surprised to read about the culture of corruption in South Bay schools in San Diego
County.
hyperinflation from voter-approved bond measures. Now district leaders in San
Ysidro and Sweetwater Union High School District are under investigation for
bribery in connection with construction contracts. The politicization of public school administration has created rampant opportunities for spoiling the public purse for private gain.
frenzy has swept Los Angeles-South Bay.
Beyond their suspect improvement of
test scores (they banish struggling students into lackluster continuations schools)
and retaliation against good teachers who speak up, Centinela Valley Union High
School District appropriates millions of bond dollars toward a construction
company whose campaign donations practically bought the election of the
approving school board members. Local leaders have complained in the press and in court that the school district has arbitrarily knocked down historical landmarks in order to funnel a construction boomlet at Leuzinger High School.
Lennox
School District put one assistant superintendent on leave for allegations of misappropriate
funds. To the possible credit of the district, the assistant superintendent is a well-regarded member of the community who has worked in Lennox for decades. The head of the teachers' union suggested that he, like also every administrator in public education, was wearing too many hats. With all the rules and regulations that come with public appropriations, no wonder that many districts find themselves inevitably slipping into allegations of misuse. How can anyone keep track of all the paperwork?
which has bled the district bankrupt. Like Centinela Valley, Inglewood Unified is synonymous with corruption, from superintendents who practically rule the district like dictators in a failed state, to the teachers who command little respect and even less authority over their classrooms, to the students who routinely return home with missing grades on their report cards because half the teachers are long-term substitute teachers.
When will the voters, the press, and our leaders in
California stop being surprised by the vagrant waves of corruption wiping out
our schools? Beyond the waste of taxpayer
dollars and published allegations of crime, Government schools are hardly “public”. Local leaders have sporadic access to public records. Conscientious school board members cannot research district expenditures
restrictions on homeschooling, plus the gradual demise of school boards and
teachers unions, will end the vagrant corruption of the public trust in public
education. At least federal authorities are investigating the corruption in
South Bay San Diego, but only reforms which focus on expanding the power of choice for parents and students will ensure that school districts use their finances properly. Not the privatization of schools necessarily, but competition among schools will force districts to attract students.