#3 Time to Ditch the Charleston County School Board?

The Medical University and Joint Base Charleston employ by far the largest number of workers in Charleston County. However, the number employed by the Charleston County School District is only slightly smaller than that of number three, Boeing. Probably the Charleston County School District doesn't have the fourth largest budget in the county, but its spending has a major impact on our economy. That's why the district needs proper supervision, just as the aforementioned already enjoy. 

Who supervises the superintendent of the Charleston County School District? Who approves the budget proposals of that superintendent? Who has the authority to hire, evaluate, and fire if necessary that superintendent? Here in Charleston County the answer to all those questions is, the elected Board of Trustees, or school board. 

It's not working. It most likely hasn't worked well since the seventies when the consolidated district was formed. We have more than forty years of failure to address serious deficiencies in local education, the result of myriad decisions made by hundreds of elected school board members. As it exists today, the system rots at the core.

The following have gutted the power of the elected board to supervise effectively:

• no qualifications required to serve
• no vetting by party, political or otherwise
• members elected on a countywide basis
• no remuneration for long hours of work
• no investigative coverage of candidates by local media

Maybe this system worked well in the era of the one-room schoolhouse, but in this era of multi-million-dollar football stadiums, it is about as useful as the pot-bellied stove.

Unfortunately, the result is that the rich and powerful carve out their own agendas. Special interests see to it that their interests are met. The superintendent encourages flunkies to run for election. The so-called district representatives don't represent the needs of their districts. When presented with financial budgets, the typical board member who knows nothing about finance or reading a budget must kowtow to the chief financial officer and superintendent. The superintendent is more than happy to view a board that knows nothing about education or handling millions of dollars. The board's yearly evaluation of the superintendent becomes a joke, with the board's handing more and more power to the superintendent. 

Who supervises the superintendent? No one.