elected and totally volunteer Boards of Education were to have set educational policy according to their constitutionally-vested “control over INSTRUCTION.” By mixing these apples and oranges, we’ve cooked up a glop that we’ve then made kids drink, and left Superintendents as well as Board members without real power OR accountability. Yuck!
Really Kathy, I don’t see anything like districts as corporate entities. Districts deliver, arguably, a “product/service” called education and taxpayers pay collectively for it. The return on investment comes from maintaining an orderly society which promotes civic growth and welfare. Individual students also gain insight into themselves and their world and this “insight” gets translated into art, science and businesses coming into existence. However, these returns are like very long-term investments because it takes time for people’s educational experience to translate into civic payoff.
Maybe we should use a different kind of metric? Like, ask 30 year olds how they feel their education paid off for them vs. oh, I don’t know, like not having an education or stopping at the 8th grade… Or, maybe look at dollars into educating a citizenry vs. GNP per capita in each SMSA? Think about it–how much does Denver produce in wealth vs. how much the voters spend let’s say, in 10 years’ time on DPS?