To Open or To Close?
That is the Question [The above photo is the opening of the Missouri Attorney General’s pamphlet explaining the Open Meetings Law in terms even school board members can understand (but maybe not their lawyers).] The second item of major concern from this board meeting occurs at the 7:30 minute mark. An announcement was made concerning…
Is Good Governance Illegal?
When Open and Transparent Beware the Wolves A Case Study – Preface In this case study, we will demonstrate clearly how the model for school governance detailed in previous segments is the chief contributor to widespread corruption, school board negligence, and direct detrimental impact on the community and students the school board is elected to…
Consent of the Governed
Consent of the Governed “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” – U.S. Declaration of Independence You are about to embark on a case study that displays the damage done by the public-school governance model laid out in the short series “The…
The Man Behind the Curtain
As the adage goes, we’ve looked into the abyss. Let’s take a daring step and jump all the way in. Meet the Missouri Education Roundtable. According to their own agenda, “The Missouri Education Roundtable was formed by the major statewide education associations in 1998 to provide a way for the organizations to speak with one…
Who’s Running This Show? Part II
We’ve looked at how the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA) serves to make every school board in Missouri identically subservient to school administrators. In two sort segments, let’s explore how this happens. The MSBA is made up of delegates from member school boards. These delegates meet and “decide” how school boards ought to function, form…
Who’s Running This Show?
We’ve explored why school boards are impotent to perform their primary duty and how delegation of that duty has been corrupted. Today we will look at who, if not your elected officials, is really running your school district. First, meet the Missouri School Board Association (MSBA). According to Missouri statute, school boards are allowed; not…
How’s That Working for You?
In our previous post we talked about how and why the school board has been rendered ineffective to actually govern the school. We determined that the only real solution short of a “career school board” is effective delegation. Let’s visit the realities of that delegation, see how truly effective it is, and dissect how that…
Meet Your School Board
In a word – AWOL Your school board; regionally called school board, board of education, board of directors or some other name; is the body legally elected by taxpayers of the school district to govern the local public education district. That sounds great. A representative body chosen by the people to direct the education of…