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Editorial: The Time
is Right for Changes at County Intermediate District
from the Oakland Press
and Neil Munro, January 12, 2003
For more articles visit
www.bridges4kids.org.
News of the
Oakland Schools fiasco barely had reached the public when
Michigan Rep. Ruth Johnson of Holly announced proposed new
laws to help keep such things from happening again.
The biggest
hammer in Johnson's repair kit would allow voters to do away
with their local intermediate school district.
It can be
argued that modern communications methods might well make such
districts obsolete as a layer of bureaucracy between the state
and local districts. Intermediate districts were created in
the early 1960s, largely to handle an increasing number of
specialized services most local districts were to small or too
poor to provide.
Some
intermediate districts have become empires, as in Oakland
County.
Some fear the
elimination of such a district also would do away with special
services such as teacher training. But there is no reason the
same services couldn't be provided by the same kinds of
experts, operating in the private sector and under contract to
the state or local districts.
Oakland
Schools boasted over the years of its central classroom
material center - to help teachers decorate bulletin boards
and so forth. It no doubt has been convenient, but was it ever
necessary?
Another of
Johnson's proposals would allow residents to at least elect
their intermediate district board members. They now are chosen
by local boards, usually, but not necessarily, from their
ranks.
As it is,
there is some doubt that the voters could legally recall the
current Oakland board members if they wanted to. That could be
cleared up by an attorney general's opinion, right away.
Speaking of
the Michigan attorney general, now Mike Cox, his agency should
look into the Oakland Schools mess as soon as possible,
especially whether using special-education tax dollars on a
building and a fiber-optic system is legal. It shouldn't be.
The Whall
report commissioned by the board would be a good basis from
which to begin.
The state
Department of Education, or the governor, could request such
an investigation.
Those who fear
for the survival of intermediate districts, in general, should
welcome a legal inquiry. It could help determine whether the
Oakland problem has become inherent in intermediate districts
or is mainly the
result of a
rogue superintendent.
Chris Whall,
who directed production of the Whall report, noted, for
example, that "A lot of times that is it the style of the
leadership ... if we have a lot faith in that person, we are
less apt to ask questions. I don't think that's ... good ..."
One thing is
obvious. "That person," in this case Superintendent James
Redmond, needs to resign. That's something even his employment
contract can't ban.
If he doesn't
see that, the board should send him home.
His only role
now should be to answer any and all questions fully, something
he hadn't done, according to the report.
Johnson also
has a proposal to tighten up on the spending of tax-increase
dollars.
Judging by our
Voice of the People letters, a lot of voters are sick and
tired of feeling misled by school millage campaigns - and
subsequent spending on things not mentioned on the ballot.
The "mother"
of all these was, of course, the Oakland Schools ballot issue
last September. It was opposed here as a general school tax
hike masquerading as an increase for special education.
What we didn't
know was that Redmond and company planned to use it to enable
the construction of a new office building, too.
The
credibility of school tax votes does need help.
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