So what is a Journal endorsement worth exactly?

The editors get it; they wrote that school board members have the responsibility of “preparing our children for whatever comes next”.

Though “preparing our children for whatever comes next” clearly includes helping them develop their good character, the Journal is covering up the board’s abdication of the responsibilities of the senior most role models in the entire school district. 

Not one single school board member will respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly to a pivotal question; why won’t you restore the role modeling clause to your own standards of conduct?  Why will you not hold yourself honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct that you establish and enforce upon students?   

It used to read;

“In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult be lower that the standards for students.”

The editors get that “board members have to oversee what this year was a $1.6 billion budget”.   

But they don’t think voters need to know that school board members are spending millions of dollars on cost-is-no-object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators, in meetings in secret and of which they make no recording.

Editors get that “School board members need to have a clear-eyed view of the challenges facing the district”.   

They do not get apparently, that voters also need a clear-eyed view of the challenges facing the district, not the least of which is the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Whatever other qualifications they are endorsing, the editors are endorsing continuing the cover up of an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

APS Bond Issue/Mill Levy – What changed?

The Albuquerque Journal is reporting this morning that the leadership of the APS commissioned a poll in July whose results indicate that voters are ready to pass the bond issue and mill levy.

The Journal report failed to delve deep enough to determine why voters supposedly changed their minds.

• Has the board finally made their own Code of Ethics enforceable?
• Have they stopped meeting in secret and without recording, to spend the operational fund on cost-is-no-object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators?
• Have they adopted even one higher standard of conduct or competence?
• Have they provided new due processes by which they can be held honestly accountable to any standards of conduct at all?
• Have either the supt or the board even acknowledged that there is a standards and accountability crisis?
• Have they stopped using their publicly funded private police force to investigate criminal misconduct of school board members and senior administrators, the very people, the only people to whom they report?

What has changed?   

What has the leadership of the APS done to indicate that they really do understand why voters are reticent to trust them with another dime?   

What have they done to indicate that they finally understand that their squandering of the public trust and treasure must end?

Role Modeling – school board politics third rail.

How can there be a school board member election during which role modeling never comes up?  Not once, ever.

There are a number of issues that come up in public forums and elsewhere, when prospective school board members are asked what they will do and how they will perform as school board members.

One issue that never comes up is role modeling.

It is the third rail of school board politics.

Why?  In an election where each candidate’s willingness and ability to shoulder the burdens of the senior most role models in the entire school district is arguably one of the most important issues to consider, why does it never come up?

Powerful people do not want role modeling to come up in public discussion.

Powerful people do want to engage in open and honest public discussion of role modeling and of actual accountability to any standards of conduct at all; even the law.

The Journal questionnaire does not include a question on role modeling, standards or accountability.  Never has; never will (barring a change in management).

The leadership of the APS questionnaire (12 questions) does not include a question on role modeling, standards or accountability.  Never has; never will (barring a change in school board membership).

If there is a good and ethical reason to avoid open and honest public discussions of ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS, that reason is yet to be articulated by either the Journal or the leadership of the APS.

Stonewalling is the only defense of their indefensible position.

That's wrong, right?

In the United States, it's Character Counts! Week

In the Albuquerque Public Schools, not so much, link.

Libel or truth?

That the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education cannot be held accountable to its own Code of ethics is prima facie evidence of an ethics crisis in the leadership of the APS.

That the Journal will not investigate and report upon that crisis is prima facie evidence of their involvement in an ethics scandal involving the leadership of the APS and the Journal.

That the leadership of the APS is spending millions of dollars in meetings in secret, on cost-is-no-object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators, is prima facie evidence of an accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

That the Journal will not investigate and report upon that crisis is prima facie evidence of their involvement in an accountability scandal involving the leadership of the APS and the Journal.

It is ironic that the best defense against a libelous allegation or an allegation of libel is the same; controverting truth.

All the Journal to clear itself, is to tell the truth;

the whole truth and nothing but the truth

about ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS

Especially if the truth is; the leadership of the APS, individually and collectively, are actually, honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

Voting is already going on and the truth still isn't on the table.

“You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything”

An “anonymous modern proverb” according to the quote investigator, link.

On April 18, 1947 Chaplain Peter Marshall spoke the following version in prayer:

“… Give to us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for—because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.”

What are the nearly 90,000 of this community’s sons and daughters in the APS being taught to stand for, in order that they not fall for anything? What is being done district wide?

Nothing; by the admission of the “leadership” of the APS. They haven’t spent one thin dime.

The Albuquerque Public Schools is not engaged in any district wide effort to help students develop their good character. This despite an old (March 2, 1994) but still binding school board resolution wherein they promised to do just that; teach students about good character and provide for them, adult role models of good character.

The only explanation for the board’s refusal implement their resolution, which they have neither amended nor rescinded, came from school board president Don Duran; “It’s only a resolution.”

In the face of a school board member election, it is time for an open and honest public discussion of the 1994 resolution and of board member’s and candidate’s commitment to developing character in students.

It is incumbent upon the board, to summon amend, rescind, or re-endorse their resolution, link.

William Bennett has much to say on the obligation of schools in developing character.

If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits. 

“The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day.”

“There is nothing more influential in a child’s life than the moral power of quiet example. For children to take morality seriously they must see adults take morality seriously.”

Example has more followers than reason. Bovee

Character is taught by example. If APS students are to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone is going to have to show them what those look like.

To date, the board has declined to defend their abdication of their responsibilities as role models.

Is it because they cannot summon the character and the courage to be candid, forthright and honest with stake and interest holders about their (un)willingness to be held actually, honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service?

Of course it is; duh!

Why can’t APS find teachers?

There are two forces at play;
1.    There is a global disinterest in teaching careers in general for a number of clearly understood reasons, and
2.    There is a local disinterest in teaching in APS schools specifically for reasons which are not clearly understood.

The reasons that teachers do not want to teach in APS classrooms is not clearly understood because there is no data understand.  In the absence of any evidence to the contrary;  it is reasonable to assume APS still does not do exit interviews.

Why would the leadership of the APS decide to not do exit interviews?

Perhaps it never occurred to them.  Or
Maybe it did occur to them and, they made a deliberate decision to not gather that data.

Why would they not gather data on why teachers no longer want to teach in the APS?  Why, except that the data reflects badly somehow on the leadership of the APS?


How might the data indict the leadership of the APS?

For one, more than a few teachers are fed up with trying to teach in out of control classrooms and schools. And, the leadership of the APS is directly responsible for the “out of control” in schools.
It is the leadership of the APS, the board, who write discipline policies; it is the leadership of the APS, administrators, who do or do not enforce them adequately.

A significant number of APS schools and classrooms are out of control.

Who is in control in a classroom or school, the adults who write the rules or the students who deliberately disobey them?

All nonsense? 

You have to wonder why nobody ever talks about student discipline and about chronically disruptive students.

“To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true”. Ayn Rand

You have to wonder why the Journal never investigates and reports upon student discipline in the APS; even to report that all is well.

Except that it has never occurred to them.  Or
Perhaps it did, and they made a deliberate decision to catch and kill the story.

Do APS students have a right to role models?

Fact; There is not one single school board member or senior administrator willing to be held actually and honestly accountable as a role model of accountability to the same standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students.

What are those standards?  What are the standards of conduct to which students are expected to hold themselves accountable?

By unanimous school board resolution in 1994, a set of standards was adopted for students.  The resolution has been neither amended nor rescinded.  The board is acting as if their resolution is no longer binding.  When prompted to revisit the resolution, to clear up any confusion, the board chose to ignore the prompt, link.

It is fair to say; the board refuses to revisit the resolution.

There is only reason to hide the truth and that is to avoid the consequences of the truth being known.

The truth is;
the Albuquerque Schools Board of Education unanimously resolved to adopt higher standards of conduct for students.  A specific nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct was identified; the Pillars of Character Counts!

Within their resolution, the following specific resolve;
"That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools".

They promised to hold themselves accountable as the senior most role models of accountability to the higher standards of conduct they established and have enforced upon students.

In the face of efforts to hold them honestly accountable as role models of higher standards of conduct, the board voted in unison again; to remove from their own standards of conduct a clause which had read;
in no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

Since that night; there have been double standards of conduct in the APS.  Students are expected, in defense of their good character, to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law; to expect from themselves “more than the law requires and less than the law allows”.  Their senior most role models are arguably unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

The leadership of the APS has a record.  It is off unlimited spending on litigation and legal weaselry in order to except themselves from accountability.

The APS school board is unaccountable to their own Code of Ethics.

If voters believe that students have a right to adult role models, they should not vote for candidates who are not willing to shoulder those obligations.  The most important duty of a role model is to stand up; to speak out.  There are no inconspicuous role models; the concept is oxymoronic.

Candidates who are unwilling to discuss their obligations as the senior most role models in the entire APS cannot be role models.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone is going to have to show them what those look like.

William Inge wrote; the proper time to influence the character of a child is about a hundred years before he is born.

Character is taught by personal example. 
Character is taught only by personal example.

The senior most role models in the APS cannot be role models of character and the courage, without requiring from themselves, both character and courage.

The leadership of the APS; a good ol’ boy oligarchy?

The fact that many of the leadership of the APS are women notwithstanding, the leadership of the APS is a good ol’ boy oligarchy; a power structure in which power rests with a small number of people with close ties of loyalty and mutual support.  

In the APS oligarchy, that mutual support manifests itself for example, in their use of the operational fund to finance cost-is-no-object legal defenses for each other.  And in maintaining a publicly funded private police force; accountable directly to and, only to, APS school board members and administrators, to investigate alleged criminal misconduct of school board members and administrators.

Their record is of hiding behind legal weaselry; mountains of unscrupulous lawyers and limitless money to keep them busy litigating against the public interests.

The antidote for the immunity they have created and maintain for themselves and each other is transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within public service.

If the APS good ol’ boys are actually, honest to God accountable to any standards at all, they should be able to prove it.  

They should be able to point to those standards and they should be able to point to due processes by which they can be held accountable to those standards, even against their will.

They can’t and they won’t.

No more money for them, until they do.

Vote no on the bond issue and mill levy.