The schools of scheme, scam and sham; A book

The Schools
of
Scheme, Scam & Sham
A Common Sense Guide
to
Troubleshoot the Education Industry
By
Gerald J. Furnkranz

The Schools
of
Scheme, Scam & Sham
A Common Sense Guide
to
Troubleshoot the Education Industry
By
Gerald J. Furnkranz
Copyright © 2008 By Gerald J. Furnkranz

Dedicated To:
My parents, Amelia Furnkranz and Ferdinand J.
Furnkranz, who provided me with a solid foundation,
to survive and thrive and live a happy and productive
life.
&
The school boards and superintendents I served with
and communicated with after (1997-2007) for
practicing unmitigated arrogance which revealed the
unvarnished truth.

The Schools of Scheme, Scam and Sham
Table of Contents
Chapter Page
1. The Evolution of Education ............................................................................... 1
2. The Power Of, Or The Power In Education....................................................... 12
3. The Four Cs Of The Education Industry............................................................ 16
4. Systematic Suppression of the Truth.................................................................. 27
5. Special Executive Session.................................................................................. 36
6. Intimidation As A Tool ...................................................................................... 41
7. Bending Language, Bending Truth.................................................................... 48
8. A School District Sage ....................................................................................... 55
9. Indoctrinated Into the Profession; Not Educated to Teach................................. 63
10. A Philosophical Discussion With The Media .................................................... 71
11. School Boards and Superintendents................................................................... 78
12. The Congdon Regime; Cronyism and Corruption ............................................. 98
13. Programs............................................................................................................. 129
14. Final Encounter .................................................................................................. 145
15. Illegal Campaigning........................................................................................... 150
16. Honesty and Integrity in Education.................................................................... 161
17. A Cutting Edge Athletic Code of Conduct......................................................... 169
18. Scientific Scammers; Accessories to the Deceit ................................................ 179
19. Education Elitism and NEA Illusions ................................................................ 186
20. The Dedrick Narrative........................................................................................ 195
21. Combating Education Industry Corruption........................................................ 211
22. Solution to Sloppiness, A Tool of the Education Industry................................. 222

Cartoons
Cartoons Page
Wanted.............................................................................................................................Front
History of American Education ....................................................................................... 2
History of American Education (Part II) ......................................................................... 3
Character (Hi Sailor! New In Town?) ............................................................................. 51
Integrity (Mt. Braintheft) ................................................................................................. 58
The Massage .................................................................................................................... 78
A Tangled Web................................................................................................................ 81
Superintendent’s Tenure.................................................................................................. 88
School Board Loyalty ...................................................................................................... 96
Emerald City.................................................................................................................... 103
The Cannibal.................................................................................................................... 112
Free Drugs........................................................................................................................ 122
Cheerleaders..................................................................................................................... 128
Snake Pit .......................................................................................................................... 151
Atlas................................................................................................................................. 182
Pigs at the Trough............................................................................................................ 190
Rubber Stamp................................................................................................................... 199
Ignor................................................................................................................................. 202
An Educated Horse .......................................................................................................... 226
Road To Roslyn ...............................................................................................................Back

Foreword
With the permission of Ted Lax, newly voted to the Elmira School Board, I am
using his letter to the editor as my foreword. He describes intelligently and simply yet
eloquently what most if not all school districts need to make education successful.
The transparency is necessary for all educators; school boards, administrators and
teachers alike.
Elmira School Board Slate Vows To Listen
Three Winning Candidates Outline Goals For Change
Ted Lax • June 3, 2008 Star-Gazette Letter To The Editor
The election for the school board on May 20 offered two opposing slates. One was
made up mostly of incumbents who believed in the status quo. The other promised to change
how the school board operated. The latter slate, consisting of Diana Brewer, Larry McGovern
Jr. and I, won seats on the school board. Both incumbent candidates lost. It was a clear
message that voters shared our vision for a new direction for the school board.
Our platform was one promising transparency: "We believe that all discussions and
policy matters before the board of education should be an open process. All community
members, parents, students, teachers, support staff and school administrators should have an
opportunity to hear and be heard. The three of us believe the school board has failed in this
obligation. We ran as a slate so that we may change how this board operates. Our goal is to
reform this board to become what it was elected to be: representatives of the people who
elected them -- not above the people who elected them."
We all wish to do well for the children of our community. We do not believe that
every decision of the school board has been unsound. The process used for decision making,
however, is terribly flawed. Each success allows for too many failures. That methodology
needs to be corrected to ensure that it works each time. Our goal is to avoid past missteps and
make what has worked even better. There needs to be consistency in policy for proper
evaluation of programs, committees and individuals. To that end, we recommend:
•There should be defined goals/job descriptions.
•There should be a cost basis to be fiscally responsible.
•There should be a clear definition of what is considered success.
•There should be community involvement before decisions are finalized.
•There should be timelines for monitoring progress.
•There should be an end date for a proper evaluation.
•There should be public evaluations.

•There should be fewer executive sessions.
•There should be shorter board meetings.
•There should be reasonable answers to all reasonable questions.
To supporters who helped or voted for us, we offer our thanks. To those who did not,
we hope that our actions in fulfilling our promises will change your opinion. We are only
three votes of nine. But we are supported by the votes of the many in our community who
elected us. We will do our best to try to convince the other six board members of the
correctness of our position. If necessary, we are prepared to do as Samuel Johnson suggested:
"Though we cannot out-vote them we will out-argue them."
Without an open process there can never be accountability. Accountability leads to an
informed electorate. An informed electorate is the best guarantee to having good
representation. We encourage the members of our community to be involved not just at
election time but at all times. As your elected representatives, we are answerable to you. If
we should stray from our core principles, we hope you will be there to remind us of what we
stood for. Our promise to you is that we will always listen.
Ted Lax of West Elmira was elected to the Elmira school board on May 20, 2008. His three-
year term starts July 1, 2008.
Mr. Lax has laid out an excellent plan. Whether or not he is allowed to implement
such a plan or is blocked by an education system which revels in the status quo will be
seen. I wish him the best of luck. The futures of children depend on his success.

Introduction
Little did I know, when I got on the school board, the problems with public education
would become so obvious. However, I was even more surprised to discover the
behaviors creating those problems were an accepted part of the actions of educators,
promoted by the education industry.
***
All I know is what I see, when I can’t believe what I am told.
***
Educators, under the auspices of the Education Industry, have practiced and perfected the
profitable processes of failure. They have become so competent and comfortable with
failure, they have no idea what success is and how to achieve it.
Their view of success has become so highly distorted and warped; basic values and ethics
have been lost. Their idea of educational success revolves around their own personal,
professional and political agendas and public money collected and used to promote that
agenda. They have even redefined right and wrong with the warped and distorted views
of their education collective.
***
I apologize to the people reading this edition of “The Schools of Scheme, Scam and
Sham”. This book is not edited and refined to the degree I would like it. In fact, it is far
short.
However, I believe this book is needed now. When I watch my local school district,
neighboring school districts and the failure of education at the state and national level, I
feel it is necessary to move this book ahead more quickly than I should. These
revelations need to be given to the public as soon as possible so the damage of the
education industry can be reversed.
One thing for certain, most educators will dismiss what I say. I am giving them an
additional excuse. The grammatical and typographical errors in this book will give
arrogant and hypocritical educators a reason to dismiss what I say without having to pay
any attention to the substance. They would have found another reason to do this anyway.
So, I really am not worried. Still, I apologize for making this available in such a rough
form.

1
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION; THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION
Just think of that perfectly profitable business. It is one which requires the gathering
of few resources up front. The business in which you are selling something that is nebulous;
intangible. People really aren’t sure what it is. You are selling an invisible product which
people are depending upon your integrity to certify they are getting.
The Greeks did it with few resources other than perhaps a few of the greatest minds
civilization has known. Socrates, Aristotle and Plato passed their knowledge in opened air
classrooms. They espoused a way of thinking and spread thought through dissertation and
opened discussion.
Other civilizations, starting out, used much the same format. Those civilizations of
India, China and even the Native American passed knowledge in this way. Great
philosophers and teachers somehow passed on the best of civilization, critical thinking and
common sense, to move it further forward, by word of mouth, tribal knowledge, in spite of
the control they handled; the corrupt temptations of the power they wielded that were present
to seduce them.
Cave man did it in a similar, more primitive way with positive and negative grunts,
the form of dissertation and debate to transfer tribal knowledge. Talking, listening,
discussing and debating were the main elements of education. Not much, in the way of
resources, was required of this system other than the minds of those men.
These methods of education took little up front investment to function other than the
time of the scholars or sages involved. It could be done with no resources other than what
comes from or is concocted in the brain. This form of education flourished in many early
societies for many centuries.
In the teachings of these great educators they held the tools, the keys, to mold and
control societies. For the most part, they controlled the greed and lust for power present in
human nature to make their teaching relevant, productive and a power to move civilization
forward. This took people of great integrity, will and discipline. They had the strength to
promote education to its highest aspirations.
Please, don’t get the idea education of this time was always good and pure. There are
always assaults on the good of education. There are always people seeking power that are
aware of how education (dispersing information) can help them. This is alluded to in
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Any assault on the truth degrades the quality and
content of education.
Written language helped education to become more consistent and perpetuated more
easily. Still, it didn’t aid as much in the classroom until the advent of mass printed books.
Until then education was usually reserved to the clergy and the rich. This barrier could easily
keep the poor and peasant classes in their place, creating a self-perpetuating cast system. It
kept the masses, the peasants, ignorant and under control.
The pioneer education of a new country took a new form. Education progressed, but
was passed on in one room school houses where books were treasured and became a primary
tool to educate. Education was a privilege that most Americans thought should be a right.
Sadly it has become a right that most don’t see as their responsibility to take
advantage. Where college professors used to say, you have the privilege of my classroom, it
is your responsibility to learn. Far too many students and parents today take the tack, I am in

A Common Sense Guide to Troubleshoot the Education Industry
2
your classroom, it is your responsibility to teach me. And by the way, I must be happy and
have many activities to make me so. Both these selfish attitudes assault good education.
I digress, let’s move forward with education. The books of an assortment of writers
and thinkers were used to bring a diversity of quality ideas from anywhere and everywhere.
I’m not saying there wasn’t present a biased censorship based on preference of selections, but
still a wide variety of ideas were made available to broaden the thinking of individuals.
This made up for not having Socrates, Aristotle or Plato to lead classes all over the
wilderness. The advent of books and the ability to print the written word made the extreme
quality (brain power) of the teachers less important. Average thinkers could use books to
help them formulate and express ideas in a way most everyone could benefit. Advanced
education could be made available to more people, even those of the middle and poorer
classes.
With the advent of mass produced books, teaching children to read and write
effectively became primary requirements of education. In fact, if they knew how to read and
write sufficiently, they could effectively use books to teach themselves if they so desired.
The tools of learning would be available to each and every student that had cultivated the
skills of reading and writing.
Still, even then, education didn’t take many resources. A few books, some paper and
writing implements, a teacher and the education process could begin. Successful education
had occurred before these implements, but could now be carried farther and to more people.
With these aids you didn’t need a Socrates, Aristotle or Plato to do the teaching. With these
resources, more teachers, with less skill could teach the basics of education to students who
would be presented with the tools to teach themselves.
Thomas Jefferson once said education of the people is essential to the survival of
democracy. When decisions on leadership rest with the people, it is not hard to see why an
educated and informed; a thinking electorate is so important.
The Evolution of the Schools of Arrogance, Hypocrisy and Deceit

3
Now education is a major industry. February 2008 PBSs Nightly Business Report
cited them the second largest industry in the United States. It has taken educational
simplicity and made it conveniently complex. Common sense once the heart of education
has been ripped from the system, destroyed and buried and replaced with education maxims
and mythology that try to make education some kind of mystic science.
Why? Perhaps the purposes of today’s educators are different, and education of
students is not the primary goal. Teaching individuals to be independent is not a desired
goal. Individualism and self-sufficiency is not a desired purpose of an (Education Industry)
that behaves and finds their power in being a collective.
Self-interest is the motivation of the education industry. Carving out a special niche
in society for educators seems to be their goal. Manipulating education so it serves their
needs and purposes is the desire. Educating, no indoctrinating children into the politics
prescribed by educators which most serves their socialist agendas, commands their energies.

4
Educators are dedicated to the education industry; their unions, associations,
vacations, pensions and paychecks. Dedication to the industry means its health, resources
and money going in, not results or well educated students coming out. Needy and dependent
students add to the profitability of the education industry.
This dedication to themselves puts greater value on input over output, show over
substance, implementation over effectiveness and efficiency. These are all methods
educators promote today. While society has provided more and more opportunities to self-
educate, educators have watered down their roll to avoid educating, impeding a students
ability to self-educate.
They have constructed their education vision to be something that leaves students
dependent on them. Dependent students as children become dependent students as adults and
remain dependent at the mercy of the education industry their entire lives.
While self-education could be more easily accomplished today with all the resources
and mechanisms available, they teach less. They promote subjects and programs of less
importance so children, students, even as adults will not have developed the self-education
skills sufficiently. They do this so the people will still be dependent on them for education,
more like indoctrination in thoughts and philosophies.
The more the education industry fails to teach, the more teaching hours are necessary
to make up for those failures. More teaching hours mean more teachers, union members,
association members dependent on and dedicated to the education industry. Also, the cry
must go out for more money.
Today’s educators are more motivated by their political agendas, which are designed
to enhance their personal and professional profit and power. They push input over output,
avoiding responsibility and accountability. Half-heart effort and shoddy work aids their
industry because they cry, “They need more money, more resources, to achieve success”.
“They need more resources to make it fun for the students, because they will only
learn if it is fun.” They need more toys and gadgets, doodads and whatsits, all these things to
do something that was once done with a minimum of materials. Failure expands today’s
education. What industry would rise above this if they were rewarded for failure? None!
They see where the profit lies and follow the money!
Early on it was done with a minimum of resources because education was once the
goal. Now indoctrination is the goal of educators. Indoctrination of students, the children
who become adults, into their political agendas for the purpose of their own profit and power
is their purpose. Corruption has deprived education of the purity of goals it once had.
Proper education requires integrity. It requires a purity of purpose to deliver to
society those things which move society in a positive direction. Allowing corruption,
arrogance and hypocrisy to dominate education threatens the entire society.
While the halls of education can be a place for miracles to happen, where the wonders
of the world can unfold before a student’s eyes, it can also be the opposite if it loses its
honesty. Even Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels satirized the arrogant behavior of the
education industry at the time for this behavior. If not tended and nurtured with integrity,
education can create an environment were corruption is incubated, matured and unleashed,
guiding society in the wrong directions.
Such a system can be extremely profitable to those in the industry. Personal profit
and power can be derived from this warping of public education. This is where we are today.

5
Failing education serves the education industry agendas. Good education, so
important to democracy, threatens educator’s quest for socialism. Failed education, the
indoctrination educators deliver, serves the socialist agenda.
Education; Selling Out The Community And The Children
A self-satisfied contentment has settled over the education industry. Educators have
diligently focused efforts to make their work easier and more comfortable for themselves.
This has created and environment where educators have become extremely comfortable and
satisfied with self. Like overeating at Thanksgiving, they have become fat and happy and not
very opened to movement. One of the few times educators become energized is when their
comfortable kingdom is questioned or threatened.
The politics that have evolved in the education industry because of their stance
focuses on their personal and professional profit and power. Enhancing their position in
society dominates their strategies.
Part of this strategy is to focus on formal education as the only education. That
education doled out by the professional educator is given elevated status. The theories,
theorems, laws, propositions and programs handed out by the industry are given greater
weight than those lessons of life experience, life experts and commonsense.
This precludes life experience and commonsense as having any major value. It
pushes wisdom to educators living in their own selfish bubble, their vision obscured by their
vast egos before them. Lifers, those gaining wisdom through living experience are relegated
to the back seats of the intelligence bus.
They have discounted the idea their role is to give young students the basics to call
upon and use as they go through life. They see themselves as giving the thoughts and ideas
needed to mold lives properly and take society in the direction they deem as the proper one.
They see their life as reality, unaware they are living in the protected education
bubble. A bubble that creates the malaise of an anti depression drug, where the ups and
downs are not great changes. They are protected by tenure, law, lobbies, unions and
associations. The trials and tribulations of life are avoided as much as possible. Their view
of life is distorted by the artificial environment they have created for themselves.
They believe school should be constant joy and fun for children. They think flowers
should be blooming and birds singing all the while, always spring and summer, never fall and
winter. They want this for the children because they want it for themselves. They want a life
of antidepressants, where nothing bad happens.
They even openly drug children for this purpose. Life is not that way. It never will
be for the masses. And if it becomes so, it will only bring the sadness of mindless existence,
avoiding life’s challenges.
The idea educators have the best interests of the children in mind is ludicrous! That
they wouldn’t do anything to hurt the children is preposterous. As individuals some may
have a heart. However, even many of those will conveniently forget it when the
advancement of their own livelihood is it stake. The education industry is a selfish collective
when it comes to bringing money into their sphere of influence. When money can be
brought into their gravitational pull, educators are quite willing to become blind to values,
ethics and integrity and let arrogance and hypocrisy rein.

6
Nutrition In Schools
The best example of how educators are willing to sacrifice students and education is
in regard to nutrition. They knew bringing the soda, potato chips, corn chips and candy into
the schools was wrong and wrong for the children. They knew having vending machines in
the halls and cafeterias was contrary to the proper lifestyle for children.
Then why did this happen on such a grand scale? Why did those machines invade the
classroom environments, standing guard along the walls in halls and cafeterias?
Because there was money in it for educators and the education industry! If they
brought money in from other sources, they could divert more of the flow of money to their
own pockets. Now that obesity is a major medical calamity in our country, educators have
sheepishly slipped to the other side.
The money they made selling out the children was huge. It did not bother their
conscience enough not to do it. In fact they had little problem selfishly selling out the
children and parents to divert more money for their own greedy wants.
I hear them lauding they are using whole grains in their pizza dough and breads.
They say it is better. They point out progress being made. They constantly point to progress
being made. They use statistics that show progress and avoid statistics that do not. Getting
better, making progress doesn’t mean success. Especially when that progress being made is
even questionable. Still, progress does not mean success.
They would make it seem their negligence was just the failure to incorporate whole
grains into their diet. They allowed vendors to enter the public school campuses with sugars,
fats, trans-fats, salts and preservatives in mass quantities practically poisoning the students.
It was for the money.
But you say, “Educators wouldn’t lie about these things. That would be selling out
the children.”
Nurturing The Drug Culture
They have sold out our children numerous times before, and as previously stated one
of the most obvious is the nutrition they have provided in schools. Another even more
serious is they have sold the children out to drugs.
They present a visibly strong façade in opposition to drugs. They position their drug
free zone signs around schools like a protecting fortress. One wonders is that wall to keep
the drug dealers out, or protect the ones within. This is another education program for show
and no real substance. It puts all the blame for drugs outside their purview, when they are
actually dealing them within.
Inside their walls, they are willing to put kids on drugs at the drop of a hat. They
have made it acceptable to actually wean children on drugs. For behavior problems and
concentration problems they are willing to drug kids into submission for the convenience of
educators, instead of teaching discipline and determination.
Those same sugars and other chemicals they are fed because of the greed of the
education system, many of these students are revved up, their bodies exploding with energy,
then crashing. These sugars create the symptoms of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) for
which students are diagnosed out of control and then put on drugs like Ridalin.

7
These are not benign drugs. These are drugs that can have disastrous affects on
children in both the long and short term. They can cause dependence and hallucinations.
Some have become a drug of choice for adults and children are even used as date rape drugs.
Some cause depression and notions of suicide.
When I first got on the school board I received an anonymous phone call from an
employee of another district. She told me parents were agreeing to their kids being put on
Ridalin. They collected $1000.00 a month from SSI and then would sell the drug on the
street. It expanded the inducement for putting children on Ridalin and it had nothing to do
with the good of the child. In fact it created an environment detrimental to the child’s health.
I’m not sure that most places where Ridalin is used aren’t detrimental to the child’s health.
Look back! Be honest! Tell me every one of you wouldn’t have been diagnosed with
attention deficit disorder (ADD) when you were a child. For active energetic children to be
caged up in school all day is an exercise in pure concentration and discipline for them. Many
times during the day they fail, just as we failed.
I remember being in Chemistry Class or History Class with two of my favorite and
most respected teachers. I found them very interesting. Still, many times toward the end of
class, I could not stand to have one more piece of information crammed into my head. I just
couldn’t do it. So I shut down and stared out the window, looking at nature to relieve the
pressure on my brain and sooth my soul.
I mean it, I couldn’t take any more. I know they caught me a number of times during
those spells. Perhaps every time, because I dove outside those windows so vigorously and
unabashedly, perhaps they could not help but see.
I liked them very much and respected them even more. I didn’t want to hurt their
feelings. But I needed to escape or I would go crazy.
I found the discipline in myself. I had tasks that had to be done. I concentrated even
when it was painful. That is what strength and discipline are about. It must be nurtured,
built and formed in the character of the individual. It should not be drugged into a child.
The education industry has failed students and parents in practically every way these
days. While educators like to blame parents, educators are much to blame why many of
today’s parents are so lame. Because they taught them in this slipshod way!
Drugs are being used for convenience to control, not to elicit proper conduct of
children.
What is the connection with 52% of the Horseheads School district healthcare budget
going to pharmaceuticals, double the national average at the high end of the range, as
determined by a healthcare consultant? Certainly one cause of high percentage of
pharmaceutical costs is district educators purchasing the more expensive brand name drugs.
Still, one must ask, are educators in the district over consuming drugs? Are educators
in the district drug dependent? Are they more prone to pop a pill without hesitation, looking
for solutions to all of their mental and physical problems in a pill? Are capsules, caplets and
chemicals the course they see to make them more capable? What is the thinking here? If so,
isn’t this weak and won’t it be the example they pass on to the children? Amongst the war
on drugs, it seems our children are being taught a dependence on prescribed drugs?
When my mom died, I found myself dozing off at my computer during the day.
Much of my work of writing involved editing and checking the indexes and tables of

8
contents, scrolling through the pages on the computer to make sure headings and chapter
numbers were on the right pages. This was very hypnotic and stupefying.
I listened to some of the commercials on television about the symptoms of
depression. I didn’t feel depressed, though I did feel very sad. Still, I was moving forward
with life, working on personal projects. Perhaps I was not as exuberant as in the past, but
still trudged forward.
Though I never believed in councilors, I contacted my employee EAP and made an
appointment. I almost canceled it before I went. I did go. The councilor came to the same
conclusion as I had. I was not depressed. I was just going through the normal ritual of
sadness. The dozing in front of the computer at work he diagnosed as boredom.
I myself should have seen that. I had moved the job forward in my first years to a
point where I was getting it under control. I was transitioning from constant movement just
to keep on schedule, to a slower pace of more editing and scrolling, practically self-
hypnotizing.
When I was ready to leave the councilor’s office he added, “I can write a prescript for
one of these drugs if you want it.”
I was both amazed and appalled. I agreed with him, I wasn’t depressed, just feeling
sad. It was the mourning process. I wasn’t going to take a drug I didn’t need. When I heard
from a friend who had, and she revealed how these drugs put you in a lethargic state, no ups
or downs, but no desire for anything more either, I realized, I had dodged a bullet.
I brought dumbbells to work to get my blood flowing and my heartbeat racing during
the day. I did many things to turn the tide. It is an uphill battle that sometimes I lose. I was
never meant to sit in front of a computer all day. But that is another story.
Is this where our educators are? Healthcare is so easy and cheap for them to get, are
they accepting every drug offered to help them with their mental and physical ailments?
Many of their behaviors reveal them as this weak. If so, they cannot help but bring this
weakness with them, exemplify this behavior to those around them; their students.
Clearly, the signs surrounding schools saying drug free zone or more a wish that
reality. In face the drug culture in our school is affected more by being a “free drug zone”,
that it is a “drug free zone”. Drugs are a major part of the education industry culture, and our
local school culture.
A Trend; Not An Aberration
These selfish and self-serving behaviors of educators in the education industry are
more of a trend than an aberration as they would like you to believe. They are not focused on
educational success of students, but the power and profit behaviors can bring to them
personally and professionally. Consolidating their profit and power, their political agenda
strengthens their profession, their unions and associations.
Is it too far out to think educators would bring in programs that fail to educate? I
believe there has been much evidence this is the case at our local level as well as state and
national levels. The disguise of educating is more important than educating. Making it look
like the task is being done is much more important than actually doing it. This point will be
made more clearly throughout this book. It will be made particularly listening to their own
words; the words of Cary Nelson President of the American College Professors Association
and George Weaver, President of the NEA.

9
Educators have become so expert at putting up and maintaining the front, the façade,
they have lost the ability to actually do; achieve. The fact they became so invested in the
facades, the fake fronts first, shows where their priorities are and where they stand. That
they have been doing this for so long they have actually forgotten how to achieve says even
more about them.
Would they use obesity and drug dependence to train people to be more dependent on
them for their own profit and power? I guess if they would fail to educate purposely to that
end, turning our children into obese druggies would not be beyond the realm of possibility.
With such a lack of confidence and low self-esteem, it would certainly put the perceived
peasant population at their mercy.
Their arrogance and hypocrisy have gotten out of control. They are in a state of
extreme fear that society will discover how inept and incompetent they have become. That it
has not only spread to lunches in schools and drugging children to control them, but the
disciplines, the subjects have been subverted for the same reason.
Most of the subversion of the ethics in education has taken place for one major
reason, the almighty dollar. Yes educator’s main goal is increasing their own profit and
power. Profit and power becomes a vicious cycle for them. More profit means more power
means more profit and so on and so on and so on.
Unions, Yes or No
While I see the need for unions, I also see where the present day system of labor
organizations has gone astray. Unions are necessary to keep unscrupulous and greedy
corporate heads in line. However, union management has become so similar to the corporate
management it is difficult to tell the difference.
Like corporate management, union management has become selfish and greedy,
running their organization for the benefit of leadership and not that of the majority of their
members. They make decisions on what is best for them, not the organization (public
education). This is shortsightedness is not good for the long term health of the organizations
they run.
Union management runs their organization to protect the poor workers, those in
trouble, constantly facing judgment or discipline. They protect the mediocre and inept,
spending most of their time protecting the problem people.
They seldom have to step forward to protect those with the good work ethic,
dependable and responsible. They sacrifice the well being of the majority for a minority,
many of whom don’t deserve defending.
Like company leadership, union leadership asks those that do to do more, those that
sacrifice, to sacrifice more and those that do not, to do nothing. Very much like the welfare
system in our country.
Education is one of the areas unions have done the worst damage. They trample
down the individualism, inventiveness and integrity that has made the American Democratic
Republic a model for the world.
Education and government unions are among the largest in the country, further
spreading mediocrity where it has long been well practiced. The NEA (National Education
Association) 2.7 million members and AFT (American Federation of Teachers) 1.3 million
members total 4 million members. In 1995, the NEA (National Education Association) had

10
2.2 million members with a $185 million budget and AFT (American Federation of
Teachers) 885,000 members with a $78 million budget, both unions totaling about 3.1
million members. This is a membership growth of over one third, or 34% in twelve years.
These figures do not include superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal or
other education administrator associations and unions of which there are many. Added to
these two teachers unions, which are among the largest in the country, perhaps the world, you
are talking about a massive amount of power.
As previously stated the union’s power is used in a selfish way, particularly the
education unions. Education unions and associations are promoting their personal and
professional profit, power and political programs. Education of the children, creating
independent and critical thinkers, is in conflict with their agenda of political power. They
prefer to indoctrinate neediness and dependence.
Uneducated, overweight and drug dependent citizens fit the agenda of the education
industry and point out why they have made the bad decisions they have. People over fed,
drugged and/or propagandized into inaction, selling their freedoms for an empty life of being
controlled.
It appears education industry leaders are attempting to introduce the signature malaise
of unionism and socialism into our education and even government systems, mediocrity and
less.
Teacher Certification and Supposed Education Enhancement
Education Industry Unions and their lobbyists, along with government officials in NY
State have used certification to keep the bar for teacher qualifications low. That certification
supports the indoctrination of educators into the industry agenda of strengthening
professional loyalties rather than dedication to the education of the children. Mediocre
education and less is the result.
Certification merely consolidates the teacher’s union’s power. It allows them to set
the rules for who gets in and who doesn’t. It should be industry standard that anyone
graduating from an accredited college or university with a teaching degree is qualified to
teach in public schools. How is it possible they are not?
Because the education industry has watered down the college education of teachers as
they have the certification of teachers and their lauded masters degree with indoctrination
instead of education. This is all designed to control the low caliber of teachers and assure
those that would show them up have little or no chance of entering the ivy covered walls of
academe.
They systematically keep out people that may have much stronger education,
backgrounds, credentials and experience, lacking the peacock’s plumage of certification and
the education industries contrived Masters Degree saturated with indoctrination in educanese
(education double talk) and education myth and legend. The bar is lowered and the stage is
set so that lowered bar is protected from not only capable people from outside the system, but
dynamic and exceptional people from outside the education industries massive ghetto of
mediocrity.
Yes, the system of certifying teachers in New York State and others may well have
been for the purpose of making sure high quality teachers were in the public education
system. However, it has ended up doing the opposite, making sure lazy, substandard teachers

11
are protected. They are protected from even being embarrassed by better, more productive
teachers that might come from different backgrounds than the indoctrination of the teacher
mills. This sets the bar for educators low. The standard sinks lower and lower the longer
these systems are in place for their protection.
Follow the Trends
They fear the hall marks of America, rugged individualism, dynamism and
inventiveness which threatens them and will do all they can to crush the individual spirit to
build a lethargic collective which benefits their wants.
Follow the trends of incidents at the local level. Notice how case studies from the
Horseheads School District show behaviors that follow the philosophies of the education
industry powers at the national level. Their goals are selfish and pervasive, from top to
bottom and bottom to top.
This is just one small area, district and community. It serves the education industry to
the disservice of the children and the community.
The Bottom Line
It must be recognized that education is big business in this country. Primary,
secondary, adult, under graduate and graduate education is not just big business in this
country, but world wide. Providing education generates money. However it not only
generates power through money, but also generates money through the manipulation and
distribution of ideas.
To think that educators are motivated by altruism is a tremendous mistake. When
you graduated from school, how many of your classmates said they were becoming teachers
because of their desire to teach children, and had concerns about the future of the country.
You probably remember them saying they were inspired by decent pay and summers and
holidays off. Far too many educators are motivated by the same things as other big business
and large industries. These are selfish motivations of profit and power.
However, most educational institutions are nonprofit institutions. They do not seek
institutional profit. Their institutions do seek power along with personal power. However,
educators are obsessed with individual profit and power, and an elevated place in society.
Educational institutions are not interested in effectiveness or efficiency, or even
success. Because, like government the education industry thrives through failure! By
failing, they get more money, because their role is seen as essential to the success of children.
People are willing to throw money at them in hopes a miracle will occur and success will
result.
When the education industry expands and those within are endowed with greater
profit and power and even credibility for failing, what motivation is there for success in
teaching our children or adults.
Make no mistake, expansion of personal and professional profit, power, position and
place in society is the primary motivation of the education industry. As silent sheep,
educators sign on to this agenda and it is rightly so they share the image.

12
CHAPTER 2. THE POWER OF, OR THE POWER IN EDUCATION
During the Block (Intensive) Scheduling marketing presentations, Carolyn Clack,
Phd. Librarian and Judy McInerny, President of the local teacher’s union came up to me
during the final meeting. They chided, “You are listening to the wrong people!”
I replied, “I’m only hearing what you are saying, and it is your words making me
doubt the program.”
They asked, “Have you been to all the meetings?”
I told them, “I wasn’t sure if I had.”
They gave me the horse laugh, turned dismissively and walked away.
I found out later, there had been four review meetings on intensive scheduling and I
had been to all four. They used my uncertainty as a reason to dismiss me, an often used
tactic. In all those meetings I saw no data that said the system worked. I saw a selective use
of data. They used the first year of data from a district that had implemented such a program.
They did not use the second year of data that was available. I think because it did not support
their case.
This is a theme that continues till this day. It wasn’t what any one else said. It was
educators own words, from their own mouths that caused me to doubt. From teachers to
professors, board presidents to district superintendents, local union presidents to national,
education leaders at all levels.
Disillusioned working in industry, when I was lucky enough to land a job at Cornell
University thinking I was moving on to Camelot. After all, with a top graduate school of
Business Management and a long standing elite school of Labor Relations, both highly
touted, I was surely going to be at the Olympus of Leadership and Management. Now I
would see how leadership was carried out efficiently, effectively, with honestly and integrity.
Besides, I was already an advocate of education and the educator. Good teachers I
had in high school had swayed me greatly. I had great admiration for them. The really bad
professors I had in college had not tainted my opinion of education. I just assumed a military
college, which all attendees thought to be somewhat corrupt, was the exception to the rule.
I will not dwell too long on my experience at Cornell. It was wonderful, but not for
the reasons I thought. It was another experience of life that gave me important guidance. It
made me more aware of the truth and how truth is often abused and obscured.
After my time in the maintenance arm of Cornell’s Department of Residence Life, I
was offered a temporary position in the School of Human Ecology, the academic portion, I
think because of my sensitivity to the employees. I was disillusioned working it residence
life.
CLASP (Community Learning and Service Partnership) was a program our
department took advantage of to give educational opportunities to custodians and
maintenance people on our staff. I was to help the CLASP (Community Learning and
Service Partnership) package their program for industry, to bring literacy programs to
industrial workers in factories.

13
Here is where the incidents occurred to begin my questioning of education. With
some initial spade work done, I began probing in my local school district for a place to begin
a pilot project. I went to the local SCT BOCES where literacy programs might exist.
I found the head of such a program, described that CLASP used knowledgeable
people in a community, whether the actual community or large business to help tutor people
in need of various kinds of literacy whether English, reading mathematics or more. Her initial
response to me was telling.
She said, “You are taking away my business!”
I tried to explain, we were offering free resources to make her and her program more
successful. We would be there to help with resources and not to take away work. We
weren’t there to usurp, but only help her to achieve greater success. She could not see it any
other way that we were infringing upon her business.
Knowing I was offering something positive, I went over her head in the BOCES, to
her supervisor. I received the same response. There was no desire for free help, apparently
none for greater success.
When I later discovered the history of the BOCES Program, I understood. Excellent
vocational programs had been systematically dismantled. Students once in demand to enter
local industries had curriculums changed so their education had little meaning. BOCES
programs were changed to handle problem children rather than teach functional trades to
students. A successful vocational program was dismantled, changed into a program that did
not create skilled adults, with great access to the job market.
Then I began to think, it fit the education industry agenda of making children and
adults dependent upon them. Success was a reduction in business. If students, children or
adults learned important subjects they were taught, they would no longer be dependent on
educators or the education system. This meant less expansion of the education industry.
But, it couldn’t be? Teachers and educators would still prefer success even if it did
shrink their pool of perspectives. The student was most important I told myself. “Education
was for the success of the student?” I asked myself?
Then about halfway through the year of the temporary grant to develop this program,
I had a meeting with the professor who was supervising me in this endeavor. It seemed I
would present ideas at meetings she was impressed with. I would develop them, put them on
paper and come back only to find her not so enthusiastic.
This particular day, the last meeting just before the Christmas Holiday, she confided
in me. She revealed, “I’m not sure I want you to succeed on this project!”
The shocked look on my face must have displayed my surprise. I sat silent to hear if
she would go on.
She further revealed, “If we are successful, I will lose power over this program.”
Between the lady at the SCT BOCES suggesting we were taking away her business,
and the good professor, whom I admired, fearing losing her power, I began to see a thread of
consistency. While I admired her honesty to let me know, I was really concerned she would
wish me failure.
I had sensed something wrong with her enthusiasm about ideas when first presented
and dissatisfaction after I developed them further. I would never get specific direction, but
we would fish around, time running out.

14
I mentioned to her if we succeeded, her power would be greatly enhanced. Her
program would be helping people in a much broader venue. Her inspiration might be helping
thousands of people with education problems instead of a hundred or so a year.
“But I will not have control over how it is applied,” she lamented.
She too was refusing help, to help her help others. I began to see, helping others was
not necessarily the purpose of their programs, hers and BOCES. The purpose was more
oriented toward securing their position, profit and power. Securing their superior position in
society overall by protecting the closed society of education seemed to be their motivation.
This was the beginning of my suspicions about the motivations of the academic
community. As I saw more behaviors confirming my suspicions I became even more
disappointed in education than I was in industry leadership.
That Christmas my mind was racing, trying to frame concepts that would entice her
toward great success rather than fearing the loss of power. I came up with what I felt were
dynamic ideas. I never was able to sell them to her, but I also could never pry the direction
she wanted me to go out of her. I floundered, wallowing in a sea of indecision, no compass
toward positive results.
The job I thought would be exciting and a great success that would help me to spring
board to bigger and better things was going no where. I didn’t even understand the results
she wanted until with only a few months left on the grant, she handed the task to her
assistant.
All the borrowed readings and lifted exercises for her literacy course were to be
compiled into one book. It took me awhile to realize she never really wanted to transfer her
literacy process to industry. She wanted to use the grant money to formalize the text book
for her course. She really didn’t need me for that.
I was upset with my failure for a long time. It was my time, my effort, so I
shouldered the blame for the collapse. I felt I was a disaster, my fault little was
accomplished in this project. Personally, it all fell on my shoulders when I walked away
from this project feeling a failure.
It took me many months to analyze the situation correctly and come to grips. I was
sabotaged! While the professor had the courage to tell me of her concerns of losing power,
she didn’t have the courage to outright tell me I was on the wrong track for what she wanted.
She would try to gently guide me, but in my own vision I saw great benefits from the
direction I was heading and only moved off course in small increments. In six months it
didn’t amount to very much.
Then I related this to the recycling program I initiated while in residence life. There
too leadership limited success to avoid work and accountability. They too probably saw
success of the program as a loss of power.
I realized at this time my weakness and my greatest strength were one and the same.
When I was given a task, I took it on to make it work. I saw the benefits success would
bring, and I would do all I could to make the project a success.
Initially in my naiveté I didn’t see these projects weren’t given to me to make them
work. They were handed to me so leadership could say they were addressing the problem,
whether they really did or not was not their concern. In fact, I think they preferred not to
rock the boat. They were perfectly satisfied with maintaining the status quo. It was safer for
them that way, since they never knew what change could bring. If it was for the better, it
might challenge their power.

15
Mr. Robert Odum, a former local union president in a neighboring Elmira School
district excoriated me in a letter to the editor in 1996. He stated how my letters made him
sick to his stomach while he was eating breakfast.
He wasn’t specific about what I said in particular about education that put him in such
a state of ill health. Just that it was misinformation and lies that I spewed. I guess it was just
my expression of concerns about education and the negatives I saw.
Mr. Odum wrote, “He would not waste his time debating,” which appears to be an
educational trend.
I replied in my October 23, 1996 letter in the Star-Gazette, “If Mr. Odum has truth
exclusively on his side, he should not fear debate. Please expose my errors and my
untruths,” I went on, “And I will apologize publicly. I wish to learn the truth, so difficult to
decipher among selfish agendas.”
When I answered his letter, I let him know I was seeking the truth. I was very much
interested in exposing it. If he showed me where I was wrong I would gladly give him a
public apology. I would write a letter pointing out to the people where I was wrong and I
would apologize to educators.
Help to search for and uncover the truth never came from him. It never came from
anyone in education. The superintendents, board members, administrators, librarians, union
presidents and teachers, most telling me I was wrong, never showed me why or where I was
wrong. I was attacked generally as being wrong, with no specifics addressed. I was just
supposed to take their word for it. Unfortunately they never showed me their word could be
trusted. In fact, they showed me the opposite.
From the BOCES administrator who did not want help from the Cornell CLASP
Program because, “It would take away her business,” to my friend the professor who, wasn’t
sure she wanted me to succeed in the project I was doing for her because, “She might lose the
power over it,” their own words gave me the answers.
Similarly Douglas Martin, Elmira Teachers Association President and Raymond
Bryant, Superintendent epitomize union and educator supported mediocrity in their
September 18th and 19th, 2007 letters, extolling (54%) seven of thirteen Elmira schools are
not on the under performing schools list. Banners hailing rapidly improving or high
performing schools are facades, revealing the fatal education industry philosophy for show
over substance. Their own words show strong support of educational mediocrity.
From local teacher union presidents Robert Odums, Douglas Martin, Judy McInerny
and Cathy Keeler, we see the same selfish attitudes their words indicating the same attitude
as the education industry. School board presidents’ words reveal similar mediocrity.
Superintendents like Reester, Congon, Cuppola, Trombley, Staples, Sherwood and Bryant
parrot the same old tunes, their own words exposing their acceptance of educational
mediocrity.
Go to the top, Cary Nelson President of the American College Professor’s
Association points out how they self police allowing an incompetent history professor to
teach for twenty years, or finding a place for staff who continually fail. Or President Weaver
of the National Education Association pushing input over output to avoid accountability for
poor results. They are all singing the same song of accepted incompetence, ineffectiveness
and inefficiency. They sing the song of selfish, arrogance and mediocrity and defend it.

16
There is much power in education. Educators obsessed with power must bring more
money into the education industry to maintain and spread their power. This does not mean
education for our children will improve. In fact this obsessive quest for educator’s power and
profit drains honesty and integrity that is sorely necessary from education and educators. It is
purposely geared toward failing to educate the children so they will continue to be customers
and consumers of the education industry in the future.
Without integrity to guide content and quality of delivery, our public education, even
private higher education will continue to suffer and degrade. The chances for our wonderful
Democratic Republic to survive will diminish. That would be to the detriment of mankind
and the human condition, let alone our own country.
CHAPTER 3 – THE FOUR C’S OF THE EDUCATION INDUSTRY
Conduct & Confidentiality: A Double Edged Sword
Often it seems the school board system in general, has become a sound proof
room, where little sound enters and little escapes. Such methods ring the death knell for
debate and threaten the tools of a democratic process.
When I was voted to the Horseheads School Board in 1997, the first thing I
participated in was a meeting about conduct and confidentiality. The purpose was to teach
me the ground rules. This was a wonderful learning experience.
Conducted by the district legal counsel and superintendent, and attended by myself
and one other new member, I learned some legalities of school board membership. Rules of
proper conduct were espoused. A couple of members of neighboring school boards, past and
present, were set forth as examples of improper behavior. Sylvia Huber and Mary Reynolds
had written letters to the editor about education. I called them to voice support for their
ideas. So, they were people with whom I had conversations. What was presented as
improper, I saw as independent.
That very evening, Steven Buckholtz of the Star-Gazette called to question me about
an issue. I told him, "I can't answer that right now. I have to think about this whole conduct
and confidentiality business before I say anything." I came away from that meeting
frightened and very uncertain about what I could or could not say.
Steve, a person I respected greatly for his integrity, questioned me, "You're not
going to become another of these people who gets on the board and is never heard from
again; are you?"
I answered, "No, but I do have to sort this out. There are issues of liability and
misconduct to which I must pay attention."
The presentation was frightening. I will admit I was scared. Confidentiality was a
legal issue, which could bring severe penalties against me.
It took much thought, but I did sort things out. I realized if I just used common
sense and applied my vision of integrity I should be okay.
Then I began to question the presentation of conduct and confidentiality. Though I
believe good conduct and obeying rules of confidentiality are extremely important, I also saw
room for wrong doing under this apparently righteous banner.

17
Speaking out on issues could breech some views of both proper conduct and
confidentiality. Written policies support this.
One such policy in the Joint Code of Conduct For School Boards and Superintendents
states, "Act as part of an educational team with mutual respect and regard for each other's
respective responsibilities and duties, recognizing the strength of a school board is acting as a
board, not as individuals."
The importance of teamwork cannot be refuted. However, individuality implied as
disrespect and misconduct could easily frighten people away from standing their ground.
When the institutional view says individuality is wrong, what can change the
direction of the majority when it has veered off course? When individual action is
characterized as poor conduct, it is difficult to stand alone.
Under these conditions codes of conduct and confidentiality then become codes of
silence. If integrity takes a back seat in an environment, such codes can enforce long
existing processes of propagandizing, indoctrination and intimidation. It can be reinforced
by those previously indoctrinated into status quo thinking.
With debate silenced and the range of input squeezed down, the view is narrowed. It
makes politics a major player and gives integrity a minor role in governing our schools.
Under these conditions a school board, a school district or an entire educational system could
easily become stagnant, warped and misguided in its' thinking.
Consensus: Agreement or Assimilation
I have often heard people from the community complain as did Steven Buckholtz
accuse me, "Joe was so outspoken before he went on the board, now he is just like the
rest." They ask, "How can they vote unanimously on everything?"
As a new member of the school board, I was sent to a seminar in Albany for the
orientation of new school board members. It was put on by the New York State School
Board Association. Many classes were made available on many subjects that might be of
interest to new school board members.
However, the tone of most of the keynote addresses rang with a familiar tone. The
message of consensus was hammered home. One can find little to argue about consensus
when looked at the point of view of establishing agreement. It certainly is better if all
involved find honest agreement in their decisions.
Consensus from one perspective could be looked at as the result of compromise,
which is often necessary to move an organization.
However, this presentation of consensus was a little different. It strongly implied
that to go to the public without consensus was somehow disloyal to fellow board members.
It was pictured as undermining the position and power of the board.
The united front when going to the public was stressed. Anything less than a
united front was characterized as undermining the ability of the board to succeed in the
goals that were set.
I would say this picture of consensus implied that a lack of consensus was a lack of
civility by those or that person who stood in the way of consensus.
When returning to the board, the pushing of consensus was presented along much
the same lines. Stories of boards out of control were related through discussion and an

18
article passed out. It further implied that failure to have consensus could lead to extremes in
incivility. The one article I remember, the incivility ended in the suicide of the
superintendent.
This characterization of incivility left me concerned. It warned disagreement could
not occur in a civil way. It suggested if agreement was not achieved, it could only break out
into hostilities.
I would learn incivility could be used as a weapon by the consensus seekers. When
disagreement was pushed, and not consummated in consensus, incivility often became the
tool of the majority.
Consensus, To Limit Debate
Used ideally, consensus can bring a decision to the best possible conclusion. Used
improperly it covers dissenting ideas with layers of silence, far more effective than feet of
concrete.
As improperly used rules of conduct and confidentiality can limit debate in our
public school governance, so can the process of consensus. It forces people to give up
their voice for a larger voice, often nothing like their own.
In September of '97, when I went to a seminar for new board members, I was
struck by the philosophy of consensus delivered. Presenting a united board front, the
community is viewed as an enemy.
Disagreement could take place, but once decided upon; proper conduct dictated
complete agreement on an issue. The board personality enforced this definition. Consensus
meant showing no opposition. If the agreed upon process were not working, it would not be
proper to bring that out. One was to support the decision implicitly. Such a consensus
process is a powerful tool to limit ideas, debate and questioning.
An issue under discussion could be halted if thought to be over debated. These
unwritten rules of consensus could erase an idea from the agenda and banish it from
further appearances.
Wrap consensus in self-serving concepts of conduct and confidentiality and the
flow of ideas can be controlled. Turning the faucet on more ideas might be allowed.
Squeeze it down and unwanted input would be constricted. Committees, even where
community participation is allowed could be manipulated to a result.
Consensus is supposed to be an agreement to obtain good solutions that all participating can
accept, not a blood oath of silence.
Consensus, Silencing Ideas
When consensus is utilized to rule the committee process, the information obtained
can be neutralized till it is merely a defender of the status quo.
For instance the Community Survey Committee in 1997, made up of dedicated
community members, may be such an example. All worked diligently to bring the work to
a positive conclusion. Where did we go wrong?
The equation used was DF2
. DF2
means "Designed For Failure". Weaknesses
installed in a system kept the project from reaching anywhere near its potential.
Why do I make this determination? Due to this process, great effort and energy

19
was dissipated into questionable results.
The first error we made was consensus. We said we could not report until we all
agreed to what and how we would report. By agreeing to consensus, we agreed in theory to
a diluted report at the last meeting. The neutralized version that came out said nothing of
importance. It became a marketing effort to hid weaknesses rather than research into the
weaknesses of the district.
This nullified the information found in the study. There were high and low points
worthy of hearing. Sure, they may not all have been represented by masses of people. Yet,
these concerns would never see the light of day.
An issue of intimidation of people afraid to speak was mentioned by only 8
respondents. This was only a little over 1%. Events of '98, which included the “Regents
grade changing issue”, suggested this might be a legitimate area of concern.
We bulldozed the landscape until there were no distinguishing landmarks on which to
take a bearing. We diminished the voices of the public till they were mere whispers in the
distance.
Coming away from committee work with one voice neutralizes many ideas. It
takes an opportunity for great discussion and interaction and it silences. It nurtures
mediocrity and the status quo.
Apparently this time consuming survey was not significant enough for the board to
discuss. After its presentation at the board meeting, not another word was said about it by the
board.
How do we deal with this in the future? We do not ask for consensus. We
encourage the minority view and presentation to answer and even challenge the majority
view. The basis of education is debate.
Consensus is used to construct a false face to confuse and confound the community.
It dawns the mask of wisdom to cover unadulterated arrogance when looking in the mirror.
Conduct, Confidentiality and Consensus To Control
Rules of conduct and confidentiality are essential to setting standards of proper
behavior for board members. They can be a limited control that guides new and old
members alike in dealing decently with each other.
However, as previously stated, issues of conduct and confidentiality can weigh
heavily on individuals. People will certainly be judged on them. They may even face
legal ramifications. The thought of such consequences hanging over ones head could be
quite frightening.
Manipulating those rules to intimidate rather than guide, could easily bring more
dictatorial control to a board organization. Fear of accusations of misconduct or breaches of
confidentiality could tend to quiet the voice of an individual standing on uncertain ground.
In the same vain, consensus that appears to be a requirement rather that a goal to
strive for can also take on the character of intimidation. If the standard of judgment for
someone not agreeing to, or standing in the way of consensus is preordained, consensus
could easily become a tool of intimidation.
If conduct, confidentiality and consensus are used as such tools, much power is
wielded with their use. Through these uses of conduct, confidentiality and consensus, the
lines of communication can be manipulated.

20
They could conceivably be turned into weapons that not only control what is
communicated, but they could control the actions of board members.
Withdrawal of acceptance and approval could in itself cast that controlling
influence on a dissenting board member. If the guidelines laid out from day one
characterize consensus as loyalty and teamwork with regard to the board, anyone standing
in the way of consensus is labeled disloyal and a non-team player, hurting the children.
These are powerful weapons at this level when we consider most people have a
strong desire to be liked and accepted. Begin to introduce a little venom into these
weapons and aim them against people trying to make differing opinions heard and try to
imagine the feeling of intimidation they will be under.
It will be a controlling force that few but the strongest and most experienced will give
in to. Deep inside we hope that no one has to be experienced in the area of receiving
intimidation. In such an environment, assimilation might be expected.
Confidentiality Used To Defame
Confidentiality is certainly important to the functioning of many aspects of a
school board. With regard to personnel issues and negotiations it is important that
confidentiality be strictly observed.
However, if confidentiality is used by boards to give them the power to defame and
slander people behind closed doors such actions do not deserve confidentiality. If such
defamation is used to influence board members in desired directions, vilifying individuals to
promote ones own position, it is essential such actions not be protected under such rules of
confidentiality.
When the denigration takes on a legitimized and heralded marketing approach,
actions to confront take on greater urgency. Defamation pounded home is a serious
action. When the venality of some marketing techniques is employed against people's
reputations for the sake of winning, such behavior must be fought. Constant negative
comments slipped in to conversations in order to influence against people under the
blanket of confidentiality, should not be protected. I cannot believe legally the rules of
confidentiality would protect such behavior.
Warped Confidentiality Contaminates Communication
Such actions show a serious deficit of leadership. Relying on gossip, hearsay and
innuendo instead of fact will build a weak school district and twisted educational examples.
It allows for despots with large egos to behave poorly.
It is the responsibility of board members to sound the alarm if rules of confidentiality
have become so warped. If leadership has no fear characterizing the public and individuals
in extremely negative terms, such methods will be used when effective. If no one stands in
the way of character assassination, it becomes fact in the stagnant air behind the closed doors
of confidentiality.
Leadership unafraid to wrongly attack such individuals behind closed doors can
plant the seeds to attack those disagreeing, destroying their credibility. Decisions are
clearly influenced when people have no opportunity to defend themselves.
We must question the motivation of leadership when confidentiality is used in this

21
way. Where is this leadership going to take us? These are not methods that should be
acceptable in our society, let alone the running of our public schools.
If a superintendent cannot remain objective in such circumstances, it is up to the
board to hold the reigns of leadership and implement the necessary objectivity.
Superintendents should act accordingly if boards fail to remain objective. Leadership
should jump to the defense of victims, showing those actions will not be tolerated.
This is not micro management. It is assuming responsibility and teaching
leadership in the broadest sense. If levels of leadership are falling short, it is up to others to
set standards of behavior and accomplishment.
If the board fails to take action, then it has chosen to condone. If that support is
aided by misuse of the rules of confidentiality, it is not only the right of individuals to
challenge those rules, it is their duty to question those actions outside the shadows of
confidentiality if need be.
If I had broken those rules, which I never believed I had, the "systemic deaf ear" I
have so often attributed to the board, left me no choice. With this same "systemic deaf ear"
leadership has forced others, characterized as villainous, to side step the chain of command
as occurred in the Regents grade changing..
Inherent deafness; continually deleting what leadership does not want to hear, leaves
no choice. People who care must by-pass the barrier that is leadership. Leadership has asked
for; no, forced such actions! When the lines of communication are exploited and subverted
by leadership, people must find new lines along which to communicate.
In regard to legal counsel's judgments about other's motivations and state of mind, I
believe they step over the bounds, ability and responsibility. Those judgments seem
designed to cast doubt and suspicion upon those people. One could make their own
judgment that this is the purpose of such declarations. That is to support the
superintendent's actions rather than counsel objectively and legality to make sure those
actions are morally and legally correct.
When counsel's stances heavily employ spin, the credibility of those positions must
be questioned. When a history of such behavior is evident, one must wonder at the quality of
counsel. If legal decisions are being made by the board on such counsel, one must ask how
good are those decisions?
Instead of exercising discipline and an objective voice before the board, legal counsel
tends to play to district leadership's major weakness. That is attacking people and
personalities instead of problems and issues.
This intimidating style of leadership resorts to marketing and band aids to cover
problems. Like cats scratching in a litter box to cover their mess, this mode moves to
cover up instead of seeking permanent solutions.
Marketing: Communication Manipulated
Manipulating those rules of conduct, confidentiality and consensus, the lines of
communication can be manipulated. A communication system can easily be confused
with that of marketing. I believe the board and district have come to the threshold of
communication and failed to step through. We always fell back into the marketing
mode.
Marketing is controlled communication for the purpose of manipulating the

22
thoughts of people. It presents the positives to win the people over. It avoids the
negatives, showing a rosy picture, so they do not see a bad or ugly side to what they have
been told.
Being given less than honest information warrants mistrust! The marketing of the
good and camouflaging of the bad will be listened to and accepted for a period; perhaps a
long period. However, when the deception of marketing is discovered, trust will be
seriously damaged. It will not be brought back by anything less than a history of honesty
and integrity. It will not be brought back even by a well marketed plea. Sincerity is the
only cure.
The organization including many of its members begins to market as leadership
has done. When a new program, let's use intensive (block) scheduling as an example, is
put in place, those responsible often market the results. The good is magnified. The bad
is filtered out. We are given scenarios of warm and fuzzy stories. Data is often hidden.
Hidden by not being presented, or hidden in an inundation of useless material that
confounds and confuses; the bad is buried.
One administrator pronounced intensive scheduling a success based on the fact that so
many schools were coming to them and asking questions. Intensive scheduling was
presented to those inquiring schools as a success by this and similarly flimsy data.
Such an approach makes implementation the end product of a program. It is never
evaluated to see if it is really effective. It is not known whether the results contribute to the
education of children. It is just there. It relies on feelings, not facts; wishes, not wisdom.
The manipulation of communication is not only dishonest; it hides the weaknesses of
the education programs and systems. When those weaknesses are not recognized, they
cannot be fixed. Then we continue with a dishonest education system that is not for the
children, but victimizes the children.
Manipulating Individuals
Using the provided definitions of conduct, confidentiality and consensus, the path a
new board member takes can easily be controlled. Therefore votes on issues are controlled.
Information is used in a case by case need to obtain the desired results. To
manipulate people not speak out as individuals, the following policy was given.
One such policy in the Joint Code of Conduct For School Boards and
Superintendents states, "Act as part of an educational team with mutual respect and regard
for each other's respective responsibilities and duties, recognizing the strength of a school
board is acting as a board, not as individuals."
Strict interpretation of such policies lures people to be over cautious when
expressing concerns about behavior of the school board. Essentially it makes the board a
"Sound Proof Room."
A little over a year into my term, I wrote an article. I used the phrase "the board was
a sound proof room." Under the guidelines they had set, I knew of no other way to break
from the chains that had been placed upon my ability to communicate with the community.
A meeting was held to deal with only the issue of my sending the article to the local
paper. It proceeded for over two hours. It was an experience I would not like to go through
ever again. Yet, it was the experience of a lifetime. It gave me an insight into the thinking of
this school board and perhaps many school boards in general.

23
It was an invaluable and enlightening experience that clearly showed the ground
rules by which leadership was willing to conduct itself. Included with all the other things
that occurred, another policy was handed out.
"Because all powers of the Board of Education lie in its action as a group,
individual Board members exercise their authority over the district affairs only as they
take action at a legal meeting of the board."
Since what is said at a meeting can be eliminated from the minutes, and curtailed
by majority members, as recently happened, this policy clearly is talking about the "Yes"
or "No" vote on issues.
This incident gave me the clearest view of the direction I had to take. The bias
guidelines of fair play initially presented by the board were clearly abandoned when they
felt threatened. In addition, this new confrontation had the opposite effect, freeing me of
many of the false chains of duty with which they had bound me.
All the reading, renderings, presentations or discussions of policy would never have
brought out the hypocrisy of behavior as did this incident. In essence the second policy
suggested voting yes and no is the expression of your opinion, refuting the spin they had put
on consensus. Bias board mentoring by the machinery in place, would never give a board
member an understanding of either policy as did this confrontation.
Using one policy and the issues of conduct, confidentiality and consensus to
manipulate a board member to the Board's to stress going along, then slipping them
another policy saying the Yes or No vote was the true expression of the board member
cause confusion. When the confusion the board caused pushed such a board member into
serious actions, the attempt to further confuse, typifies inherent manipulation techniques.
The board manipulates members with intimidation, direct and indirect, rather than
swaying them with good solid ideas. It leaves them stunned, wondering if the immature
behavior of board members they were witnessing could possibly be real.
Like a con man on the streets of New York executing the shell game, the board’s
execution of procedures was often a smooth bait and switch. Free thinking board members
and the public are often left watching the pea, while numerous diversions are played out to
take their attention away from the truth.
Is Communication A Priority? (Case Study)
If communicating with all the people of this community is truly a priority, we took a
step backwards with this incident. We, as a board, misrepresented information given to the
public. Such actions will nurture mistrust. There cannot be productive communication
without trust.
When Mr. Rose read the comments about CAC (Community Advisory Committee),
found in the newspaper, those statements were denied by board members. The rest of the
board remained silent, supporting the denial.
The previous board meeting to that one, the statement was made, "sometimes
dinosaurs have to die." Perhaps the statement is true. Maybe it wasn't as offensive as it
was taken by Mr. Rose. Perhaps he did get out of hand. Still, we need to understand his
frustration, especially in relation to our behavior.
Regardless of right or wrong on the CAC issue, this other issue must be judged on its
own merit. The blame was put on the Star-Gazette and its reporting. If I remember the article

24
correctly, it was written by Mr. Buchholz. I think all who have encountered this young man
have to admit, he has integrity. Still, no matter who wrote the article, that statement was
made and that quotation was correct.
In this instance, we failed in the department of integrity. We must have the
courage to look at our actions and analyze them. We passed misinformation, put the
blame on others and condoned it.
I don't think it is difficult to understand how this could plant seeds of mistrust in the
community. If communication and trust between us and the community are important, we
must understand this. We cannot play fast and lose with the truth and expect to be trusted.
Challenging Information and Debating
Actions speak louder than words. I would expect if I did present misinformation,
someone from the board would challenge me and correct me. With that challenge there can
be debate. We can save face for the board and the individuals involved by doing this. This
can be done with courtesy and consideration for each other.
Then such an incident will be viewed as a mistake that action was taken to correct,
rather than an attempt to deceive. We are all human. We all make errors. Mistakes will be
forgiven by the community. If we all defend the errors deception will not be forgiven so
easily.
I regret not doing this last week. In the future I will do the courtesy of questioning
those things I think to be erroneous. I hope we all will do this for each other. We owe it to
each other, the board and the community.
Let's Assume Mistrust Does Exist
If mistrust for the board does exist in segments of the community, we must recognize
how this mistrust might be translated. I hope now we can now see how it might exist.
People who have developed mistrust are not going to come before us to speak their
minds. They will view it as a waste of time. They will feel it an exercise in futility, only
bringing frustration upon themselves.
If they mistrust the board, that is the feeling that will rise to the surface immediately.
Each item, agenda or program presented will be viewed first with mistrust.
Confrontation is one option to deal with that mistrust. Most people do not like
confrontation. In fact, it is something most human beings avoid like the plague. Besides, we
tend to view people who do confront in a negative light.
The odds that the people feeling negative toward board actions and ideas are going to
come out and say it are pretty slim. That is why the information received at board meeting
must not be the only source of information used for decision making.
Understanding the "NO" Vote
This can help us to understand the NO votes on the budget. One of the easiest
things to do in this atmosphere of mistrust is to vote NO. If a person mistrusts and does not
believe they are being listened to, it is a logical decision to vote NO. If the mistrust has
grown to a point in which there is no confidence in a particular body, for this person, the

25
only logical thing to do is vote NO.
The superintendent brought up the point about putting this behind us to move ahead.
It is a nice theory and must be done. But, it can't be done in one sweeping motion of a few
sentences. Again, actions speak louder than words.
For those who have been nurtured into a routine of mistrust, we must give them a
reason to trust. They see it as stupidity for them to hand over trust so easily, just because
someone says that is what we must do to move ahead. They mistrust what is meant by
moving ahead.
They see it as sticking their necks out waiting to have their heads hacked off. They
feel it has happened so many times before it is inevitable it will happen again. Why should
they do this?
It must be more than words that will win back trust. It must be strong and
disciplined actions that show integrity. It is a long and painful climb back to trust. In the
view of those that have lost the ability to trust, it is a history that has destroyed trust.
Therefore, it is a history of trust that must bring it back. As I said, it will be a long
and painful history. A hundred steps forward may win it back. Perhaps it will take two
hundred. If we stick to the road of integrity, it will be won back. Even then we must realize,
one misstep, one transgression and many right steps may bring the mistrust back.
It can take years of absolute integrity to return the respect to the board that a few
transgressions cause. The history in their minds takes time. To replace one perceived history
with another will take time. It must be on our minds constantly. This is the task that is
before us, if we really wish to gain the respect and trust of the entire community.
Integrity Must Be an Essential Part of Our Leadership Strategy
If the pursuit of integrity is at the center of our goals and strategies, we will
succeed. It can begin to bring trust to the board that is necessary to do our jobs and
meeting our responsibilities. There can be no excellence of education without integrity.
Integrity must be present in every facet for education with integrity to exist. This
can bring us to compete at the highest levels of education in the country and world, not
merely the small pond of NYS. As leaders, we must set the tone in this effort.
Whether direct education, budgeting, policies, etc. fairness and honesty at the
center will bring the best decisions. They will be decisions the community can trust.
The bottom line isn't money. It is integrity. On a foundation of integrity, we can teach the
children the most important lessons that will build a positive future for them.
Cutting The Community Throat; Silencing The Community Voice
The CAC (Community Advisory Committee) was the last of almost a half dozen
committees in the Horseheads School District with a community voice not diluted beyond
recognition. (The other committees: Computer, Budget, Advertising and Fundraising,
Home Schooling, Shared Decision Committees and CORE)
With a long history of accomplishment, it was abolished the week before I became an
official school board member in July 1997. Their years of work were honored with paper
certificates and no explanations beyond "sometimes a dinosaur has to die."

26
Finding out why it was disbanded is like uncovering any information in the school
district. Usually a standard run around is given. Seldom if ever is there an attempt to pass on
objective information. So a person searching must always be analyzing for individualized
interests and agendas when seeking answers.
Bias information is the rule, rather than the exception. Then one must take all this
bias data and intent and try to formulate an answer.
One accusation for the demise of the committee was it was becoming political.
Obviously board members were threatened by this. However, they never looked to
themselves to see if they were the teachers of such political behavior. A board that seldom, if
ever rose above the political was surprised that one of its minions was behaving politically.
The board dealt in the political realm of gossip, rumor, innuendo, ego and personal agendas.
Objectivity and common sense were extinct.
Could it be the boards own political posturing pushed some members of the CAC to
engage in similar tactics? Members accustomed to accomplishment would have a difficult
time with board efforts miring down their progress in the boards own political intrigue.
Within the system of oppressive politics built by the board, it was only a matter of survival
that members of the committee indulge in politics themselves. This entrance into politics
did not end the committee. It only gave the excuse for ending it.
One high level administrator suggested a mistake brought about the committees
demise. The CAC took on the issue of technology in the schools on its own. He admitted,
they did a pretty good job and much of the long term plan in place today is theirs.
However, educators were uncomfortable being told (He used the word told) what to
do by the community. District leadership saw no other way out of this uncomfortable
situation, except to abolish this productive community voice.
In addition anyone attending board meeting would hear leadership complaints about
keeping the CAC busy. They would moan they could not find things for them to do. This is
the same board that has a long history of not only failing to achieve goals, but a longstanding
inability of being able to set proper goals. Even when a committee established by them
developed a system to set and achieve goals they voted agreement to, they threw it out before
they could be made accountable.
Leadership caused the demise of this Community Advisory Committee and the
severing of the last community voice. Even though this committee had an extensive
history of concrete accomplishments, the board still did not want to take their leadership
role to provide legitimate tasks for them to work on. Whether this was intentional or
incompetence, it speaks to inadequate leadership.
Why would a board derail a positively productive group of people willing to work
for nothing? Why would you take a talented and energetic group of people and tell them
you don't want their help when there are so many things to be done?
If you take a board whose environment has made their main strengths their arrogance
and their ability to not hear, you set the stage for fear of productivity. If they are expected to
do more than merely vote money to educators, the answer is really quite simple.
This leadership group, mired in arrogance, lacking its own ability to accomplish,
would be threatened by such a productive committee as CAC. They lacked the strength and
wisdom to understand they get some credit for loosening the reins to such a committee to
accomplish. Their arrogance only allows them to be threatened by the truth.
The board is the dinosaur. The CAC came to an end because of its ability to

27
accomplish and the board’s inability to lead. In that act, the community’s voice to the
board was severed, cutting the communities throat.
CHAPTER 4 - SYSTEMATIC SUPPRESSION OF THE TRUTH
From The Pedestal To Corruption
In September of 1997 I was scheduled to attend a conference for new school board
members put on by the New York State School Boards Association. I was apprehensive
about what I was going to experience. However, I tried to approach it with an opened mind
and not see it as a waste of the districts money.
I couldn't help feeling it was an indoctrination opportunity of new school board
members. My misgivings proved to be true. We were bombarded being told how special we
were for giving our time to become board members. We had done nothing yet let alone
anything positive and already we were designated as special.
The theme was marketed over and over from speaker to speaker and class to class.
The other major issue marketed was boards presenting a united front. Failure to do this was
placed as a real negative on those that disagreed and broke ranks.
My real education came when we went to dinner with the child of a new board
member and their significant other. One was working on their PHD in the education field
and the other their masters.
As we discussed education as is usually the case, the discussion turned to money.
This PHD candidate stated, "Teachers could never be paid enough for what they do."
This is an attitude I have heard voiced often by educators, but never so clearly.
"Handling 25 children is difficult," he went on. "We are developing the future of our
country," he continued with the arguments I had heard so often. They were worded so
much like those previous arguments, like the drumming in of a marketing slogan.
I went on to ask, "what about a non college educated person who has to deal with 25
poorly educated adults, spread over a half square mile factory and has to make sure they
perform their duties minute to minute, hour to hour, on a daily basis."
"That's comparing apples to oranges," this student who never worked an
independent day in his life defended. "I still believe teachers could not be paid enough."
The apples and oranges was another of those standard answers that avoided
looking deeper into the subject.
"Do you realize what you are doing?" I asked? "You are putting educators on a
pedestal, referring to them like they are deities. You are designating what they deserve
merely because of a designation, not anything to do with performance or results. You are
inviting corruption into the education system."
He seemed to sense the mistake in doing this. He acknowledged the potential
fallacy of the situation. Still, it did not change his stance. He reiterated "I still believe
teachers could not be paid enough." His educator fiancée supported his assertion whole
heartedly and as vocally.
The quality of performance or results was not even mentioned. There seemed to be
no criteria for them to be good teachers. It seemed implied that since they were teachers,
of the teaching profession, they were special and therefore could never be paid enough.

The schools of scheme, scam and sham; A book

The schools of scheme, scam and sham; A book

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to The schools of scheme, scam and sham; A book

Similar to The schools of scheme, scam and sham; A book (20)

More from Gerald Furnkranz

More from Gerald Furnkranz (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The schools of scheme, scam and sham; A book