The School Board has promised transparency in the selection of the next Duval County Schools Superintendent. Transparency has become one of those magic words, that if uttered enough times in the right context begins to confer credibility in and of itself. Like stakeholder. That one fooled and continues to fool people to this day. It gives putative leaders the opportunity to say, “All of the stakeholders were involved in a transparent process. Who am I to question their decisions?”

You want a transparent process? You want stakeholder involvement? I have the solution. Let’s elect our superintendents from now on. Now, I know the mental processes that this notion kicks off. If you are over fifty years old, you immediately think about the pre-Consolidation days before the city and county merged in 1968. The corruption, the indictments, the embarrassment of it all. The schools lost accreditation under an elected superintendent. If you are under fifty then you have been seduced by the modern progressivist movement and believe that only the properly educated, well trained academician with the right pedigree from the right institutions can be entrusted to lead the ignorant masses to salvation. And the only thing he or she has to do is convince (fool) four of the seven members of the school board.

I think that Jacksonville has progressed in many ways since 1968, and I believe that the voters of Jacksonville can elect their superintendent. He or she can hire the academician elites to help manage things. But the real benefit is this: The superintendent no longer works for the school board. He or she works for us. It restores that beautiful balance of powers in which the board sets policy, and the superintendent executes.

Think about this relationship. The superintendent is asked by the board to come up with a plan for something – student transportation, virtual textbooks, whatever. The superintendent need not fear for his or her job when presenting such plan should that plan not suit four of the seven members. In fact, the school board members must now deal with the fact the superintendent, having been elected county wide, has more of a political base than any of the members individually. The superintendent needs the member’s vote for his plan, and the member needs the superintendent’s political base and popularity either to get re-elected or just to feed his ego. Suddenly everybody is playing nicely.

Of course, it won’t always be a bed of roses. To put it into another context, think of the city. The council did not fire Mayor Peyton over the courthouse boondoggle. They do not have the power. But in a transparency like no other, every detail was played out in public with political players lining up on one side or another. If Jacksonville had an appointed city manager rather than an elected mayor, we would need a revolving door on the fourth floor of city hall to accommodate the traffic. Do you think a city manager would have come up with the Better Jacksonville Plan? With no political constituency outside of the body that hires and fires, such progress is stunted.

The school superintendent need not be a master educator. He must be a leader. He should not be hired because he subscribes to one theory of education (and therefore one group of vendors, possibly) over another. He should he elected because of his ability to communicate and lead and build coalitions that will attract the right people to positions of responsibility, and lead to success. He should not be someone who, upon achieving some metrics imposed by the board, marks that off his list of accomplishments and moves on to a higher paying, higher profile job somewhere else. His metrics are set in the marketplace of ideas that we call elections. If he does not meet them, he will not be re-elected.

With the transparent process of the school board selecting a superintendent, we are going to have out-of-towners flying in and out of Jacksonville on some headhunter’s dime, being driven to school board headquarters for their interview. Such transparency is self-limiting. I would rather have a school superintendent who was in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts here. Or is a member of a local Rotary or Meninak Club. Whom I have seen at the grocery store for many years before he or she came to Jacksonville to deliver us from ignorance. Who doesn’t have to hunt for the right church to belong to, because he or she has been going to it all along. I want a superintendent who will go around the county to fish fries and barbecues telling groups of people who matter (voters) what they are going to do and how they will run the system.

Look at the transparency of the elective process. Haven’t we all received invitations to fund raisers or meet and greet receptions for political candidates? What is on the invitation, but the list of people supporting that candidate. The steering committee, the finance committee, local politicians and civic leaders. This gives you a great idea of the caliber of the person. I will submit that transparency might be improved in the campaign finance area. But in this age of the internet, what is to stop that? Each candidate should have a campaign finance website on which is immediately disclosed every contribution and from whom. If textbook publishers are a big contributor, and you think virtual textbooks are the future, you have some idea as the how that candidate will go on that issue, and you can govern yourself accordingly.

This is how we will get a strong leader. Let him face the people – all of the people. And when there is a dispute between the board and the superintendent, let’s let it play out. Instead of the superintendent updating his resume and contacting headhunters, let him update his debating skills and contact his political supporters. Let’s find out what these people are really made of.