Letters To the Editor

Pr. George's Deserves Better School Officials

The Prince George's County school system is crumbling and needs your help. We have one of the highest dropout rates, among the highest truancy rates, the second-worst test scores in Maryland, behind Baltimore City, and 3,000 students who will not receive a high school diploma this year.

Why is the county school system in such a state? We have the wrong leadership.

Now add to that the slump in the economy, the highest foreclosure rate in the state, the budget deficit, the major cuts that must be made in the school board budget and the fact that we are working on our fifth superintendent in 10 years. We are headed for a derailment, and the citizens are crying out for change.

So what can we do?

Let's first put in place leadership that understands how to guide us out of this situation, instead of saying that most superintendents leave in three to four years anyway. Look at our neighboring school districts. Arlington County's superintendent has been in that position for 11 years. The superintendent in Montgomery County, the nation's 16th-largest school district, was appointed to the position in 1999. In Fairfax County, the nation's 13th-largest school district, the superintendent has been on the job since July 2004. The superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools, one of the nation's 25 largest school systems, has been there since 2000.

As the nation's 18th-largest school district and the second-largest school district in Maryland, we can't remain at the bottom. Prince George's residents need to take the school system back from the people who do not have our best interests at heart.

We need to send a message to members of the school board that they will be evaluated individually and held accountable for their actions. Constituents voted for the first time in years for a new school board in 2006 whose members promised change from the old ways. What we have gotten, however, is the status quo.

We need to monitor where our tax dollars are going. The school board leadership approved a bonus and a raise for a superintendent on his way out the door and at the same time approved funds for the construction of a Board of Education facility to the tune of $36 million and counting. Board members have recently called for the closure of 12 schools in our poorest neighborhoods, inside the Capital Beltway. All these things are at the expense of the children. The board members say, "children first," but it seems more like "dollars first!"

Considering the economy, why is it necessary to hire a search firm to find the next school superintendent? The board chose the same organization that recommended Andre J. Hornsby, the former superintendent who was recently sentenced to six years in prison on corruption charges. Let's hope our tax dollars, which are paying for the search, are not being wasted.

The elected school board named an interim superintendent, William R. Hite Jr., at the most critical time in our system, to manage an annual budget of $1.7 billion and a grants budget of about $1 billion. As he makes recommendations on the budget, will our tax dollars be used in the most expedient manner? Will our school budget be mismanaged while unnecessary programs are added, experimenting on our kids and putting children last?

Each time we bring in these new superintendents, they create more positions which create more layers and more confusion for parents, teachers and students: in a nutshell, another bureaucracy. Enough is enough.

We need to get back to a system that allowed parents direct access to the principal if we had a problem in the school, and we need a superintendent who understands that.