DISD & DMN - BOTH NEED SHAKEUPS AT THE TOP!   9/21/08
David Tuthill

Feeling like a cross between Chicken Little and Cassandra these days because I have been complaining about the DISD, its Superintendent and School Board for a long time.  I have copied every rant to my elected officials:  the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, my state senator and state representative.  What have I heard from them about my concerns?  ?????. That?s right silence.

Is their silence an endorsement of the DISD's operations?

A few weeks ago after printing a story about grossly mismanaged budget shortfall, The Dallas Morning News failed to add the DISD to the ?hits and misses? column on its editorial page.  In their 9/18/8 editorial, Editorial: DISD's fiscal follies yield academic price, The DMN editors recommend "Either raise more money through taxes or cut expenses.? to resolve this mess.  

It is sickening that they had the balls to even mention raising taxes as part of the solution.  It is not surprising, however; because they endorsed the school bond proposal even after the suspicious delays in the school district audit.  It was shameless and criminal on both the parts of the DISD and The DMN.  They both conned voters and taxpayers.  Both the DISD and The DMN violated the trust of our children.  When I hear the school board dragging out their mantra that what they do ?is for the good of the children?, I am reminded of predators who feed on those who least can defend themselves.

In all of my communications to DISD trustees, I have never been able to contact the Superintendent.  The DISD web page does not provide an email address to include him in these concerns.  Dr. Hinojosa is sheltered by the trustees. Over the past few days in TAPED TV appearances, Dr. Hinojosa looks clueless and prattles on as he addresses the audience.  He has joined and now surpasses a long line of failed superintendents.  Why we even have the post?  The trustees use him as a bug shield to deflect incoming bad news from themselves.

DISD trustees are in their own little self centered world, too.  They knowingly went to voters with gross misrepresentations and delayed the audit report until after the May bond election.   The DMN and its editors were also there wringing their hands advising their readers to approve the bond proposal, despite a long track record of scandals.  The DMN
editors were enablers to bad government and are responsible, too.  

The audit report labels DISD trustees as incompetent, at best.  They are obviously basking in this as they have outdone themselves yet again!

Superintendent Hinojosa, the Trustees, DISD?s financial and associated administrators, along with The DMN Editorial Board should resign.  Actually, they should be fired with cause so this disgrace follows them in any future career path - much like the albatross in the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.   "Incompetent" should be branded on their foreheads for all to see and to be forewarned!  

Further, the trustees nor Superintendent Hinojosa should not be insured against their incompetence by taxpayer funds.  If they want liability insurance to protect them from their incompetent criminal misdeeds, let them pay for it themselves.  The public should be able to address through the courts any grievance against them without taxpayers shouldering the burden of the trustees or superintendent?s defense.

The DMN Editorial Board needs a shake up, too.  For too long, the paper has been floundering under their mismanagement.  The omission of local news and slanted reporting have contributed in the decline of readership.  I have seen too many questionable stances and news items omissions to trust The DMN to keep me informed.

The district should be placed under some outside governance.  The DISD cannot clean up its act or reform the culture that is so badly entrenched in its operations.

As I write this piece, I wonder if the current structure of public education throughout the country is geared educating students in the 21st century?  We have a model of keeping a student in class, just so the school district can receive money for that student, as opposed to educating them to take their place in the community and work force.  It's day care on a grand scale.  We have placed the burden of raising our children on teachers and abandoned our parental responsibilities.

I am completely ignorant about school vouchers, but I may agree with others who have come to terms with the fact that the present model of education is grossly out of whack and needs to be built anew.

We may need educators who come from a private school background to help chart a new frontier to run our public schools.  People who will not dumb down the academic standards like the present DISD administration has done.  

I dread the next lizard the DISD will put in as superintendent.  I also fear any trustee replacement will be an enabler of mediocrity.

David W. Tuthill