Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic

Once the iceberg had been hit; no captain could change the fate of the doomed ship.

The APS have some serious administrative problems that are manifesting themselves in poor test performance, low graduation rates and poor retention of students, administrative incompetence and corruption, and sagging employee morale.

The next superintendent is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on those issues if they come on board with the idea that the problems stem from, or will be mitigated by a new captain at the helm.

The APS, in order to right itself, needs a stem to stern overhaul. More over, it needs to be overhauled according to the expressed concerns of the least powerful and heretofore ignored players.

The new superintendent will either support those who work at the educational interface by listening to and heeding their advice; or s/he will demand that those same educators fall into line as the APS tries another tack and no other substantive change.

The problem is that, a record of success in enabling "site based management" will not be among the qualifications sought in a new top administrator. It is diametrically oppose to the interests of those who would build and maintain pyramids of powers, at the top of which they all want to sit.