The claim here is that a school superintendent was forced to resign because he promoted critical race theory. The anti-CRT people are claiming it as a victory for parents. Whats most striking is just how little evidence there is his claimed wrongdoing. 1/
From different reports it is clear that some parents were really angry about a mask mandate in school, and some previous school board meetings turned into massless melees. 2/
The Superintendent had also delayed and then stopped an anti-racism presentation that explained BLM. Some students were angry about this. But this hardly seems like the action of someone avidly pushing racial theories about race in his schools. 3/ lohud.com/story/news/edu…
Parents had accused him of promoting CRT, but its hard to see any evidence of that from news reports. He proposed a taskforce to consider issues of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which is not remotely the same thing, and a pretty middle of the road solution. 4/
Maybe there is more here than is being reported, but Rufo asserts an outcome without offering any evidence. The Superintendent sounds like someone trying to managing competing views on race and student safety, and was forced out as a result, which is disturbing. 5/
There is a 1990 book that argues that some public administration roles are "impossible jobs": administrators are tasked with reconciling conflicting imperatives and warring stakeholders. Classic example are regulators. 6/
But part of what has happened in the last 10 years is that more and more public management jobs have been moved into the realm of impossible. Conspiracism has expanded the range of conflict for the job of the education, public health or election official for example. 7/
Public officials know that there is a stakeholder groups that a) are motivated by new (or newly framed) items of conflict, many of which are not-reality based and b) will make their lives a living hell, and c) many elected officials will side with the conspiracists. 8/
Real research with hard statistics across policy areas would be very helpful here. Students/faculty looking to study public organizations: this is a great topic. Donors interested about good governance: think about the damage conspiracism is doing here. 9/
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