Editorials

There are few jobs more thankless than that of school superintendent.

If things are going well — if schools have no discipline problems, if test scores are high, if the money is spent on things parents and politicians think appropriate — then no one says anything.

But let something go wrong and into the superintendent's lap it gets dumped.

In an effort to do what is best for their school systems, superintendents often run afoul of powerful politicians and special interests. When that happens, it certainly becomes fitting to pity the poor superintendents and say a kind word in their behalf.

That's the case this year — a year that's been especially hard for superintendents in the state.

First, the tourism industry in Alabama pushed for legislation that would deny superintendents the power to start schools in early August because early openings "hurt tourist attractions." Please note that education is not the issue; if that were the case, there would be no protest.

Study after study has shown that over a long summer break students forget much of what they learn, so teachers must use the first week or so of the new year to review and re-teach. A shorter summer, combined with a fall break, makes more sense educationally. But, as previously noted, education is not the issue.

Thus, the superintendents trotted down to Montgomery to defend what anyone interested in education would not need to defend. The Legislature, in one of its better moments this session, did not bow to the tourism industry's pressure.

Meanwhile, superintendents in Alabama are getting heat from House Majority Leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, for opposing and helping defeat two plans that would have slapped financially strapped school systems with unfunded mandates to increase physical education requirements and more closely monitor school lunch programs. As this page has already pointed out, these are not bad ideas, but to legislate new requirements without appropriating money to pay for the cost is irresponsible — especially when superintendents are trying to allocate extremely scarce resources.

What did Guin do when superintendents across Alabama succeeded in getting these bills defeated in the Legislature? He put the state auditors on them — an unneeded move that will tie up the offices of the superintendents and keep them from doing their jobs and will tie up state auditors and keep them from looking into agencies in which problems exist. But this will make Guin happy.

Yes, pity the poor school superintendent in Alabama.