APS has transparency and accountability issues. Nobody denies it. Seriously, if you ask APS, they won't deny it. If you ask the establishment press, they won't deny it either. Nor will either admit to it. They stonewall, The only defense of an indefensible position is to hide it. When asked to comment, neither will.
The issues of transparency, standards and accountability are important because the lack of transparent accountability to meaningful standards in the leadership of the APS has depressed the performance of the entire district. A significant factor in APS' overall failure, is the failure of the school board to establish and enforce meaningful standards of conduct and competence upon themselves and administration of their policies.
On the other hand, these aren't election "issues" at all,
because the establishment media hasn't reported on them.
Not one of them; not the Journal,not KRQE, KOAT, or KOB,
will investigate and report upon credible evidence of an
ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.
The credible evidence comes in the form of findings from at least three investigations into felony criminal misconduct in the APS Police force leadership; one by APS HR, one by their own Police force, and one by Caswell Investigations.
The Journal exposed the scandal and reported on the felonies, link, in 2007; misappropriation of funds, and illegal criminal background checks on whistleblowers and an associate superintendent's girlfriend.
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg told me that the APS Police force, the only agency of law enforcement to investigate felony criminal misconduct on the APS Police force, never surrendered to her office, any of the evidence of felony criminal misconduct.
The findings are public records and identify by name, the senior APS administrators who broke the law and then covered it up. They do not enjoy any legitimate exception under the NM IPRA. Yet, rather than simply surrender them, Brooks and the board are spending operational dollars (dollars which could be spent otherwise in classrooms) to litigate the "dispute" in federal court.
When they eventually lose, their fines will be paid by taxpayers
who will remain ignorant of where the money they appropriated
for education has actually gone and why.
The establishment media has not asked APS to produce the findings. If they have, they did not report that APS didn't produce the records and won't produce them until ordered to do so by a judge and only after have exhausted every appeal (at unlimited taxpayer expense).
Either that or, APS did produce the records, in which case the establishment media knows the names of senior APS administrators who committed felonies, knows the evidence was never turned over to the DA, and is helping to cover the whole thing up.
If you need another example, consider that though Brooks and the board will ask taxpayers for $348M to spend on capital improvement, if you ask them for a candid, forthright and honest accounting of their spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, they won't give it to you, link.
There are standards and accountability issues in the leadership of the APS.
In any event, there is an opportunity to elect four board members who are committed to a change of course; transparent accountability. There is an opportunity to create transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for all APS employees; most notably the supt and the board.
There is incontrovertible evidence, in the form of numerous recorded public forums, that the incumbent school board members know about the cover up of felony criminal misconduct. They won't be held accountable during the election unless standards and accountability become an issue in the election.
Voters don't know about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, because the establishment media; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB won't expose it.
If you click on any of these links 1, 2, or 3, you will find photographs the media and APS leaders schmoozing at APS' ACE conference. I am not saying that photographs of APS and media heavy hitters looking chummy is proof that the media is helping Brooks and the board cover up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, but when the real proof does come out, I'll know where I can find group shots of the co-conspirators.
Success for APS depends on two factors over which we have control; standards and accountability. If the standards of conduct and competence are high enough, and if all players are actually held accountable to those standards, there will be success. It is as simple as that. Failure to provide high enough standards or failure to provide actual accountability to those standards leads to the inexorable failure of the organization.
If the press won't make transparency, standards and accountability issues in this election, the people must.
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