Leadership Roles in Education

It is true that any organization is only as good as it's leaders for planning, directing, and motivating workers to achieve goals and objectives. In a district or state education setting, many leadership positions are politically motivated appointees. There are the obvious problems with this practice such as payback or favors to certain groups or individuals, but the biggest issue is the expansion of a bureaucracy with more bosses than workers.

Recently the newly elected California Governor Jerry Brown (D) aannounced that he is eliminating the secretary of education post, saving $1.9 million a year. The savings is an indication of the amount of money attached to such an office. Think of staff, perks, office etc. and it adds up quickly but the next natural thought should be how many of these positions exist in state departments across the country.

In the case of California, the position of secretary of education was created in 1990 when conflict existed between a governor and an elected superintendent of public instruction from different parties. Talk about inflated egos! This was a constant power play between an elected official and an appointed official and the latter never gained much clout. In fact, during the seven-year tenure of the previous Governor Schwarzenegger, five secretaries of education revolved through the office. Sounds like a few 'buddies' built strong resumes this way!

Talking of leadership, school boards members are also under scrutiny where more than 90% are elected through school board elections and fewer than 10% are appointed. The issue here is the quality of people serving on schools boards to guide policy and oversee elementary and secondary education. School board members range from PhD's to folks who have not completed high school. EdWeek (1/12/11) asks if there should be a qualification process to serve on a school board? Seats are taken with virtually no preparation for the tasks that await them. Should there be ongoing training for school board members or can schools be managed without the current 13,809 school boards?

The idea of local governance is part of democracy as perceived by the public at large. It is fair to assume that school boards will be around forever but some form of preparation or training makes sense because the process of quality education is complex and vital.
Michael Cordier