Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Kissing the Ring

East Side Monthly:

The final cost for Superintendent Brady to create a model middle school to help reenergize (sic) the Providence school system: $e5 million. The cost for 234 East Side families to have a state-of-art (sic) middle school in their backyard that their kids can walk to? Priceless

There is something particularly impressive in the way Brady has consolidated power and gets credit for things started by his predecessor in Providence. That is, back when the mayor was a convicted felon, and you might find that, say, the inexplicable abundance of soda machines in obscure corners of high school basements was part of a money laundering scam, you also had a clear, contractual process for engaging administration, the union and the community in ongoing site-based school reform. Now, it is pretty much raw political power and influence. If you want to keep that special school, you'd better remember who's buttering the bread in this town.

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