I know how you feel - I freaked a little bit when I heard the news about City Council wanting to absorb the school district too. However, it's not all bad and there's actually a lot of good to come from the conversation.
I have said for years (I'm getting old if I'm starting to claim I've done things "for years") that EPISD isn't structured correctly. I have also talked about consolidating the many overlapping governments in El Paso. But... I never said anything about one of those entities adopting the other. I was hoping to see how the whole County absorbing the City thing went first... (some people reading this just had their head spin around like a top).
Hand it to City Council - they see a problem and they want to fix it. Do I think certain members of City Council could do it? You bet. Do I think other members of council would end up in prison along with all of their friends if they took over EPISD? 100 percent sure that would happen.
The City unfortunately is in no place to get into the management of another bureaucracy. Forget the legalities and all that mess for a second and just look at the big picture... the picture is too big.
I do commend council for recognizing the problem and trying to attack it, but they've got the wrong idea here.
First of all - let's look at what it really is to run a school district. In all honesty, running a school district isn't much about education. It's about managing a gigantic real estate portfolio and the purchasing power that comes with budgets that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It's much more Wall Street than Sesame Street. Whoever is running the thing, whether individually or by board, must know more about state procurement laws and property management than they do about teaching six-year-olds to read. And that's an unfortunate thing.
The best way to get the focus back on education is to break up that real estate giant (EPISD) into smaller districts that are much more manageable for those who have a background in education instead of business management. I'd say you could even do it by council district to make it easy. And if council wanted a hand in the local education of students the member from that district would have seat on that school board as a voting member.
It's that easy. Well, it's not easy to make it happen because state law makes it nearly impossible. That's what happens when your government gets too big - you can't function within it.
Having smaller districts will allow for precise management of the schools. What works "across the board" in the EPISD now probably doesn't really work all that well for every school. Problems and successes have tended to break along geographic lines - why not separate by those lines? That allows management a narrow focus when taking on problems - the focus missing at EPISD now and probably one of the reasons they decided to cheat.
Think about it for now and I'll write up a more detailed piece later that ties in parents, smaller districts and competition.
What about the other school districts in the City of El Paso?
Will some tax payers pay city tax for the current EPISD and also pay taxes to their independent school district (Ysleta, Socorro, ...) ?
Does anyone think that City Council is more competent than the school boards?
Posted by: disappointed | June 20, 2012 at 05:37 PM
Exhibit 1: New York City and Chicago public schools are under the auspices of the mayors and city councils.
Exhibit 2: The annual budget of EPISD is upwards of $1.5 Billion from it's various funding sources. Do your really want to hand city council that kind of cash to waste? You think Garcia had a party??? just imagine the good time that our local politicos could have?
Exhibit 3: Nearly every person indicted not only had their hands in the every other coffer in town, but every single school district in town....
Exhibit 4: You are correct - education has nothing to do with educations or the best interests of children. Its all about how to divie up the loot provided by the taxpayer.
Posted by: dot | June 20, 2012 at 07:34 PM
There may be a point for breaking it up into smaller, more manageable entities that are withing the abilities of typical unpaid, part-time school board members. However, when politicians get involved in the muck, especially politicians of the caliber that you find in El Paso, forget about that formula. It's like mixing ammonia and bleach! Just think about the government body that throws 1/2 million on "promoting" a losing boxing event, pays triple for a commercial real estate property, dishes out another 1.5Mill for a parking garage and thinks it's "fair" because they'll need it (that's like my teen daughter wanting to spend $10k on a nose job because good looks will be good for her future... or something like that). Point being, these people have no common sense, much less business sense. Put them at the help of a government body subjected to all sorts of state and federal rules and of course, huge budgets and constant decision making and managing of risks and you think they can do a good job? please. Oh then there's the politics and the rancourous cesspool that is El Paso politics (which let's not kid ourselves, is what motivates the sudden concern about Bowie kids who have languished for decades). Who wants their kids subjected to Shapleighites and whatever the other factions are. Who wants to pay taxes to fund that sorry spectacle
Posted by: Ana | June 21, 2012 at 01:33 AM
I've been say this for a while on the comments on El Paso Times. You can control and find corruption when it is a much smaller entity. Let Franklin, Coronado, with Canutillo(already there), Bowie, and Jefferson go to the Canutillo school district. That spreads out the money more with concern to property tax values. El Paso High, Austin, Andress, Chapin, Irvin, Sunset High, Telles Acadamy, and Transmountain Early College High School. The split could be different to make sure property values average out, but anything is better than the Giant we have now. I could even see a 3 way split of the district, but the west side has the highest property values so letting them be on their own would never go.
Either this or you tell Wilson to resign from City Manager and let her go run EPISD.
Posted by: your right | June 21, 2012 at 03:46 PM
let's face it "right." Franklin and CHS subsidize the rest of EPISD, except maybe that part of the westside that goes to El Paso high. they'll never let that cash cow go to Canutillo... although CISD would love it I'm sure.
but hey, you can always drown your sorrows at the new ballpark facing the most dangerous neighborhood in Juarez
Posted by: Ana | June 21, 2012 at 05:39 PM
You need to check the relationship Bob Moore is fostering publicly with elected officials. It's blatant. Some could say it is a bad thing but I can see that it is surely helping to shape the direction and views being developed and promoted within the empowered progressive movement that is driving the bus. The convicted and accused of corruption are done. So if Moore is going to be part of the movement and direction it proves that Veronica Escobar was not kidding when she told voters "You Need The Media By Your Side". She said that many times. So stand by and see how this relationship pans out for the overall outcome of our current social and political direction.
Posted by: Mark | June 23, 2012 at 12:42 PM
Bob Moore attends all their soirees and has lunch frequently with the lady with those horrible curtain dresses.
Posted by: Ana | June 26, 2012 at 07:48 PM