I need to make clear I don’t think that it is a bad thing for school districts to be pro-active about getting their good stories out to the public, especially since debate in the public square is best when people are familiar with the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The more you push the good stories, the more people who are familiar with the bad stories will speak up — and it’s important to be realistic on both ends.
Look at what just happened in Los Angeles, where the decision to pay big bucks for some P.R. work became a news story in itself. It gave L.A. Times columnist Sandy Banks an opportunity, for example, to say what is on a lot of people’s minds:
I’m not going to pile on here. It’s almost too easy to bash a district that graduates barely half of its students, can’t pay its teachers properly and on time, yet seems to think its biggest problem is its poor public image.
I actually think it’s a good idea for a complex organization the size of L.A. Unified to have a solid, intelligent and honest communication strategy — one that aims to illuminate, not manipulate.
I’m sure we’d all like to see more good news stories, like the choir performing at Disney Hall, the winning Academic Decathlon team, the former engineer with two graduate degrees just named state Teacher of the Year.
But I imagine Mr. Abalos’ target audience will also expect answers to questions like these: Why is it taking so long to fix the payroll system? Why do half the students at some high schools drop out? Whatever happened to the district’s big plans for reform? And where is my tax money going?