Larry Baker Quotes Mark Twain on Idiots and School Boards

Larry Baker, Iowa City author of The Flamingo Rising and more recently, The Education of Nancy Adams, ended his 5/1/2014 interview with Charity Nebbe, host of "Talk of Iowa" on Iowa Public Radio, with a quotation from Mark Twain: "In the beginning, God created idiots. This was for practice. Then he created School Boards.” — Mark Twain

Baker alleged that he made the statement in fun and begged the indulgence of his audience. Like all of Mark Twain's quotations that I know of, it was dead on.

I can't think of a single Iowa City Community School District board member I would keep, given their performance of late. As Mary Murphy stated so well in her WordPress blog, the board is supposed to make policy and supervise its one and only employee, the district superintendent, not act in a subservient role as his rubber stamp committee. The board is supposed to listen to the public, not ignore the public and hustle to do the superintendent's bidding, regardless of public protests.

In an Iowa City Press-Citizen poll dated April 17, 2014, 52% of respondents replied they would cut administration salaries instead of cutting 35 teachers, including eliminating the German program, cutting half of the orchestra teachers in an outstanding program, eliminating 4th grade orchestra, and so on. Guidance counselors and librarians are next on the chopping block, which is also cutting staff close to the students, especially in the case of guidance counselors.

When I think of the difference that caring guidance counselors who form friendship groups for shy, intelligent, talented, nerdy kids who have difficulty making friends in the 7th grade, I shudder to think of what life will be like for children who have been bused, shuffled around, changed schools multiple times, and also perhaps have experienced family problems at home after guidance counselors have been cut. Friendship groups help those children find each other, and often, they become friends for life and become constructive, creative members of society.

Obviously, "child-centered" is a school district motto that does not translate into reality. Cuts, redistricting, and other disruptive moves hurt students the most and the staff who effect students the most, not administration, which has the least contact with students.

Interestingly, colleges and universities are operating the same way as the Iowa City Community School District. In 1976, faculty vastly outnumbered administrators. Now the ratio of faculty to administrators is 2.5:1, according to the Chronicle for Higher Education.

Writ large, you can see wages rising to the top in large corporations with huge salaries, some might say obscenely large salaries going to the CEOs and top executives of corporations, while workers closest to the customers make minimum wage or a little more, which is not enough to live on.

The average ratio of CEO pay to worker pay in 2012 was 350:1. It used to be 20:1, which is what Peter Drucker recommends. Shareholders lose money on their shares when CEOs are overpaid and leave with golden parachutes. Employee morale deteriorates when CEOs are paid obscene salaries and bonuses. 

What must the morale of the Iowa City Community School District's teachers, guidance counselors, and librarians be right now? District administrators need a new roof for the Educational Services Center (administration building). That will cost over $562,000. They also needed a $172,000 executive parking lot. Those expenses could have paid for a lot of teachers.

I'm so glad my own grown children graduated from the district years ago. They were lucky to live in an imperfect but more successful and accessible academic environment with more emotional support than future students can reasonably expect to receive with today's child-centered budget cuts.