The school board voted, 9-0, to approve the full plan. As that progresses, the clearest test will be the rate at which the school-based management opportunity is expanded systemwide. If there's any material delay in the Kress Commission timetable, citizens can figure that the school board has become the problem rather than the solution. The Boston model That indeed raises an interesting question. Across America, people are questioning the usefulness of school boards.
Many urban boards are in political turmoil that makes Dallas' bitterly divided sessions seem tame.
Boston this year went so far as to abolish its elected board and empower the mayor to appoint his own. Part of the reasoning is that if the schools are the most important institution determining a city's future, then the top elected official of the city ought to exercise control of them. Dallas might, in the event the DISD board were to deep-six the landmark Kress Commission proposals, think of adopting the Boston model. We've rarely seen so much community consensus around such a far-ranging set of reform proposals. If the board tries to deny the ideas oxygen, maybe it's the board itself that ought to be cut off.