That was fast.
Peter Gorman’s run as a change agent at CMS was over faster than a season of Fish Police. First his budget, then his bond, now the promise/threat to order CMS’ best teachers into its worst schools. That is a trifecta of incompetence, ladies and gentlemen.
Gorman’s chosen agenda now completely and totally reflects the entrenched status quo at CMS. The only real, structual signs of change are the $9 million “learning communities” Gorman called into being. Perversely, that move took what the Gantt-Bessant CMS Task Force said about de-centralization and turned it on its head. De-centralization was supposed to save CMS money, the Task Force said, not cost even more.
But at CMS power means money — and vice versa.
Likewise — as we long predicted — CMS’ magnet school maze remains unreformed. And more. Gorman’s repeated threat to move the best teachers out of the best schools is a long-sought dream of the current magnet status quo. They feverishly want to confront suburban parents with the following calculus. Sure, you could send your child to your neighborhood school, but we’ve stripped all the best teachers from there. If you want high quality teachers and programs, your only choice — oh! the irony! — is a magnet school across town.
The only question — and not a terribly relevant one — is if Gorman gets this relationship or is being played for a fool. Either way, CMS loses.
The district loses because, try as you might, you cannot fool the parents. Add all the media specialists you want, parents have direct, unfiltered interaction with CMS every single day. By all means, buy some more ads in the Uptown paper of record, host a few more TV shows, print some more glossy cards — especially for the bond campaign.
When parents find out that the great teacher an older sibling had is either across town or teaching in another district altogether, all the spin and hype will blowback to tear a chunk out of Peter Gorman’s hide.
