Monday, November 06, 2006
Politics and Schools
The NY Sun reports this morning that an East Bronx principal apparently sent a letter to her school's parents asking them to vote for a city councilman and state senator because they teamed up to secure computers for the school after a bunch were recently stolen. Gotta love NYC!
Gulp. Forget the letter (and forget the reality that computers seem to have an amazing ability to sprout legs and run out of NYC public schools.) Tons of school newsletters in the city regularly praise the council members and assemblymen and senators and borough presidents, etc. who send a little pork the school's way during the budget process. This one seemed to take the next step by actually mentioning the "pro quo" part of what everyone already understands to be a quid pro quo arrangement.
The problem seems not to be the political involvement of the principal, but the goofy budgeting system whereby schools rely on political gamesmanship to get things like computers, air conditioners, new sound systems for the auditorium, etc. It seems that as long as schools need to kiss the ring, schools and the local political apparatus will be inextricably linked.
Gulp. Forget the letter (and forget the reality that computers seem to have an amazing ability to sprout legs and run out of NYC public schools.) Tons of school newsletters in the city regularly praise the council members and assemblymen and senators and borough presidents, etc. who send a little pork the school's way during the budget process. This one seemed to take the next step by actually mentioning the "pro quo" part of what everyone already understands to be a quid pro quo arrangement.
The problem seems not to be the political involvement of the principal, but the goofy budgeting system whereby schools rely on political gamesmanship to get things like computers, air conditioners, new sound systems for the auditorium, etc. It seems that as long as schools need to kiss the ring, schools and the local political apparatus will be inextricably linked.
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