clarification

I got an e-mail last night in response to my earlier post about good news from the Kansas City School District. The post contained a link to a blog entry reporting that Kathy Walter Mack, the district's top in-house counsel, is leaving. That was the good news, in my opinion.

So, someone wrote asking:

just out of curiosity, what makes kathy walter mack an idiot?

how come you think this way?

I replied:

I don't think she's an idiot. I think she's extremely smart. In fact, I don't think the problem was so much her as the disproportionate power of her position. I think it got in the way of what I believe the district's mission ought to be, and that is to work to empower our children through education. I think KWM's level of authority was a relic of the deseg days, and it has long needed to be reduced or eliminated.

For as long as I've been around the district folks have acknowledged that Walter Mack ran that place. Would you want your kids attending school in a district run by lawyers?

That district is long overdue for a top to bottom cleaning out. This is apparently what is happening in preparation for the new superintendent. And I'm all for it. I just hope they make one more cut. They need a new chief financial officer. This position is critical in these lean budget years. And the person they have in there now has been there since before Brown. Let's get some fresh eyes on those books.