The Rice Thresher, Vol. 98, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2011 Page: 4 of 16
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4 NEWS
the Rice Thresher
Friday, January 21,2011
Netflix CEO advises ending elected school boards
by Seth Brown
Thresher Editorial Staff
Replace elected school boards with
school boards that select their own
members. That was the recommenda-
tion Reed Hastings, CEO and chairman
of Netflix and former president of the
California State Board of Education,
brought to Rice Wednesday night for
improving K-12 education.
Hastings, who came to Rice as part
of a lecture series presented by the Rice
Education Entrepreneurship Program
and the Knowledge Is Power Program,
presented his thesis before he was
joined onstage by Houston Indepen-
dent School District Superintendent
Terry Grier.
According to Hastings, the main
problem with having elected school
boards is that although good admin-
istrators may help a school system
improve in the short term, after they
depart, the improvements they made
quickly vanish. He cited his own expe-
rience in California, where he said he
watched the progress made by one Los
Angeles superintendent fall apart.
"All the energy and talent dissipat-
ed away," Hastings said. "That's stuck
with me."
Hastings contrasted elected school
boards with the leadership structures
of corporations, non-profit organiza-
tions and the military, all of which he
said have progressed significantly since
1950 because of their self-perpetuating
nature — new leadership is selected by
the old leaders.
"It allows for some new thinking,
but there is continuance of purpose,"
Hastings said.
Hastings said that charter schools,
which are run by non-profit organiza-
tions, have the same sort of leadership
structure — a board which selects its
own members — and are thus capable
of long-term improvement. He cited
New Orleans, where he said 70 percent
of students attend charter schools.
"They're doing great work, get-
ting better and better," Hastings said.
"We're going to see New Orleans rise
and rise and rise."
By evolving to a point where schools
are run by non-profits, Hastings said
that competition between schools in
the same area would stimulate educa-
tional advances.
"What you want in a large, great
city like Houston is a series of charter
schools competing to do best by kids,"
Hastings said.
Grier said that with 203,000 stu-
dents in HISD, there are not enough
charter networks to take all of the
students and that New Orleans
would have had much more diffi-
culty getting such a high percentage
of students into charter schools had
not so many students fled after Hur-
ricane Katrina. Hastings said that he
wanted a slow evolution with a few
more charter schools each year.
"Doing something radical at once is
not a good solution," Hastings said.
One of the tasks in bringing this
change about is convincing the people
already working in school systems that
charter schools are a way of helping
kids, Hastings said.
Grier said that some of the worst
governed schools in the country are
charter schools and that he thinks it is
more important to have the administra-
tion focused on the students.
"It's about getting adults to focus
on children and children's issues as op-
posed to adults' issues," Grier said.
Grier noted that 44 of the 294
schools in HISD are charter schools
and that while these and other Houston
charter schools have been successful,
he is not certain that making all schools
charter schools is the solution.
SAM WANG/THRESHER
Netflix CEO and former chairman of the California State Board of Education Reed Hastings visited Rice on
Wednesday to discuss suggestions for improving the public education system overall as part of a Rice
Education Entrepreneurship Program lecture series. He was joined by HISD Superintendent Terry Grier.
"I take my hat off to charters like
KIPP and YES, [...] but I'm not sure that
I'm quite ready to throw out the baby
with the bath water," Grier said. "I've
been a charter advocate for a long time,
but charters havp not been at it long
enough [for them] to declare victory."
Grier said he worries that as char-
ter organizations grow, they will be-
gin to have the same bureaucratic
issues that public schools currently
do. Hastings said that these stem pri-
marily from the elected school board
members and that the ability for the
boards of charter schools to select
their own new members would thus
allow them to avoid these.
Hastings said that the last big
change in education was the rise of
high schools between 1910 and 1930
and that since then, there has been very
little change.
"There are always some great
districts on the move, but if you look
and step back, any given district
doesn't fundamentally improve,"
Hastings said.
Hastings said that he feared that
America was falling behind in the
world. For instance, in 1957 when the
Russians launched Sputnik and in the
'80s when the German and Japanese
economies were experiencing high
growth rates, the educational system
was often blamed, but political re-
sponses to the problem did not result in
real change, Hastings said.
"When something is bothering soci-
ety, the political class channels that en-
orgy. [•••] but not much really changed,"
Hastings said.
Hastings said that the trend con
tinues today with fears about glo-
balization and that educators prop-
erly learn to be cynical in response
to waves of misplaced blame and
superficial political reactions.
Jones College freshman Luis Fer-
nandez said that, although he thought
the idea of democracy and having elect-
ed officials was essential to the idea of
Americanism, he thought Hastings'
proposal was interesting.
"With a school board that re-
elects itself based off of merit,
you get people looking out for the
school," Fernandez said.
STUDENT ASSOCIATION MINUTES
The following were noted at the most recent meeting of
the Student Association on Jan. 17.
■ The general elections season has begun, with election packets hand-
ed out today and due next Thursday.
■ Interim Director of the former Center for Student Professional Devel-
opment Jackie Hing updated the Student Association on CSPD initia-
tives. The CSPD has been officially renamed the Center for Career De-
velopment. Located at Huff House, the CCD has a new media studio
and has created a new office position: associate director for employ-
ment relations, with the intent to expand the number of companies in
communication with Rice.
■ The CCD continues to assist students in finding jobs, internships and
preparing for interviews. It now has a Facebook page and a VAULT on-
line career guide accessible through Owlspace under the CCD office
tab. Scheduled CCD events include a business etiquette dinner on
Feb. 17 and 20 and the Annual Chili Cook-Off March 10.
■ Lovett College junior Josh Rutenberg and Wiess College junior Re-
becca Jaffe updated the SA on RESET initiatives. RESET is funding six
projects this semester: air conditioning and light control renovations
at Herzstein Hall, toilet retrofitting, weatherization of older buildings,
the current bike-sharing program, solar thermal heating on top of the
RUPD building and the "Rolling in the Green" education program.
■ RESET has allotted $14,990 to projects with matching funds
from Housing & Dining and Facilities, Engineering & Planning of
$25,850. Savings from the projects are expected to break even in
one to two years. Applications to serve on the RESET Committee are
due by Jan. 28. Final project proposals are due April 8. Send ques-
tions and comments to riceRESET@gmail.com.
■ Jones College junior Steven Boswell updated the SA on the Syl-
labi Standards Policy and Archive. He conferred with academic
officials, and the new policy and archive will be instituted this
next academic year.
■ Will Rice College Senator Renee Dudley reminded the SA about the
Alcohol Policy Forum Wednesday evening at Farnsworth Pavilion,
featuring a panel including Associate Dean of Student Judicial Affairs
Donald Ostdiek and Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson.
■ A Houston lawyer has written a proposal for an SA resolution investi-
gating the process of the KTRU sale.
■ Total fundraisingfor Pakistan flood relief has reached $2,898.
The SA will next meet at 9 p.m. in Farnsworth Pavilion on Jan. 24.
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Wilde, Anna & Rutenberg, Josh. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 98, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, January 21, 2011, newspaper, January 21, 2011; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth398484/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.