APS' "School Improvement Election" vote YES but only if ...

A Saturday morning Journal began (and might very well complete) their coverage of the APS School Improvement Election; a $575M bond issue and mill levy election, link.

The Journal, by means of reporter Kim Burgess, would have voters believe that the "APS bond election could provide $575M for projects".

Because all of those 575,000,000 dollars will be spent by administrators who are manifestly unaccountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence and, who will work under inadequate oversight and, who will not  keep sound records, there is a distinct possibility that a great deal of those dollars will be spent on fancy furniture for senior administrators' offices instead of in schools and in the best interests of students.

The proof of their austere or lavish spending is there to see atop a building
you paid for.  Taxpayers are not allowed see for themselves, how their hard
earned dollars have been spent.

In order to see the truth firsthand, stake and interest holders would
  have to fight their way past a publicly funded private police force;
a Praetorian Guard "just following orders" to keep them out.

If the truth about standards, accountability and oversight in the leadership of the APS were flattering, it would be easier to find.

You don't hide that kind of information behind armed guards.
Frankly, if the truth were flattering, or even marginally
unflattering, you would be reading about it in the Journal;
it would be posted on APS' award winning website.

I would imagine that if you went to bank wanting to borrow 575 million dollars, the bank might want to know what you are going to spend it on, but they sure as hell would want to know if you were "good" for the loan.

APS school board member and superintendents never have to prove they're good for bond issues and mill levies; that they have even marginal knowledge and skill to be good stewards of hundreds of millions of dollars.

These same people have spent millions and millions of dollars renovating and fortifying their castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd. and can't or won't produce any records of how they spent them.

There's a turd in their punch bowl and there isn't a clean end to grab; they

• knowingly permitted or

• negligently allowed

the squandering of the public trust and treasure entrusted to their stewardship.

The executive and administrative leadership of the APS a record of incompetence and corruption that they don't want to address.

They will not have to address their record, even in the face of an election over a half a billion dollars, because they have the aid and abet of New Mexico Broadcasters Assoc affiliate stations KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV, and of the Journal.

When and where do the board and administration have to prove that they can be trusted as stewards of 575 million dollars and the power that comes with them?

If the best predictor of future performance is indeed current and past performance, then why are current and past performance on the table for examination? 

Vote yes in the "School Improvement Election" but only if a comprehensive examination and review of standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS is well underway.  




photos Mark Bralley