In June 2008, the Community Education Council of District 3 passed a resolution recommending that future CEC members be chosen through public elections, as had been true for local School Board members, in order to increase public participation and fairness. The DOE did not respond to our proposal or seek any further feedback.

Yet this week the Department of Education announced that it has changed the CEC selection process “based on feedback from parent leaders.” The real change: the DOE is putting the process online this year, which will save about half a million dollars. Parents will receive notification by mail from the DOE explaining how to access the new website and 'vote' -- which won't really count, as the vote is described by the DOE as a straw poll intended to guide the actual, real elections. Many of the changes were pure spin, some of which was very funny, for those with a skeptical streak:

  1. The name of the website that will handle the online voting for CEC members, who are nearly powerless since their predecessor group was deliberately gutted by the mayoral control law, is “ powertotheparents.org. ” That’s a good one.

  2. DOE Office of Family Engagement and Advocacy (OFEA) chief Martine Guerrier chose over-the-top exuberance for the tone of her quote, perhaps to compensate for the lack of any authentic increase in parent power. “We are changing the way we partner with parent associations and redefining the relationship between families and their elected representatives,” Guerrier gushed. Very amusing!

  3. The DOE is making a big fuss over a “straw vote” in which parents are invited to state their choice of CEC members in an online poll, which will have no bearing whatsoever on the actual vote (by district PTA officers). Why this illusion of influence would make parents feel more engaged or empowered is a mystery, so that one is perhaps not as funny.

Actual increases in the CECs' powers and duties, and real improvements in the election process, can only be made by the state legislature, when it revisits the mayoral control legislation this June. So why all this hoopla? The smoke-and-mirrors approach fits with the DOE’s apparently fervent desire to avoid actual consultation with parents, preferring instead pretend “consultation.” Do they think no one will notice the difference? Can the leadership be so tone deaf that they thought this would truly make parents feel empowered? Once again I’m left with the impression that education in this city might be improved if fewer efforts were directed at public spin, and more at public projects -- like keeping kindergartens open.

Editor's Note: Curious about the website powertotheparents.org, I asked the DOE for details: The $500,000 project is being provided by two outside consulting groups, one to engineer the technical platform and the other to do outreach and marketing. The site will launch in late February. Whether the site will evolve from the CEC straw-poll process to exist as an actual, robust exchange for parents to reach DOE leaders is not yet known. (The name itself seems to reflect all the calls for parent involvement voiced at recent mayoral control hearings, but strong skepticism persists as to whether the nomenclature reflects anything of true substance.) - HZ<!--EndFragment-->