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 voice on the issues facing our schools…”
One voice. Where have we heard those words before? Remember the school board training by the Missouri School Board Association to newly elected members of every school board in Missouri? School boards are cautioned, as though it were law, that they are to “speak with one voice.” Did that idea originate on your board? At the MSBA? No. It’s the top dog, the Missouri Education Roundtable who drives every facet of your school’s operation.
A universally adopted set of “school board policy”, identical in every district, well ordered and lettered. One voice.
A universal set of legislative priorities to be lobbied by your local school district. One voice.
A universal delegation of all power and authority to a well-oiled administrative staff. One voice.
A universal appeal for more and more of your money, year after year, vote after vote. One voice.
The hijacking of your school’s curriculum in a “We know what’s best for your kid” arrogance. One voice.
So, who are these people? Who’s “one voice” are you hearing when your local school board has their meeting to adopt, by consent agenda vote, a new school policy? The Missouri Education Roundtable is composed of: American Federation of Teachers – Missouri, Missouri Association of Elementary School Principals, Missouri Association of School Administrators, Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals, Missouri National Education Association, Missouri State Teachers Association, Missouri State School Board Association, and the Missouri Congress of Parents and Teachers (PTA). Three associations of administrators, three teachers’ unions, the PTA (that’s another story for another time), and the MSBA sitting at a roundtable to apply one voice to the instruction of your child. Your local board is a mere pawn in this game. Your MSBA is merely a pawn in this game. Your dues paid to your local PTA, merely pawns in this game. The idea that you, through some democratic process, vote for the people who govern your school is a fraud of immense proportion levied on the voter and, sadly, the idealistic, well-meaning, well-intentioned candidate running for the position. That water is infested with the vilest creatures any candidate or voter could imagine taking on.
It's interesting to note who is not seated at this roundtable. Absent are the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (the department responsible for the execution of legislative education policy), the Missouri Board of Education, and any representative of the elected government. That’s right. This roundtable operates in the shadows; outside the boundaries of any law, public policy, or elective guidance. School administrators speak to school boards with one voice directing them to turn over all power and authority to school administrators.
You’ve come to the end of this series. More will be forthcoming. But for now, you’ve met the Man Behind the Curtain. And, oddly enough, when you look to your local school superintendent, you finally recognize the man in front of the curtain is the same as the man behind it.
