Alabama Governor Robert Bentley allegedly had an affair with his top staffer, but he insists it wasn’t “physical.”
Not many people believe him, and the resignation watch is on.
He is a “family values” guy, but hypocrisy is dangerous.
Worse, the whole state government is looking incompetent.
And to think these phonies complain about teachers!
Alabama passed an academic accountability act. How about a politicians’ accountability act?
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“I did not have physical relations with that woman. We were not anywhere near the gym when we did it…I mean ‘when we talked” — Robert “Clinton” Bentley
“How about a politicians’ accountability act?”
I think we have this; they’re called “elections.”
(At least this is how you explained it to me in your elaborate and lengthy defense of the continued mayoral control of New York City’s public schools.)
I’m sure they will pass that bill right after they pass the term limits bill.
Tim,
Elections are one form of accountability. But states still need ethics laws as a higher form of accountability. Corruption, malfeasance, and abuses of power must be punished by law, not just by elections.
I am not sure to whom you addressed your comment, but I am no defender of mayoral control of schools. That means no accountability at all.
Well, we’re talking about someone who had an affair with a staffer here. I, for one, don’t think it’s a good idea to require that sort of thing to be “punished by law, not just by elections.”
Hypocrisy is no crime. It is a humiliation. Especially for a family values politician.
Diane,
My comment was addressed to you. Here is your blog post in which you mounted a defense of mayoral control in New York, with the addition of some checks and balances.
I agree with what you are saying now, today: even with modifications, mayoral control does not allow for true accountability. New York City (and all other districts under state or mayoral control) should have a plan to transition to a democratically elected and fully independent school board as soon as possible.
Tim,
My commentary on mayoral control can be summed up briefly:
For most of the city of NY’s history, the mayor appointed the members of the board, and the board was independent. The board did not take orders from the mayor. The board had the power to hire and fire the superintendent, create a budget, and set priorities. There were checks and balances.
Today, the city does not have an independent Board of Education. It has a Department of Education whose Chancellor is chosen by the mayor. The majority of the board is chosen by the mayor and serves at his pleasure. This is mayoral authoritarianism.
I wrote:
” Here is what I think, based on what I know: I agree that there should be mayoral control. But it should be modified to add checks and balances. No one chief executive should have total control of the public’s schools. No one chief executive should have the unlimited power to change the schools without referring to anyone else. No one mayor should be able to ignore the views of public school parents.
The mayor should continue to appoint the members of the New York City Board of Education. Those who wish to serve should be vetted by a review panel composed of representatives of civic and educational organizations (this was the practice in the early 1960s). This prevents the mayor from stacking the board with campaign donors and friends.
Members of the Board of Education should serve for a set term of three or four or five years, to ensure their independence. At present, they serve at the pleasure of the mayor, making the Board a rubber-stamp.
The Board of Education, not the mayor, should select the Chancellor. The Chancellor should report to the Board of Education and seek their approval for his/her proposals and budget.
Local school boards should be elected by parent associations, with the approval of the borough presidents.
Mayor Bloomberg was right to restore mayoral control, but it should now be improved upon by inserting checks and balances. The mayor should appoint the Board of Education, and this board should serve set terms and be responsible for the appointment and replacement of the chancellor.
No one should imagine that mayoral control is a panacea. It is not. Cleveland has had mayoral control for many years, and it continues to be one of the nation’s lowest-performing cities (and also a city with extreme poverty). Detroit had mayoral control for a few years, until voters eliminated it (one of the city’s mayors went to jail a few years ago). Chicago has mayoral control, and this enabled the mayor to close 50 public schools and to ignore the outcry from the affected communities; no one (except perhaps Arne Duncan) would consider Chicago to be a national model. Boston has mayoral control, and performance varies with economics, as it does everywhere. The District of Columbia has mayoral control, and it also has the largest black-white, Hispanic-white achievement gaps of any urban district tested by NAEP. The highest performing districts on NAEP (Charlotte and Austin) do not have mayoral control.
Mayoral control, with the checks and balances I described, makes sense organizationally. By itself, it solves no problems. It still requires the hard work of school improvement, the hard work of creating good schools and a good working environment for students, teachers, and principals. And schools in urban districts still require the resources to meet the needs of the children they enroll, regardless of who appoints the central board.”
Tim…You mean I can also use outside dark money to reinvent myself every four years, gain support via voter suppression and gerrymandering and, if that doesn’t work (and get voted out) use my connections to get offered a cushy, no-show consulting job? If that’s your idea of accountability, please sign me up.
Tim,
If a person writes “New York City … should have a plan to transition to a democratically elected and fully independent school board as soon as possible” she is not mounting a defense of mayoral control.
What are we talking about here? A governor who preaches family values, and then cheats on his wife,, I think the term is hypocrite. Or mayoral control of NY schools.
I think a lot of people are getting tired of these tea party conservatives how preach about their christian values, try to impose them on us, and then live a life of debauchery. I know I am.
It is ironic that Bentley has been opposed to gay marriage “on moral grounds.” He is also responsible for signing laws, some that have been overturned, to stop “foreign looking” people and ask them for their papers. Bentley is a hypocrite, and now he has been sucked into the “reform” machine and is selling out the young people of the state through his “School Flexibility Act.” Let the good ol’ boy cronyism begin! http://www.alreporter.com/bentley-announces-that-he-will-sign-education-reform-legislation/
Well, honestly folks, he is so very fine looking, who amongst us could resist? Or, perhaps it was the $426,978 she was paid in the 2014 election. I don’t know. I do know that the governor has brought in some ALEC legislation, and appointed another tool to ramrod it through…merit pay for foregoing tenure, and increasing from 3 to 5 years if you want tenure (http://lagniappemobile.com/rewrite-pending-teacher-tenure-reform-merit-pay-bill/). Also, he apparently paid huge bonuses to some staffers, and taxpayers are pissed: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/four_members_of_gov_robert_ben.html
Another form of accountability would be to rate each elected official’s district on real performance data like job creation within their district, state tax money brought back to the community, health of local governments and schools, etc. Then give grades according to cut scores that the people establish, then list the elected officials in order of best to worse. Then publish it.
The woman resigned today to spend more time with her “dearly loved husband.”
Research statistics show that family values’ states, have higher divorce rates.