Legislative shove to school officials is good for Delta
By Robert Smith

We’re nearly two years into the three-year period for which the Delta Revitalization Task Force was authorized in the 2006 session and the much-ballyhooed group is a flop so far. It has produced plenty of legislative recommendations but nothing of any note has been adopted.
I asked Rep. John Mayo, D-Clarksdale, in a recent email about the status of the group and he indicated that it was time to take stock and regroup. The frustrating thing is that this task force was supposed to be an action-oriented body. It was supposed to move beyond studying the region’s problems and put meaty solutions on the table for the Legislature to act upon.
The result, however, has been uninspiring. The rest of the state frequently shows more interest in the Delta when the subject of political debate is voter ID or scuttling the Yazoo pumps project. The only time in recent memory that interest in the Delta really picked up steam in Jackson was when Rep. Jeff Smith and his allies in the House were looking for members of the Legislative Black Caucus and others to defect and pull the rug out from under Speaker Billy McCoy.
Smith’s candidacy for speaker fell inches short and interest in the Delta quickly vanished. Even with McCoy’s kindness to Delta legislators who backed him, the region is often ignored because there are so many other needs to meet. Jackson residents are fearfully aware that they’ve got a loose cannon mayor in Frank Melton, an ugly reputation for violent crime, and a declining reputation as a business-friendly destination. Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast still keenly feels the sting of Katrina and can hardly be blamed for being self-absorbed.
In this politically inauspicious environment, the Delta would seem to be adrift, lacking a practical plan to address its perennial ills. However, the Legislature may have taken a good first step in the right direction for the Delta during the 2008 regular session, whether the leaders of the House and Senate realize it or not.
That step was a bill that the two chambers sent to Governor Haley Barbour, mandating the removal of school superintendents in districts that continually under-perform. As of this writing, the governor had not yet signed the bill and talk was afloat that state education officials will temporarily suspend the use of some school-accountability measures while upgrading the existing testing/accountability arrangements.
Nevertheless, the Legislature is correct to become more aggressive with people who have control in individual school districts. Rep. Mayo indicated in a message he sent out at the end of the regular session that legislation might be forthcoming in the 2009 regular session to mandate the removal of school board members in chronically bad districts. Mayo, who was the driving force behind the Delta task force idea in the first place, is on the side of the angels when it comes to addressing problems with sloppy school boards.
While the issue hasn’t been addressed by the task force as of yet, the truth is that school board elections in the Mississippi Delta are often uncontested and they frequently result in the election of unqualified yahoos to positions of considerable public authority. This is an equal-opportunity criticism. I watched and wrote about school boards in the Mississippi Delta off and on for nearly two decades, and I’ve seen bad trustees of all kinds. Gender, age, race and income levels don’t seem to make any difference. I’ve seen bad rich, white school board members and bad poor, black school board members. If they’re not bad because they’re lazy, they’re bad because they’re petty micro-managing fools. The fact is that it’s time Mississippi held both superintendents and school board members more accountable for what they do, or don’t do, to educate the state’s youth.
School board members are generally elected one per year, on a staggered basis, and it’s hard to achieve quick improvement because the board member who’s running for re-election in a given year can shamelessly tell the voters that the other four are responsible for the tomfoolery – and get away with it.
In lieu of a better approach to choosing school board members, removing bad ones because their districts have repeatedly underperformed is perhaps the best option available. As I said, I think Mayo and others have at least made a stab in a direction that could make a practical difference in the lives of Deltans.
Local control of school districts is fine, but local control by bumbling school board members and superintendents ought not to be tolerated. Moreover, the idea should be extended to state education bureaucrats in Jackson, too. If the suits at the Mississippi Department of Education can’t or won’t come up with strategies that will radically improve public education in the Delta, then they should be sacked.  DBJ

(Robert Smith, a native of Cleveland, Miss., has written news and opinion copy for several Mississippi Delta newspapers during the past two decades. He can be reached at rhssmith@hotmail.com.)

 

 

 

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