Great Ideas Abound for Kansas City’s School District

The Kansas City School District is (once again) stumbling down the path (recently blazed by the Saint Louis School District) toward unaccreditation. Because of the district’s continuing struggles, Superintendent Anthony Amato — who was earning a cool $220,000 per year — has been pressured into stepping down into a "consulting role."

So now that the district is in the market for its 10th superintendent in 30 years, to whom could the Kansas City schools look for "interim" leadership? None other than Dr. John Martin, the deputy superintendent who helped oversee the Saint Louis schools’ descent into unaccreditation. To be fair, my knowledge of Dr. Martin is largely limited to his heated opposition to charter schools, and he surely cannot be blamed for the sorry state the Saint Louis school system was in when he arrived. But if his presence as an administrator has done anything to help that district, I am not aware of it. Martin will reportedly receive compensation on the order of "$20,000 a month" in his new position.

Really, Kansas City School District? There were no other potential interim superintendents out there who, say, hadn’t recently failed to help a district avoid loss of accreditation?

For the sake of the children in those failing schools, I certainly hope that Dr. Martin proves to be more effective in Kansas City than he was in Saint Louis. But if I were a parent in that district, I would be very concerned about this choice of interim superintendent.