I confess; I haven’t listened to Joe Soucheray’s radio show in years.  I’m rather uncommon; Joe’s numbers are pretty much carrying KSTP-AM these days.  Let’s just say “Garage Logic” and I don’t click.

But in print?  When Joe’s hot, he’s hot.  

And I’ve rarely seen him better than unpacking the absurdity of the Saint Paul Public Schools’ response to the impending departure of Superintendant Maria Carstarphen.

Do you know how a lot of people — maybe everybody with a kid in the St. Paul schools — got the news that Meria Carstarphen was taking the same job in Austin, Texas?They got an automated phone call, similar to an announcement about snowplowing.

In fact, I bet it was just like a snowplowing call, which meant that it probably went out in a variety of languages. In the announcement, Carstarphen tells of her mixed emotions and her regret and how much progress has been made in St. Paul. I believe it was intended that the recipients of the calls were to understand the burden and the anguish Carstarphen faced in making the tough decision to move to a warmer climate for more money.

The big-school superintendent market, of course, is the real problem here. 

Now, many readers have misunderstood my preoccupation with Carstarphen’s leaving. It’s not that I don’t think Carstarphen has every right in the world to advance to bigger districts and higher salaries. It’s more to the point that we are absolute saps for letting these inmates continue to run the asylum in such wasteful fashion. There is also the inconvenient fact that these bureaucrats are so seemingly insulated from the reality of our current economic conditions.The taxpayers of St. Paul should be outraged that another $50,000 or $100,000 might get spent on a national search that can only result in somebody else being brought in here about whom the exact same things will be said that were said of Carstarphen and are being said about her right now in Austin.

The supers are in an exclusive club. Once they are in the club, it doesn’t make any difference who they are.

Read on for a trip through the money pit that is the SPPS’ 360 Colborne Avenue headquarters.

And the money pit it will stay, no matter who the board “chooses” to fill the slot.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 9:44 am and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.