The Clark County School District and fiscal responsibility
The Clark County School Board has selected yet another very expensive superintendent for the district.
If our new guy is the professional we hope he is, he will have examined this opportunity very carefully. On the revenue side, he will have found an intractable Legislature when it comes to additional funding — no matter how imaginative and powerful his improvement strategies are. On the operations side, he will have found board members who will embroil his wishes in politics, backroom maneuvers and a stunning lack of résumé strength. He knows this going in, and yet he takes the job. Why? He gets paid and pensioned. Who picked him? The board.
In the past five years, the outgoing superintendent and the board have barely moved the needle on overall educational improvement while driving us $50 million in debt. Going forward, the new superintendent and the board not only have to get a grip on our education problems, they also have to work out of that debt.
Anyone who takes a salary here has a mandate to be fiscally responsible — that is, revenue minus expenses minus cash reserve contribution minus deficit payment plan equals zero. Are we supposed to conclude that the new superintendent has the cunning and skills to accomplish this? There is only one person who is suitable for running the district: The governor, on behalf of us all as creditors in possession. Yes, he needs to be the trustee for this bankruptcy.
