With Dr. Eugene White doing the families and taxpayers of Indianapolis a favor by leaving his day job as superintendent of IPS, and the IPS School Board looking for a new person to run the place, I figured I’d throw my hat into the ring for the job. No, I don’t have a superintendent’s license, but the law is being changed so that won’t be necessary to run a school district into the ground.
Now I know you’re wondering what makes me qualified? Well, I’ve been teaching for 10 years. I understand education policy as someone who has been writing about schools for 20 years. I’m an attorney, a great communicator and darn good-looking to boot! Following is my 10-point plan to improve IPS schools.
1 – Anything IPS is doing that has nothing to do with the direct education of children is getting outsourced or consolidated with another school district: cafeteria, janitorial, human resources, payroll, professional development, property care, etc.
2 – I’m going to fire half to two-thirds of the central office, including human resources. They won’t be needed because power will be returned to the individual schools and principals would have control over hiring.
3 – Unless there is some reason why they can’t, all my high school students are getting IndyGo year-round bus passes.
4 – Kiss the overall district budget good-bye. I am eliminating it and giving each principal a budget for his/her school and virtual autonomy on how to run it. We’ll spell out some general guidelines
5 – As far as teachers go, I’m putting together a kitchen cabinet with a member from every school to tell me what I need to know, not want to know.
6 – Create several charter schools from existing schools. And if you want your child to attend, you have to sign an agreement that you will make at least four one-hour visits to the school per year and participate in four activities.
7 – I’m going to the state and ask for virtually every waiver I can get, particularly for those students with special needs that justifiably impede their ability to take standardized tests.
8 – I’m going to partner with every church and institution of higher learning in the county to create an after-school mentoring and tutoring program.
9 – Every five to seven years I am going to require teachers take a year-long paid sabbatical to recharge and refresh their skills.
10 -I’m going to apologize to the citizens of Indianapolis for not doing this sooner.
I truly believe the answers to our problems with schools can be found in empowering staff, returning power to individual schools and not hiding behind excuses.
So, am I hired or what?
Abdul-Hakim Shabazz is an attorney, political commentator and publisher of IndyPolitics.org. You can email comments to him at abdul@indypolitics.org.
