The 2021 state law change allowing Hamilton County school board elections to be partisan was a monumental step in stopping the leftist lurch of our public schools.
Partisan elections provide the voter with critical insight into the true political leanings of a candidate. The result was immediate, as the school board in the following election cycle became 7-4 in the Republican favor, a much better reflection on the county’s political makeup.
My advice to the seven Republican school board members:
› Use your majority to take decisive action to turn around our school system. Adopt a bold action plan that is like what businesses must do when confronted with failure – bring in turnaround management. We don’t have the luxury of nibbling around the edges. Eliminate as many layers of the bureaucracy as you need. As one of my most admired chief executives/entrepreneurs once told me – don’t be afraid to break some glass.
› Speaking of CEOs – hire one. Let there be a provost to oversee academic affairs, but leave the running of a $700 million operation in the hands of an experienced and accomplished businessperson. We don’t need holders of educational doctorates running such a large and complex organization.
› Act like a board and remove your desire to meddle in the management of the school system. Stay out of your district schools – that is not your responsibility. Don’t get in the way of PTAs. Cut the number of board meetings by at least half, and cut the meeting times by 50% as well. Board membership is not a job.
› Eliminate the vestiges of DEI. We have the green light to eradicate the failed DEI mandates of the past 10 years. I strongly suggest reading the Times Free Press Dec. 21 front-page article, “Please tell me you don’t have Trump stuff in your office,” to understand the entrenched and subversive nature of DEI and the persecution of a longtime and highly respected teacher. The cost of DEI is staggering – aggressively eliminate it.
› Demand parental accountability. The time a child is in school is just a fraction of the time needed to learn to read and write. I can hear the wail and cry now – how dare you require parents to take responsibility? But we as a community cannot continue to allow the abdication of parental responsibility. Allowing children to come to the door of the school suffering from malnutrition and traumatized by parental neglect is unacceptable.
› Bifurcate the problem. Our communities such as Signal and Lookout mountains, East Brainerd, Soddy Daisy and Collegedale have the family units and communities that support children learning. Give those schools the freedom to allow their principals to run their schools without the heavy hand of the central office. Reallocate the central office resources to assisting the most troubled schools.
› Study what schools looked like 100+ years ago. One-room schoolhouses turned out some of our nation’s most educated generations and greatest scholars.
› Read the biography of Frederick Douglass by David Blight. Douglass said reading was the pathway from slavery to freedom, both intellectually and literally. Yes, it’s that simple – don’t let anyone tell you it’s not!
In summation, my advice to our school board is to quit rearranging the deck chairs, think outside the box and act boldly – break some glass!
Tom Decosimo is the chief executive officer and managing principal of investment bank Decosimo Corporate Finance and a former Hamilton County Board of Education candidate in District 2.
