“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight.” -Thomas Jefferson
I’ve had that quote, or some version of it, on my mind a lot this past week. I take some pride in the fact that generally, I’m a pretty well-informed guy. I keep up with events, both local and on the larger national and international stage, probably better than most people I run across on a day-to-day basis. It’s nothing to brag about really. When you get down to it, it’s nothing more than a question of priorities.
Not everybody has the time or the inclination to be a committed politico. It means spending literally hours each day reading stories about things that sometimes even you can’t really see a reason to care about. Some people just aren’t built for that sort of thing. Some people, happier people I imagine, prefer to spend their free time reading books about brooding, emo-sounding vampires or catching up on the latest goings on in Two and a Half Men. People who know me might read that last sentence and think that I’m making fun of the people who do those things, but honestly I’m not. I’m starting to think they may be on to something.
What started me down this path towards embracing bread and circuses-style escapism was last week’s Spartanburg Herald-Journal story about the School District 7 Board of Trustees’ latest bit of controversy involving the election of a new school board chairman. The nominating committee had chosen Laura Bauknight as its pick to head the board. Board member Vernon Beatty however, said he planned to challenge Bauknight’s nomination by nominating longtime board member Sharon Porter to the post. The sticking point in all this is that Bauknight is white and Porter is black, and like the last time a chairman was elected, this vote was expected to break along racial lines.
Now is usually the point in this column where I’d give you my opinion on what’s really going on here. There’s just one problem with that though; I don’t have an informed opinion to give. Despite those hours and hours I spend reading articles and generally trying to keep my ear to the ground on local issues, I don’t have the slightest idea what to make of this controversy.
For what it’s worth, nobody I’ve talked to seems to know either. I’m not exactly the sort who runs in the inner circles of Spartanburg’s power elite, so that’s not altogether surprising, but it does speak to a certain failure that worries me. The information necessary to form an intelligent opinion about this issue isn’t readily available. The SH-J piece does a pretty good job of telling you about this year’s dispute, but it doesn’t do much of anything to place it in any sort of larger context. Without knowing more about the situation, how could anyone possibly say with any certainty why there appears to be a racial divide on District 7′s School Board?
That’s not to say that I don’t have my instincts on the subject. I’ve written before about the positively gargantuan achievement gap between District 7′s best and worst elementary and junior high schools, and I’ve also noticed that issues of race and class never seem to get much mention when people talk about the school board. Given that, it’s pretty easy to understand how a school board member in a majority-black district might baulk at the idea of the seemingly endless domination of that board by relatively well-heeled, white Eastsiders. Still, I have no way of knowing if that’s what’s really driving this whole conflict. When you get down to it, a person’s instincts do a pretty shoddy job of filling in for good, old-fashioned information.
I’d like to be able to lay all the blame for my uninformed state at the feet of our local media, but it just wouldn’t be very honest of me to do that. In fact, as a self-appointed member of that local media, I suppose I share some of that blame for the dearth of public information about the politics of District 7′s School Board. After all, nothing has stopped me from attending those meetings. As far as that goes though, nothing has been stopping you either, so wipe that smug look off of your face.
I suppose I could’ve taken the easy route around all this sticky, race and class-laden minefield of an issue, and did what the SH-J’s Editorial Page did on the subject. I could’ve written a fluffy, safe column bemoaning the board’s lack of transparency in going to executive session twice during last week’s meeting. One of those sessions, both hilariously and tragically, was to decide whether the board could go into—drum roll—executive session.
I could’ve hidden my own ignorance about the real issue by pointing out something that literally everybody who doesn’t sit on the District 7 School Board already knows. Executive sessions are fundamentally undemocratic, and should be used as sparingly as possible. The “duh” factor on that one is completely through the roof though, and writing that column would’ve been about as fun as writing a piece on how much I love sunshine. I’m not saying that the lack of transparency in District 7 isn’t an issue, but I just can’t see much of a point in writing something that everybody already agrees with. Show me some anti-transparency folks out there, and then we’ve got a ballgame.
At the end of this rambling piece we’re pretty much right back where we started. The District 7 School Board is obviously dysfunctional, but I can’t really begin to tell you why, and that bothers me very much. After finding that all that time I’ve spent trying to keep up with what’s going on around me still leaves me ill-equipped to form a thoughtful opinion on such an important issue, my first impulse was to just throw my hands up in defeat and get ready for the next season of American Idol. As I wrote earlier, in a certain way I envy the people who go through their daily lives not noticing or caring about this kind of stuff. Still, I know I could never become one of them. That Jefferson quote just won’t let me.
So I’ve decided to do what I should have been doing to start with. I’m going to educate myself more about District 7′s politics. I’m going to start attending those school board meetings, and see for myself what all this conflict is about. I’m going to do it because that’s what being an engaged citizen is about. My ignorance about District 7′s inner workings is my own fault. Lucky for me that embarrassing situation is easy enough to rectify.
Christopher George
I’ve been interested in the school board myself, and being a resident of District 7, I have no more excuse then anyone else as to why I don’t attend meetings, other then I don’t know when they are, or where the meetings are held.
Which brings me to our calender. I didn’t see any civil or government submissions for the month Of January and I know that city council, school boards and county commissioners all have meetings monthly.
We need to see about adding those dates, or encouraging those entities themselves into letting us know of upcoming meetings and events so we can enter them on their behalf.
SO…This is an open invitation to help us make more information to our community available. If you sit on a school board or county or city government, please let us know about upcoming meetings, or point us in the direction of where to find this information. I am certain that community awareness and participation will only enhance the work that you all do.
In fact I will begin the task this week of starting that ball rolling by trying to find what information I can, so I can add it to our calender. Help from you the reader is of course most welcome. Email me at sylvie@spartanburgspark.com for feedback.
Oh, and before I forget, great article as always Chris, my toes felt the stepping on they richly deserved on this.
My opinion about executive session is still in its embryonic state. I lean towards sharing your opinion that it is an undemocratic way to go about resolving issues through an elected board, but there’s a part of me that wonders otherwise. So, do you mind if I play the other side to help me (and maybe other readers) decide what to think about executive session?
Citing your Jefferson quote and realizing that the majority our citizenry seems lacking in sufficient education in local politics… doesn’t executive session provide the board with a way to conduct business that might otherwise be misunderstood by an ill-informed public?
Say the board needs to resolve a personel issue in which a principal is accused by someone of mismanaging a school. Hashing this out in full view of the public could unfairly stain a career and erode parental and student confidence possibly without justification. Or perhaps an expensive new program is proposed and one school needs to be selected for implementation. Parks Hills Elem. gets selected by the board and after a year the program is unsuccessful. Are the board members who argued for Park Hills to be blamed or is the program flawed?
I don’t know that these are the best examples, but I think the point comes across. Sometimes, isn’t it best for the board to make the sausage behind closed doors? Maybe a list of justifiable reasons for going into executive session should be compiled.
Thanks for the comment, Brad.
I’ll admit that my opinion about executive session comes from my own principals more so than anything else. I do think there are instances where it makes sense to have them, but by every account I’ve read or heard D7 has grossly overused executive session, going far beyond the contractual and personnel decisions that are usually the norm.
I sympathize with the notion that if an educated public is essential for democratic rule, then it must follow that an uneducated public would be detrimental to democratic rule, but in the end I don’t think that’s a compelling argument for more closed door sessions. If anything, it’s an argument for more transparency so that those who do choose to get involved would have an easier time getting accurate information. Rightly or wrongly, secrecy breeds suspicion. I’d honestly prefer that too much information was made public, rather than not enough.
I guess what it boils down to is pretty simple: I believe in power from below. I don’t think we live up to our responsibilities as citizens, and I think we could all do more to make our communities better, but I don’t think we’d gain much by allowing secrecy to become the norm in our governemt–no matter whether that government is local or national. Even if it means that the wrong decision would sometimes be made, I’d be more comfortable with that decision if it was made in the light of day. At least then, the people would have a chance to live up to their responsibilities as citizens by seeing what their elected officials are up to.
Fair enough. Thanks for the reply!
Do this!
You may have perceived this piece as “rambling” but it was far from that.
As a writer you have talent, brains, and a hard wired BS detector.
Go for it man.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, camelmike. I hope that whatever I’m able to get out of D7′s board meetings is able to live up to that high-praise.
The issue of race and District 7 seems to be nothing new from my experience.
When we moved to Spartanburg about 17 years ago, we were told not to move into District 7 schools because of issues of race (even though Spartanburg High is generally considered to be a good school–as I came to find out). So we made sure to only look at homes in Districts 5 and 6.
Over the past 17 years I’ve lived in Spartanburg, I can’t tell you how many friends, acquaintances, co-workers, neighbors, etc. I’ve known with kids who made it a point not to move into District 7 when they relocated to Spartanburg, citing race as one of those reasons.
Michael,
When you talk about people discouraging you from moving into District 7 because of race, was that a matter of racial politics and controversy? Or a matter of “District 7 has too many poor black kids”?
My guess — in all honesty — is that white, middle-class and affluent parents are more concerned about the latter (though controversy and political disagreement among trustees doesn’t help). It’s too bad. District 7 has some outstanding schools and programs — though, as Christopher points out — the “achievement gap” is a big problem (and may be in most public districts in the area) — and Spartanburg High School continues to be among the top schools in state for high-achieving students….AP courses in all that.
But, yeah, I think a high percentage of black students is what scares many families away. It’s funny: District 7 gets lots of attention in the press for race-based conflict on the school board. And that’s fair game. And “progressive” closely watch the political situation and issues facing inner-city kids, and they’re often critical of District 7. Again, fair enough. But, the fact is that more progressive families are often the ones who will move into District 7, who are willing to send their kids to schools that aren’t lily-white (even Pine Street has a higher percentage of minority and poor kids than a lot of schools in the county) and that face the pressures of a more urban environment. School officials may not be making all the right moves — but I do believe District 7 is trying to grapple with these challenges in a number of positive ways.
I live in District 7 and know a bit about what is going on here.The awful Herald Journal and its education beat writer Lee Healey don’t like the high salaries for the superintendent and assistant superintendent,don’t like the secrecy which led to the bad country club golf contract proposal last year and to be blunt,don’t like to cover the African American community properly.Guess what the percentage of ethnic students is now in District 7? It’s not majority white. So,on Monday the 18th,I’ll be at the District 7 office for a volunteer training program on how to mentor students be they midddle or high school who need extra help.Yes,it’s part of the Day of Service project for Martin Luther King,Jr. day but it’s also my response to all the crabby bloggers and letters to the editor of the awful Herald Journal who don’t like their taxes,don’t like the District 7 style with high salaried managers,another court suit about course credit for religious courses held off schools property,etc. If you really want to help District 7,then go see or call Thomas White,Jr.the Superintendent and tell him your concerns.I did just that in June when I was the only adult at the public hearing for the new year school budget held at 10am on a Monday morning.Maybe you could tell him to hold the hearing at a more conveniant time or tell him you don’t like his high salary or ask him about your high taxes for the school district budget.But I just canceled my subscription to the awful Herald Journal because I know what the agenda is of its managing editor and challenged citizen,Michael Smith. He does not like District 7 schools,he does not like covering minority community news and while he will never agree,he does not like Spartanburg in the way he minimizes news coverage here daily.