Contempt for voter & a power grab

Posted 10/1/15

To the Editor:

As a frequent letter writer, I feel a sense of vindication in light of Councilman Ed Ladocuer’s recent proposal to push for an appointed School Committee for I’ve been …

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Contempt for voter & a power grab

Posted

To the Editor:

As a frequent letter writer, I feel a sense of vindication in light of Councilman Ed Ladocuer’s recent proposal to push for an appointed School Committee for I’ve been convinced that was the ulterior motive of the mayor and assorted members of the City Council for the last five years. If achieved, it would be the death knell for the Warwick School system. The simple, undeniable fact is that there is little empirical evidence to show that an appointed committee is any more effective than an elected one by whatever measurement one chooses to use – fiscal responsibility, accountability, student achievement, etc. In fact, of the 14,000 local school committees across the country, 96 percent are elected. 

An elected School Committee is a direct link between the citizen and the school decision-making body and thus directly accountable to the public. To replace that with a politically appointed one that, by its very nature, would be subject to political influence (the stench of politics) is simply wrong. First and foremost, doing so removes that direct link and places an additional layer, or obstacle, between citizens and their schools. Worse, this additional layer is a political one. Mayors and City Councils are inherently political entities whose decisions are made from a political calculation as much as any other. 

A school committee has a singular focus – education. An appointed school committee blurs that focus because it would not answer directly to the voters.  One can look to the current debate over the efficiency, management, and transparency of the Sewer Authority – an appointed board many of whose decisions are subject to Council approval – and draw their own conclusions as to efficacy of an appointed school committee. 

Empowering a political body to exercise influence or control over ratification of school contracts will result in council members being lobbied in the political arena by those interest groups who have a direct stake in the contract itself. This lobbying can take various forms among which are political campaign contributions that do not exist within the current, non-partisan, elected school committee.   

Instead, perhaps it is now time to begin the debate over whether or not to give a school committee the authority to tax. Nationally, 80% of school districts have that authority and we should investigate how these systems operate and function and whether or not it could work in Warwick. Obviously, serious questions would have to be resolved such as how tax rates would be calculated, rate caps, whether or not voter approval would be required for rates and/or budgets etc.  And remember under the current system we’ve had property tax increases for the last 15 consecutive years and for the last seven of those, the schools have received .016 percent ($800,000) of the total tax increase dollars. The city side of the ledger has received over $50 million. How’s that for balance? 

However, all the above pales in comparison to the single, most offensive aspect of Councilman Ladocuer’s proposal and that is his attempt to completely circumvent the voters in his quest. Yes, the good Councilman is seeking enabling legislation from the General Assembly to accomplish that which must be determined by the voters. This displays an utter contempt for the voter in its purest form. So the same voters who elect the Mayor, the Council, approve bond referendums, and more cannot be trusted to vote on whether or not they want to keep their form of school governance that has existed for over fifty years?  This simply reeks and no citizen of this city, irrespective of where they stand on this issue, should countenance this action. In fact, they should be phoning or emailing their councilperson to register their opposition to this blatant power grab.  

In closing, I contend that the current system is not the obstacle here. It is a system that has worked for 100 years and is still the system of choice across the country. The flaw is not in the current governmental structure – rather the flaw lies in the personalities of those who that operate within it.  We grind axes, especially as budget time approaches, we demagogue, we pontificate, we pander, and on and on. It is adults that fill the seats of the School Committee, City Council and the Mayors office. The system works best when all parties act like adults.

David Testa

Warwick

Comments

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  • richardcorrente

    Dear David Testa,

    First, I respect you for using you full name and not hiding behind the anonymity of a "pen name". But in your closing paragraph you state "It is a system that has worked for 100 years..." and that the flaw is not the system but the personalities; all of which I agree with in past tense but it isn't working today.If we don't change the present system won't we keep making the same results? Tennyson once said "If we continue to do what we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always gotten. Is that what we want?" If you have a better idea, now is the time to present it Dave, and that goes for anyone else reading this too. I think we can agree that the system is broken and in need for a better way. Who wants to step-up with one?

    And as David suggests, don't grind axes, demagogue, pontificate, or pander on and on. Come up with a better idea! Good letter David Testa.

    Richard Corrente

    Democrat for Mayor - 2016

    Thursday, October 1, 2015 Report this

  • davet1107

    Mr. Corrente,

    I believe I addressed a potential solution in the letter. Again, the current system isn't working not because of the system but because orf the people in it. We have Council members who, for example, speak publicly against consolidation and then criticize the schools for not consolidating. We have a Mayor who forced the schools to assume principal and interest on their bonded indebtedness back in '09 and that initial $190K annual burden is now $1.2 million. We have and have had a ridiculously high animosity level betweem the WTU and the SC, and the SC and the Council and the SC and the Mayor because these people can't get out their own way. They talk at each other intead of to each other and none of them can handle the slightest criticism. Everybody has their guard up and doesn't trust each other and no one wants to be the first to change. Worse, in my view, is that the Council and the Mayor are ignorant to just what comprises the school's budget and how the State and Federal govt dictate where most of the monies can be spent. They simply have an inablilty to put themselves in the other's shoes. it's not blood plasma, Mr. Corrente and, I might add, just about every other city and town operates within the same system and at nowhere near the level of distrust. Tennyson also said “No man ever got very high by pulling other people down" - and that's what we have going on today.

    Thursday, October 1, 2015 Report this

  • falina

    It starts at the top... And rolls downhill.

    Tuesday, October 6, 2015 Report this