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WHY AN APPOINTED BOARD MAKES SENSE FOR
MONTCLAIR
Ted Mattox and others who support an elected
board say it's not just about taxes. But for a lot of people it
is.
People are scared.
The economy is bad.
Some jobs on Wall Street and at newspapers are never coming
back, even when the economy recovers.
Even people with jobs are worried about being priced out of
Montclair .
Unfortunately an elected Bd of Ed won't help
at all.
I am resident of Montclair, but have spent
the last several years serving as Deputy Chancellor of the New
York City public school system. In that capacity, I helped lead
the legislative fight to preserve mayoral control of the system.
To be sure, the parallels between NYC and Montclair are
imperfect. The NYC Department of Education serves 1.1 million
students in 1500 schools, with approximately 77,000 teachers and
a $21 billion operating budget. Nonetheless, my experience in NY
leads me to strongly support the preservation of an appointed
board in Montclair. Indeed, as my kids would say, I believe this
falls in the category of a “no brainer.”
I am writing this letter to urge all
Montclair residents to vote NO on Tuesday November 3 for an
elected school board. I write as the parent of four school-aged
children in the Montclair Public Schools, a homeowner, a public
school teacher and a former elected member of the Hoboken Board
of Education.
This Election Day, November 3rd, we will do
more than elect our governor. The ballot has a referendum to
decide if Montclair should retain its appointed school board or
change to an elected school board
I am very concerned that this referendum
may pass, in part because of a traditional trend of low voter
turnout, and also due to a misconception that in a democracy,
the best option is to give people a voice by being able to vote
on everything.
The drive to put on the November ballot the
change to make the School Board elective benefited, perhaps
decisively, from the recent news that the School Board paid the
Superintendent a bonus. I’m not sure of the merits of the bonus
decision. But the fact is that the amount involved is a
miniscule portion of our school budget. Which goes to my basic
objection to making
this change.
The League of Women Voters of the Montclair
Area urges residents to vote "NO" on the school board referendum
. The reasons to keep the appointed board are as follows:
APPOINTING sincerely dedicated people for
long, overlapping terms helps build a more objective and less
politically oriented board.
Supporters and opponents of an elected board
both want the same thing--accountability. The question is how to
get it. The answer, as districts across the country have
learned, is with a mayor-appointed board. Montclair was years
ahead on this and now risks moving backward.
Article published in the "American School
Board Journal, October 2009. (.pdf)
Once again, the voters in Montclair may have
the opportunity to decide whether our appointed school board
should be replaced by an elected board.
The Appointed Board Coalition consists of
Montclair citizens united in our advocacy of retaining an
appointed board. Our appointed boards have served Montclair well
for over sixty years. People move to Montclair because of our
quality, integrated public schools, helping to maintain property
values.
I have been working with the Appointed Board
Coalition, but the following is a summary of my opinions.
Three major areas of concern:
Quality of education
Cost of education/property taxes
Participatory democracy
I am a lifelong educator who currently works
for the Education Law Center on issues of school funding and
secondary reform. I am well-acquainted with the difficult
issues you all wrestle with when it comes to funding our public
schools and the issues involved in choosing an elected vs.
appointed board. I have been part of these discussions many
times during my thirty years in Montclair.
Dear [elected board supporter]: As we discussed when we met at the 4th Ward discussion on this issue, you and
I have different perspectives on the question of an elected vs. an appointed
Board of Education. Yet I appreciate your passion and interest in the topic and
I would like to engage in a discussion beyond what might or might not happen to
the composition of the board (neither of us can predict whether the board will
or will not be diverse or whether people will turn out to vote.) However, we can
look at more concrete outcomes, like who is likely to run and what the
implications might be.
There is no evidence correlating elected
school boards with lower taxes. There is evidence, however, of
numerous potential problems with elected boards, particularly in
towns like ours. Diversity in school-board membership, for
example, has proven to be an elusive goal in towns with a
majority-white electorate but a sizeable African American
student population. (For example, it was a decade before West
Orange elected an African-American board member after it
switched to an elected board.) We also know that, with such low
turnout for school board elections, it takes very few votes for
people with political or social agendas —including extremist
positions—to gain seats on elected boards.
Many Montclair residents feel angry and
powerless to stem the endless cycle of annual increases to our
already enormous tax burden.
This frustration has found voice in the
petition to change the Board of Education from an appointed to
an elected body. Unfortunately, an elected board is not the
answer.
Once again Montclair voters may have to decide whether to change to an
elected school board with a vote on the budget. There is no correlation between
successful boards and board types. There are good and bad appointed boards.
There are good and bad elected boards. The question today is: What type of board
is best for Montclair?
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