April-Fools-Day Debate

A Limited Critique Of The April Fools Day Debate
Between Rochester Board Of Education President, Malik Evans
And Rochester's Mayor, Defacto Police Chief, And Wanna-Be Education Czar, Robert Duffy

In conjunction with WDKX Radio and City Newspaper —- On April 1, 2010 WXXI T.V. (Channel 11) and WXXI Radio(1370 AM) aired a live debate concerning proposed mayoral take-over of the Rochester City School District (RCSD), in which Rochester Board of Education president Malik Evans squared off with Rochester's Mayor Robert Duffy.

Considering that upward of 85% of the stake-holders with the greatest vested interests (RCSD parents and students), and over 50% of Rochester's general population are people of color —- from our perspective —- the first thing wrong with the debate is that it was too white: (moderator: Julie Philipp, debater: Robert Duffy, imported expert: Dr. Joseph Viteritti, media panelists Bob Smith and Tim Macaluso; audience participant and Irondequoit resident: Leo Pedix). On the other hand, black participants included: (debater Malik Evans, media panelist Liz Medhin, audience participants Dawn Smith and Helen Thomas). Not only were there more white participants, but they also dominated and/or controlled the major roles in the debate. With the exception of president Evans, the lack of: 1) black male participation and 2) student participation was glaring. It was also clear that (since there was no opportunity for them to participate) most audience members had been invited only for purposes of window dressing. Hopefully readers are beginning to understand why we refer to the event as the "April-Fools-Day debate."

Let's be clear —- this issue is absolutely related to race in a number of ways, and since no one else seems willing to consistently raise this vital point —- we (AARM) will take responsibility for doing so. As it relates to race —- lets not forget that for the first time in the history of the Rochester Board of Education —- every single Board member (with the exception of one) is a person of color. That's 6 out of 7. Also, many, if not the majority of those who compose 1/3 of the City's population, which (as Duffy keeps pointing out) —- survive at or below the poverty line —- are RCSD students and families of color. While on the other hand, Duffy's Administration is overwhelmingly composed of upper and middle class white people, which is possibly a strong indicator regarding the types of board-appointments he would likely make if he was able to pull of his intended political coup to take control of the RCSD. The Mayor claims "this is not about politics." What a ludicrous and insulting statement. This is definitely about politics (if for no other reason —- certainly because those who are trying to wrestle away control, and those in Albany who will ultimately make the final decision are definitely politicians, not to even mention the thoroughly political nature of public education in general). So, not only is the latter-referenced quote ludicrous and insulting —- in a sense, it is stupid. Once again, we must also emphasize that this issue involves individual and institutionalized racism. We hope that viewers and listeners were paying close attention —- because the slick-talking Mayor even had the audacity at one point during the debate to use potentially, coded, racist language. The incident occurred at one point when president Evans stressed the importance (as he did numerous times) of preserving democracy, especially as it relates to protecting citizens' Constitutional rights to vote for and elect their local representatives to the Board of Education. The know-nothing Mayor responded as follows: "I think we have to be balanced and fair on all sides when we talk about the involvement of people, not only parents and families, but tax payers." Is the implication that RCSD "parents and families" don't pay taxes? You better believe that it is. This quote represents a conscious effort on the Mayor's part to set up a clear dichotomy (between those who pay taxes, and supposedly those who don't). Of course in many people's minds the latter group would include those who are not property owners, and who, for example, might be on social services. When he talks about being "fair on all sides" —- that's a reference to those who may not have children, or who choose and can afford to send their children to private or parochial schools (like the Mayor did with his children). Yet, they still have to pay taxes, which help fund Rochester's schools. There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that these two divergent groups tend to break down largely along racial lines.

Dr. Viteritti mentioned it is good that we (as a community) are having a conversation about the issue. However, president Evans quickly pointed out that the so-called conversation has been very limited —- as opposed to maximum citizen participation relative to robust, widespread, inclusive dialogue, which Evans said he views as being "essential" in this process. The April Fools Day debate is another example that epitomizes the narrowness (relative to participants) of the conversation thus far.

As pointed out in a recent Democrat and Chronicle Editorial, the Mayor demonstrated again on April-Fools-Day that he needs to really deepen his knowledge about how the system that he wants to take control of works. Almost from the very start of the debate —- he spewed forth one of his talking points, which is designed to avoid offending teachers and other RCSD workers, but is so illogical that it seems almost silly. The talking point, which he really ought to consider abandoning is as follows: This whole issue "is not about people —- it is about a system." It seems that his advisers, Dr. Wong, Deputy Mayor Wolcott or someone would pull the Mayor's coattail regarding the fact that you can't just neatly compartmentalize and/or separate people from the "system." Systems don't establish, develop, maintain and perpetuate themselves —- people do. More importantly than this however, with regard to Duffy really revealing how little he actually knows about the "system" that he keeps spewing rhetoric about —- was the manner in which he answered audience member Dawn Smith's question. She had asked the Mayor, if he gets control of the RCSD, would the Superintendent be allowed to keep adding new employees to his Cabinet? Duffy's answer was: "I think the Superintendent (in his defense) has very few people in his Cabinet that are outside of one of the 4 unions in the City, and I think that certainly presents conflicts and a tough situation for him, but there would be a clear line of accountability for those positions, and it would be something that would have to certainly be approved by me, and I think the City Council would weigh in as well." In response, president Evans leaped on the fundamentally flawed answer with the speed of a gazelle, and pointed out the following: "First of all, there's not a single person in the Superintendent's Cabinet that is a part of a bargaining unit. They leave their bargaining unit when they come into the Superintendent's Cabinet. It is a very interesting question that you asked —- because do you know how the Superintendent has that authority? State law. Article IV gives the Superintendent authority to appoint members to the Superintendent's Employee Group. So even if the Board wanted to do something about that —- we would have to go to our Legislators, and they would have to repeal that State Law, as it currently exists. So that's another mandate, which we get a lot of from the State. Article IV gives the Superintendent authority to appoint whomever he wants without Board approval. So if you could change that —- the Superintendent would not have that authority." It seems like Duffy's legislative henchmen Gantt and Morelle would have made him aware of this, but then if he was really paying attention, which obviously he was not —- he would recall that Gantt pushed for this Legislation to be enacted during the Janey/Johnson Administrations. Where was Bob? Also, we couldn't help but wonder whether or not Superintendent Brizzard was viewing or listening to the April-Fools-Day debate. If so, we wondered what he thought about Duffy speaking in his "defense"? And then we thought —- Superintendent Brizzard is smart enough to realize that the would-be education-czar was just being political —- trying to sound stern and project the image of having commitment to reigning-in the bloated bureaucracy.

Lastly, we must say that, in addition to general disrespect —- at the end of the debate —- Julie Philipp made it absolutely crystal-clear how much she, and we believe mass-media in general, really care about parents, students and community members participating in ongoing dialogue regarding this critically important issue. Indeed she made it clear when she thanked president Evans, Mayor Duffy, Dr. Viteritti and other media participants, but never mention the audience of (presumably RCSD parents, students and community members) whom they (the media operatives) had assembled in the studio —- probably to serve mainly as window dressing.

The struggle to stop mayoral control in it's misguided footsteps continues. AARM is a proud participant in the Community Education Task Force, which meets every Wednesday evening at 5:30 PM at 630 N. Goodman Street. We urge the entire community to come out and join us.

Activists Against Racism Movement ———- (AARM)
Howard J. Eagle, Education Committee Chairperson