While this approach generally caused administrators and school board members to feel attacked and react naturally enough by circling the wagons -- how would you react if someone came after you with what looked like a stick? -- it appears to have satiated the anti-tax multi-millionaires funding  conservative think tanks.  

They have failed because in addition to being negative they used an "us versus them" approach.

What such groups fail to take into account is that, to paraphrase Pogo, "We are them."  

When we storm the citadels of the castle, we're storming our own castle.  

Although I'd assumed as a conservative that my thinking and that of the conservative think tanks would naturally be aligned, it turns out we have entirely different motives.  

In other words, our hearts are in different places.

As it turns out, the multi-millionaires funding the think tanks had entirely different motives than mine.  While I'm 100% in favor of reducing taxes and economizing, the multi-millionaire-funded groups' focus stopped there.  

My epiphany:  The Golden Rule




Back then, even my nearest and dearest didn't see the point of such a roster or even the importance of school districts' check registers being online.  Because way back then, even the conservative think tanks were focusing elsewhere, no one else had yet trained their focus on pushing for transparency for public school systems.

Why online check registers are important
First, practically speaking, for local public school administrators and boards doing a good job of being stewards of the tax dollars entrusted to them -- for the purpose of

educating the schoolchildren parents have also entrusted them with -- posting a check register online is one of the easiest and fastest ways for such administrators and trustees to meaningfully show their community, "Look, we're being so careful with your children and your dollars we're opening up our books to you.  Come, look for yourselves."  Administrators and boards who resist posting their check registers online run the
risk of their community wondering what they're hiding.

Second, for their local the measure of our public entities' transparency is the measure of our republic's freedom.  The less transparent our governmental entities -- including our local school districts -- are, the closer we are towards a totalitarian national regime in which individuals have little or any say.  You only have to study history to see for yourself that this is true.  As one example, Germany did not become a
Nazi dictatorship overnight; its citizens acquiesced to the gradual giving up of their freedoms over a period of time.
Third, how people spend their money tells you what their priorities are.  A school superintendent who tells a TV reporter, "We're broke, we're broke" during the same period the superintendent spends tax dollars on multiple nights at a luxury hotel attending an unnecessary convention is sending mixed messages to her or his constituents.

Back then, our conservative think tanks -- the logical trackers of such information -- were simply not interested in tracking school district specific spending.  Their goals were and still are either to reduce taxes and / or to promote choice in the form of school vouchers.  I suggest that you use any one of a number of back-dating sites available online to visit these sites listed at right to see for yourself whether they
had compiled a roster or list or resource  or were even mentioning school district online check registers in November 2006.  

While I'm thrilled to be able to welcome fellow conservatives on board -- a list of their tracking efforts is helpfully included in the greybars at right -- their numbers have always since they began posting rosters and compilations lagged behind mine.  I'll work with folks at a district -- superintendents, trustees, moms and dads and taxpayers -- to either ask myself along the friendly lines suggested in the Golden Rule or
help shepherd them through the process then several months later after a bunch of phone calls and emails when  they've posted their check register online I'll add it to my roster.  Then, suddenly, mysteriously, these school districts' names also show up on the policy wonks' sites as at right in their rosters.  Golly gee.

Being specific is how our economy works; we keep track of numbers.  If you're a car salesman, your boss is not interested in your feelings or hard hard you try to sell cars or even how well you function as a team member.  Your boss is only interested in how many cars you've sold.  

Although we had something encouraging happen at the state level here in Texas -- Gov. Rick Perry signed RP 47 in August 2005 requiring all school districts to spend 65% of their monies in the classroom by 2008-09, with the option of posting their check registers online in 2010 if they failed to reach 65% -- there were setbacks including a diluting of the formula used to determine 65% such that I was concerned that as a
practical matter very few school districts would be posting their check registers online by 2010.  

So I started this project to give grassroots support.  The rest, as they say, is history.
Life's seldom simple, especially when it comes to issues involving both our kids and sizeable chunks of our money.
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FROM YOUR NATIONAL SCHOOL CHECK REGISTER ROSTER HQ:
A look at the many and varied special interests including insiders feeding
at your district's trough--and what they have to do with online check registers
By Peyton Wolcott
Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - Updated Thursday, January 1, 2008
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Conservative Commentary - Understanding your district's special interests & the role played by vendors
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Friends, sorry to have to ask you to read the
following legal notice of terms and conditions;
I've held off posting anything like this as long
as I could despite the increasing frequency of
folks borrowing my original work including
research without attributing where they found it.
Imagine my surprise a while back to be
handed my flyer  being distributed at our
Texas Lege on someone else's corporate
letterhead.  While I feel sorry for folks who feel
a need to cheat in order to make it appear
they're doing more than they are -- God bless
them -- as a practical matter I am writing a
book and don't want to have to worry about
copyright issues involving my own work, so:
Unfortunately, participants don't walk around with balloons over their heads, so you'll have to take the time
to look, investigate, ask questions, connect the dots and follow the money.  Folks who show up with a new
idea without any prep work don't stand much of a chance unless they've paid somebody for something.
o  Superintendents who are earning a nice
living and anticipating a nice monthly retirement
check from taxpayers who tell us they can solve
all of our problems if they just had more money
(the "Mo' Money Mantra") yet who may be
spending your dollars on their personal
professional development at education
conferences where they are meeting with
vendors behind closed doors concocting deals
involving everything from curriculum programs to
hiring consultants to awarding construction and
other contracts which likely are not the best for
your kids or your pocketbook.  Sometimes
superintendents will tell me, "I'm a taxpayer, too!"
 Friend, you may also be a taxpayer, but a
taxpayer with a 23860% return on your annual
investment.

o  School board members with money ties to
their district (including spouses and family
members who work there) who also tell us the
schools need more money.  Although there are
notable and encouraging exceptions, the few
board members who ask accountability
questions are generally in the minority on their
boards and seldom effective.  Unless they have
worked to demonstrate powerful community
support, the supe and his/her minions will
attempts to sideline such a trustee via a variety
of tactics.  If you are such a trustee and find
yourself in such a position and want help,
please email me.

o  Education vendors and consultants who tell
us if we'll just buy their products including
seminars, trainings, supplemental materials
and peripheral doomaflotchies all of our
schools' problems will be solved.  Their
business dealings with school districts may or
may not be entirely open and above-board.
fat plumbing
subcontract at
new high school
/
l
\
l
/
\
/
sells
fuzzy
math
/
spouses
work at
district
l
l
l
bond
salesmen
l
"The helping hand": Closed to the press, TAS/MUS conferences
feature golf games for supes with vendors on school days.
(PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick with his then-
chief of staff Christine Beatty; both married, during the period
Detroit Public Schools were sinking $408 million into debt,
their intimate text messages led to their downfall
NEWS FLASH: Realtors are in business to sell houses
(SOURCE--Sotheby's / Florida)
o  National political leaders:  Republicans who
have promoted partnerships between education
and business, and who have expanded federal
intrusion and  spending in our schools via No
Child Left Behind and Reading First, and
Democrats who increased taxes for our
scandal-ridden eRate program and who want to
nationalize schools; former IBM CEO Louis
Gerstner has again proposed nationalization,
this time in the Wall Street Journal, that all
school districts be consolidated into 50 -- one
per state -- plus 20, one each for the largest
districts, touting economies of scale despite
study after study disproving any benefits from
consolidation (chiefly because consolida-
ting makes the big pile of money even bigger
and more centralized with the result that the
bigger the pot of money the more difficult it
becomes to hold anyone accountable.  Also, the
bigger the pot of money the more folks wanting
some of it come calling -- one way or another.
lawyers
Suburban picketers
o  Local businesses who want their local
schools to look good because good schools
indicate a better business climate.  If they have
commercial ties to the district, they don't want
anyone looking too closely at their revenues
from the schools or their boosterism.  Examples
would be architects and construction
companies who support local bond measures.

o  Local newspapers who may be dependent
on local schools' public notice listings, glossy
supplements and Newspapers in Education
subscriptions -- along with ads from local
realtors and car dealers -- for their survival.  
Look at the $2 million in checks then-Miami-
Dade County Public Schools superintendent
Rudy Crew wrote to the Miami Herald, much of it
for special advertising supplements, at a time
when the venerable Herald was making
unprecedented newsroom cuts.   In a large city
such as Miami the education reporter may be
involved in a 'playful' relationship with a married
school executive.  In a small town a reporter's
chief claim to journalistic fame may be a framed
recognition from the local PTA or school PR
group or state school boards association.  
With so many people scrambling to keep their jobs
even as they watch their life savings evaporate (the
gist of at least a dozen recent conversations) it's
clear that like every other sector in order to survive
and thrive our public schools are also going to have
to downsize and economize -- especially if they are
to avoid the increasing possibility of nationalization.

But how and where to make the cuts?  As you can
see from the few balloons -- were there room you'd
see dozens more -- at right, there are many special
interests at play in our public schools of which the
public is not usually aware, and one way or another
every one of them has to do with our tax dollars.

News flash:  U.S. public education
is now completely vendor-driven
We have assumed based on centuries of
educators driven by a spirit of selfless service that
this was still true today, that the grownups were
looking out for our kids.  It turns out that in our
vendor-driven schools today too many of the
grownups have been looking out for themselves.
A ROOMFUL OF SOMEBODY WANTIN' SOMETHIN':
What's really going on at your local school board meeting?
l
reporter's
favorable news
stories equal
groceries
l
l
l
l
l
l
collections
attorney got
to pitch 1st,
is already
headed back
to Austin
\
/
wants to get rid
of fuzzy math
Because our schools are essentially political entities governed by elected officials just as with a city or town, budget cuts
are a political process.  They are not driven by rationality or intellect.    Even an easy start like increasing transparency by posting check
registers online is not as simple as your sitting in an ivory tower and firing off letters to the editor decreeing that it should be so.  
YOUR LOCAL SCHOOLS'
MONEY INTERESTS
Did someone appoint you king?
Unless you're sitting in your ivory tower in medieval England and holding a sceptre
in your hand, just because you think X works better than Y so therefore we should
all jump aboard X and fire/discontinue Y has nothing to do with its transpiring.   
the superintendent and school
board, many of whom are --
how to phrase this gently --
unsophisticated and gullible
about business and more
susceptible than you would
guess to simple flattery or
friendly overtures.   Ordinary
people suddenly find them-
selves admired and attention
paid to their every word.   

Swimming with vendors
Years ago I spoke with the
head swim coach in a
Carlos Garcia (far right, seated) on party boat at Feb. 2005
AASA convention in San Antonio; he was then-supe of Las
Vegas schools in Clark County, Nevada but left shortly
thereafter to join vendor McGraw-Hill which he has also since
left to replace fellow ERDI consultant Arlene Ackerman as
San Francisco USD superintendent. (PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
o  State legislators who have been courted in a
variety of ways and venues by their states'
administrators' associations' deep-pocketed
lobbyists seldom are been willing to take on
such a formidable force.  Even my own state
representative whom I consider a staunch
Republican has for years conducted a series of
periodic talks with school superintendents in his
district in order to solicit their feedback on a
variety of issues--but has yet to call a single
meeting for the sole purpose of soliciting input
about the schools from parents and taxpayers,
even though in every one of his counties the
schools districts represent the biggest budgets.
o  Local politicians who want their local schools
to look good so they look good.  They may also
have strong business or personal reasons of
their own to want to maintain the status quo and
may in fact be district vendors.  The mayor may
be preoccupied with troubles of his or her own.
March 2004:  State representative Harvey Hilderbran (left)
of Kerrville listening intently to superintendent of a district
so small his duties also included driving the school bus.
(PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
o  Local realtors who want local schools to look
good so they can sell more houses; this is how
they earn a living and support their families
and pay their own property taxes.  And so
realtors support more bond issues to build and
maintain ever-prettier and grander schools,
natatoriums and stadiums.  
o  Back-to-basics curriculum advocates who
want to see children taught facts such as math
tables.

o  Teachers who while they may be upset about
district leadership are more concerned about
being able to pay their mortgages and will not
speak up publicly for fear of losing their jobs.
o  Teachers unions who have little if any real
impact.  Teachers pay their dues unions who
skim huge sums of money for non-teaching
agendas and do not in many cases serve their
teacher members at all well.  Look at Dallas ISD
where the unions never pressed to have consul-
tants' contracts cancelled earlier this year rather
than firing teachers and instead were willing to
settle for the equivalent of rearranging deck
chairs on the Titanic.  Look at Miami's Pat
Tornillo and Barbara Bullock and friends in D.C.  

o  State superintendents' associations are the
real powers that be, marching hand in hand with
vendors as they cut a Sherman-like swath
through public education towards the sea of
unlimited taxpayer-funded retirement benefits for
themselves.  Superintendents who have told us
that teachers'  unions are the real problem with
their districtr remind us of Brer Rabbit pleading
with Brer Fox to pleeeez not throw him in the
briar patch.  And even our powerful
superintendent associations are finding a need
to adapt to the demands of a new economy if
they are to survive as a professional class.  
They're going to have to self-police and they are
also going to have to focus more on fraud
prevention and less on team-buidling at their
professional development seminars -- which
will be webinars rather than costly travel, unless
the supes are willing to pick up the tab
themselves.   
He/she who wears the crown --
and the tights
To be effective it's important to remember who wears
the crown and the tights in your local school district.
So long as your superintendent holds the job, they
hold the power.  This will continue so long as they
balance the budget and don't upset the board chair.  
Having a winning football team helps.

I've met some wonderful superintendents who
understand that the future leadership of our great
nation will be with those who are able to hold
themselves free from corruption and who are
egalitarian in their leadership; to these I express my
deepest and most heartfelt gratitude.

Back to you
You've got a good idea about X being better than Y.  
Your next step is simple:  take your idea about X to
your public schools and make it happen.  
Former Katy ISD (TX) supe
Leonard Merrell as King George III
(Collage by Peyton Wolcott with
apologies to Allan Ramsay)
Just be aware that you're competing with vendors with very deep pockets who have
painstakingly established business relationships guised as friendships -- often on
the golf course or at hunting parties or over drinks -- with your key leaders including
prosperous fast-growth suburban district, one with a natatorium and all the usual
trappings.  Something came up in our conversation about a certain vendor and I
asked if he ever had dinner with the guy.  "Oh, him, yeah, he's my friend.  It's okay.  
(Pause)  We take turns picking up the tab."  It had sailed completely over the swim
coach's head that the first rule in sales is to make friends with your customers and
that he was a mark -- an easy mark.   Bottom line:  Because the swim coach
dutifully turned in his receipts to the district for reimbursement, his taxpayers were
funding at least half of the vendor's sales calls and pitches.  

No wonder so many businesses rush to "partner" with our public schools.  You
can't blame them.
And there are so many of these
relationships where vendors have cozied
themselves into the everyday fabric of our
schools.  While a few of them might
perhaps pass the smell test, it's
understandable why superintendents
would have resisted letting us see how
they're spending our money on our kids.

Heart-to-heart,
no letters or emails
Are you beginning to see why exhortations
to write more letters to the editor of your
List of corporate partners for Texas Ass'n of School
Administrators January 2006 MidWinter Conference
(Scroll down for larger image) (PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
Text messages between new Miami-Dade County Public
Schools supe Alberto Carvalho (L) (while he was still working
for then-supe Rudy Crew) and then-Miami Herald education
reporter Tania DeLuzuriaga before her exit for the Boston Globe
came to light this past year in a case of awkward timing.  Tania
has since left the Globe and Al still has his job at M-DCPS.
o  Irate taxpayers who want schools to spend
less so their taxes are lower.

o  Angry parents who have a beef with their
districts for whatever reason and do not always
come across as reasonable in either their
demeanors or their demands.
local newspaper demanding online checks are not effective campaign strategies?  
I have yet to find a single one of the 400-plus districts now online who were
persuaded by a letter to the editor or an email.  Not one.  In every instance either
the schools -- God bless them -- realized it was the right thing to do and did it, or
they did so after a community member, likely a civic leader or a long-time volunteer,
approached them in a friendly and reasonable heart-to-heart way, not to force but to
discuss and persuade.

School districts asea
From property taxes to local sports to the quality of young people entering our local
workforce, our local school districts have become worlds in one way intrinsically
tied to our daily lives, yet in other ways completely apart.  

The typical local public school district resembles a great ocean-going vessel that
docks to collect our money and our children then once it sets sail few of us save
vendors and employees have much inkling of what's really going on.   The captains
of the ship have learned to sideline questions with effective use of trade jargon
thanks to mysterious doctorates, dissertations for which few of us get to read.

Why your district might keep Y anyway
Maybe the superintendent's wife is a part-time consultant to Y.  Maybe the board
president's ne'er-do-well son finally landed a job at Y.  Maybe the Y vendor treated
School property tax collections specialists, the Linebarger Goggan law
firm hosts school board members at lavish dinners during various edu-
conferences such as this one above at Ruth's Chris Steak House during
the 2006 Texas Association of School Boards Summer Leadership
Institute in San Antonio where they took over at least two floors for the
event above; the tab for such a dinner including alcohol and dessert could
run individuals as much as $150 per person.  (PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
your entire school board
and their family to a
$150/head fancy steak
dinner at the last
out-of-town school boards
convention.  What, they
didn't tell you about this?  
So that when the Y vendor
drove two hours to your
school board meeting to
pitch he got to jump to the
head of the line to make
his 30-minute sales talk,
thus displacing a roomful
of parents and their kids
there to complain both
sides of the new dress
code/lack of a dress code,
the Talking Suit Advantage
having taken the parents
who showed up in jeans
and sweats by surprise?
What will you choose to do?
I have laid out a road map for you on this page so you may accurately see the lay of
the land.  You can keep sending each other clever and/or snide emails about how
stupid the system in America is, or you can roll up your sleeves and do something
about it.  This is your country and its kids are our future.  What will you do?

What I did
Five years ago I was faced with a local superintendent (Dennis Hill of Llano
ISD)who wasn't very happy with me because I asked him questions he didn't want
to answer.  But they were important questions involving money.  Dennis was LISD's
Or your district's recently retired assistant superintendent in charge of curriculum is
now a consultant for Y and because she arranged that nifty scholarship for the
CFO's kid or any one of a number of other possible perqs for any one of numerous
other folks and is now employed by Y it's time for her back to be scratched, too?   
Or your superintendent always seems to be gone on Fridays at conferences
hosted by Y but the secretary won't tell you where but it's supposed to be
professional development time and you paid for it?  
The Austin-based law firm Walsh Anderson (that's
their sign in the window) took over this downtown
Houston eatery during the 2006 TASB/TASA
convention. (PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
There are other factors.  Historically, many
superintendents when faced with economic
crises have first cut essential services
which rouses the community which quickly
agrees to higher taxes.  Seldom have the
supes been willing to curtail their travel and
other discretionary spending.   Perhaps this
is a good time to begin this dialogue.  

Or, this might be the ideal time to get rid of
fuzzy math and go back to something that
works like Singapore Math (compare
Singapore's scores to ours), for what, about
1% of the cost.
Advocating the friendly approach to transparency-- it works!  
you'll sleep better at night!  and become a better person!
number two man when our district
went through some horrific times:  
Although we were one of the richest
districts in Texas, our bonds had
fallen to junk status.  Under Dennis'
watch we'd built an extravagant Taj
Mahal high school, and our
superintendent Jack Patton was tried
by the Texas Attorney General and
became the state's first Public
Information Act conviction,
surrendering his teaching credentials
in the process.  More here.

Then-Texas Comptroller Carole
Strayhorn brought the Texas School
Performance Review audit to Llano
ISD and published her findings, with a
nifty timeline for easy implementation,
the goals broken down into incre-
mental steps.  Months later I asked
Dennis how many of the findings he
had implemented and he thought
about 90%.  One day I brought the
published findings with the timeline
Llano ISD superintendent Dennis Hill - October 2003
(PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
and went through them with him item by item until he brought the session to a
close; by actual count turns out he'd only implemented about 10% of the findings.

When I published this in the local paper Dennis announced he wouldn't talk to me
any more.  So I helped organize our corner of the county and the following spring
we put all five of our reform-platform candidates on Dennis Hill's seven-member
school board.

Curious about those papers on Dennis Hill's desk?
The letterheads are those of two law firms.  Through the miracle of software, we
can see below that the one on the left is that of  Walsh Anderson, the same
Austin-based law firm that took over the downtown Houston eatery pictured above
at the 2006 TASB/TASA convention, and the one at right is Linebarger Goggan, the
law firm specializing in school property tax collections who took over Ruth's Chris
Steak House in 2006 for the customer appreciation event you saw above.  
I've been asking Dennis six years now about his consulting activities on the side
and to this day he's declined to identify them.  I've always been intrigued because
one day he'd announced he was "goin' to Vegas" apparently in connection with
some consulting.  Until that moment I wouldn't have mistaken Dennis for a "goin' to
Vegas" kind of guy.  I've also asked about trips and meals such as those pictured
above hosted by district vendors which he might have been treated to and here too
he has declined to identify any.

But guess what?  Llano ISD's check register is now online.  
At left, Walsh Anderson logo; at right, Linebarger Goggan
Dennis may not be
very happy with the
questions I've asked
about how he spends
Llano ISD taxpayers'
money but for having
voluntarily posted
Llano ISD's checks
online he's to be
congratulated.

In fact, maybe that's
why the Texas
Association of School
Boards named
Dennis a finalist this
past year for
superintendent of the
year.  Undoubtedly that
was their prime
reason, to recognize
his taking such a
voluntary big step
towards transparency.  
Way to go, Dennis!
9/25/2008 ***488 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL     916.68
7/10/2008 ***759 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL     975.18
6/13/2008 ***511 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL     802.80
5/9/2008  ***084 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL      148.16
4/10/2008 ***706 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL     636.41
4/18/2008 ***799 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL   9,483.06
3/20/2008 ***443 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL   2,309.46
2/8/2008  ***935 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL   3,075.40
1/10/2008 ***555 WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ET AL       81.98

12/6/2007 ***154 LINEBARGER HEARD GOGGAN ET AL  185.00
2/8/2008    ***898 LINEBARGER HEARD GOGGAN ET AL    184.00

One month's receipts for fast food at Llano ISD -- why?
1/10/2008 ***519 PIZZA HUT-LLANO                                  1,292.50
1/10/2008 ***556 WHATABURGER                                       432.60
1/18/2008 ***641 PIZZA HUT-LLANO                                    759.00
1/18/2008 ***650 SUBWAY OF LLANO                                817.00
1/22/2008 ***670 COOPER'S OLD TIME PIT BAR-B-Q           95.22
1/24/2008 ***691 CICI'S PIZZA                                              60.00
1/31/2008 ***764 CICI'S PIZZA                                            156.00
Lobbyists sitting upstairs in the Texas Senate gallery watching Senate floor where
Texas senators pass the bills the lobbyists have lobbied for (2007)  (PHOTO--Peyton Wolcott)
Specific-dollar transparency is the only meeting ground and cure for such
cross-purposes as are described on this page.  With so many powerful and
opposing forces at work, being able to look at individual specific dollars is the one
realistic means available to us to be able to talk realistically about scaling back on
districts' expenses.  Transparency in the form of online check registers brings
dubious dealings out of the shadows and quiets rhetoric and sloganeering by all.

Call in the troops?  We -- you and I -- are the troops
So many of the folks who contact me want to know how they can persuade
someone at the state level such as their state department of education or Texas
Rangers, etc., or someone from the feds (U.S. DOE, FBI, IRS) to ride in on a white
horse and lift their district out of its difficulties.   It always comes as a surprise to
learn that otherwise reasonable folks view their school districts as being
fundamentally different from their cities and towns.  
The money beast is driving the show.
In addition to your superintendent and/or board
member(s) and/or curriculum directors possibly
having special (as in dollars, free trips,
entertainment, etc.) ties to fuzzy math vendors,
proponents, facilitators and consultants -- this
is where the cross-purposes come in -- also,
as a basic fact of life superintendents plain want
more money and don't much care where it
comes from.  Whether it's local taxes or federal
grants, so what, so long as they get a lot more
of it.  In larger cities boards are even more
clearly dominated by special interests.  

Over the years as I've watched superintendent
after superintendent publicly crash and burn
amid personal and financial scandals, I used to
wonder why they are able to keep their jobs.  

Duh. Leaving them and equally corrupt and
inept boards in place allow the prevailing power
structure with its cozy relationships to stay in
play a while longer.   I once asked a friend why a
large school district hired a superintendent who
had been in a morally compromised position in
his previous district.  "That's the point.  He's
been compromised, so now they can control
him."

Hundreds of millions, billions, of dollars are
spent by one person and his/her handlers in
just this way.
All four Llano ISD principals attended this September 2004 Llano ISD board meeting above.
All four have left the district since Dennis Hill was promoted from assistant supe to supe.
Below,
Corporate Partners for
2006 Texas Association of
School Administrators
MidWinter Institute in Austin
LeapFrog booth (right) at January 2008 TASA MidWinter
conference vendor hall.  In the news in connection with a bribery
scheme involving convicted Maryland supe Andre Hornsby
(former of Houston ISD & Yonkers, New York), LeapFrog is the
brainchild of convicted securities dealer Michael Milken.
Check register detail from Llano ISD; look at the amount of
money flowing to legal vendors Walsh Anderson and
Linebarger Goggan -- not to mention fast food eateries

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Revised January 2009  
Peyton Wolcott