Not so-super superintendents - The Jokers Who Run Our Schools

Washington Monthly, Sept, 1990 by Susan Ohanian

But AASA conventions are not just display booths and food extravaganzas. There are also five days of speeches. I guess I wasn't really surprised to see the first general session kicked off by the Magic Kingdom's royal couple, Mickey and Minnie Mouse. This is, after all, Orlando. (There's an entertainment prelude to each general session; later we're treated to the Singing Superintendents joining their voices in "Climb Every Mountain.") After the rodent pair dances a jig and does a spiel hyping the educational benefits of Disney World, the AASA president delivers a message I hear repeated throughout my five days: "We've had too much criticism. We have the greatest public education system in the world." Applause. Applause.

Huge video screens dominate the front of the hall, so you can watch the real thing on stage or the larger-than-life video representations. The audience rises to sing "The Star Spangled Banner," to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and to hear an invocation. The executive committee of the AASA is introduced. Each committee member and spouse walks on stage hand-in-hand, the woman of the pair carrying a bouquet of flowers. First-time convention attendees are asked to stand and are entreated to strive for the 25-year attendance pin.

Play ball

And then comes the star attraction: introduced as a business man, a fierce competitor, a man who dearly loves our great country and supports our political system, a vice-president of the Olympic Committee, the 1977 baseball Executive of the Year, and "great lover of young people"--George Steinbrenner.

Steinbrenner tells his AASA audience that he recently advised officials at his alma mater, Williams College, "Honor the student like me--the C-, D student. Some day I will return here and give you a new chemistry building."

The owner of the New York Yankees goes on to brag about his fines for being a loudmouth--"more than all my players put together--$425,000." He says that when he bought the Yankees, they were such a sorry lot "the team picture looked like a poster for birth control." Such remarks play to a receptive house. When Steinbrenner delivers the tasteless, racist remark that "Sanchez was so lazy he thought manual labor was the president of his country," the crowd of educators roars its delight.

Then George Steinbrenner looks directly at this audience of several thousand and says, "I love teaching. Nothing is more important to me than education." America's school superintendents sop this up. They believe him, not noticing that later in his remarks he admits that he ranks breathing No. 1 and winning as No. 2. And the superintendents vigorously applaud his message of keeping our foreign aid at home instead of sending it to other nations, "some of whom burn our flags. Let's keep it here and take care of our young. There's something wrong about giving it to other nations."

The audience clearly loves this beefy despot who can stand there and brag, "I do it my way"--a man who has fired 16 managers. He was, after all, speaking to a group that knows how tough it is to get rid of just one troublesome teacher. People whose big decisions ordinarily focus on pre-portioned school lunches love listening to this paunchy peacock drop the names of his industrialist friends--the fellows who, he tells us, share his $120 lunches at Twenty-One.