Why did "superstar" superintendent bail from PG County?

Before the "expletive hit the fan"

The revolving door keeps spinning in Princes Georges County, Md. For the fourth time since 1999, they’re searching for a new superintendent. This time it’s to replace John Deasy who was touted as a “superstar” and the great white hope of the power philanthropists, when he came into this predominantly poor, African-American district nearly three years ago from Santa Monica. But now this Broad Fellow is looking for the next flight out to Seattle to become Deputy Director of the Gates Foundation’s U.S. education program. Deasy didn’t stay in PG long enough to implement many of his own programs—small schools, for example.

So why did he bail now? WaPo lists some possible reasons—pressures from NCLB (not likely since NCLB is but a shadow of its former self); “deep budget cuts next year because of the faltering economy and skyrocketing foreclosure rates” (possible, but then why come to a poor district in the first place?); the breaking news of his involvement in a degree scandal at the Univ. of Louisville (WaPo dismisses that possibility in one sentence of a long article).

What they don’t mention is that Broad tried to use Deasy, combined with the leveraging of their grant money, to push a top-down reform program that was bound to meet resistance from both the school board and the community. By top-down, I mean that Broad wanted to control how the district spent all of its money, which outside consultants could and couldn't be used, relations with the union and other matters usually reserved for the board. Deasy was put in the position of trying to ride two horses—the board and the foundation. Plus he was afraid of the push-back from the community. All this in a district that is second from the bottom on most measures of student success in the state. Only Baltimore fares worse.

When Gates offered him the big money to join their thinking group, he must have breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed his golden parachute and jumped.

*******

A hallmark of the Ownership Society

Which superstar is next? Paul Vallas? Arne Duncan? Michelle Rhee? Joel Klein? Rudy Crew's already gone. As we pointed out in our book, there's lots of similarities between this turnover of leadership at the top and the military-industrial complex, where bureaucrats and politicos shuffle back and forth between the Pentagon, Congress and the corporations. In this case, they roll between the DOE, school districts, the think tanks, and the foundations. It's the educational-corporate-philanthropy complex.

******

It seems that Deasy helped Robert Felner, then Louisville Dean, get a good-sized grant for his National Center on Public Education and Social Policy. Felner then allegedly awarded a fast-track Ph.D. to Deasy after only one semester and 9 course hours of study. Felner chaired Deasy's dissertation committee. Deasy was the only doc student Felner supervised during his five years at the university.

"I think John is smart enough to get out of here, frankly, before the [expletive] hits the fan," said Doris A. Reed, the executive director of the Association of Supervisory and Administrative Personnel, the union that represents principals and other administrators.

But which expletive, hitting which fan? Reed never says.