Watchdog: Superintendent Shows How School Districts Crush Critics

With more than 1,100 school districts in Texas, it's hard for one person to stand up to the powerful educational establishment without getting crushed, branded as crazy or labeled as a hater of public education.School districts have tremendous propaganda powers, and they use them better than any other kind of government. I call this the Madison Avenue-ization of independent school districts. Superintendents and board members sell their product the way Ivory sells soap.Woe to a critic.In district after district, I've seen the machine work to crush an elected board member, taxpaying resident or stubborn parent who asks one too many questions. But I had never seen a schools superintendent spell out in textbook detail the various ways districts stomp opposition and sell an alternative story to the public. Not until now.One of those ISD troublemakers, Brenda Rizos of Lucas, sent me a slide presentation that her home district school superintendent gave about her several years ago at a Texas Association of School Boards state convention in Houston.To give you an idea of Lovejoy ISD Superintendent Ted Moore's tone, he titled his presentation "Under Siege: Responding to Cyber Terrorists."   Continue reading...

Copyright The Dallas Morning News
Contact Us