Senator Jerry Tillman has proposed the idea of making the NC Superintendent an appointed position instead of an elected position.

As I noted before the holidays, in June of 2014, Senator Tillman filed Senate Bill 880 titled the Education Simplification Amendment.  It passed the first reading and was sent to the Education/Higher Education committee. (Current incarnation is SB 94)

In that prior article, I also gave my personal objections to a position of this importance being decided by a single person via appointment rather than the people voting on it. While the Department of Public Instruction arguably needs more oversight and transparency, this is not the way to do it.  My objections still stand.

In his latest newsletter, Tillman covers the topic and his intent to file a bill on it which would amend our state’s Constitution. Will this be a new bill or the same thing we saw in SB 880?

Related text of the newsletter:

State Needs Appointed School Leader

I will file legislation this session to amend the State Constitution to replace the current system of electing our State School Superintendent. 

Presently our Community Colleges and our Universities operate exceptionally well with appointed presidents.  Our K-12 schools now operate with an elected State Superintendent of Schools.  They are far from exceptional in their operations. 

We currently have a system of K-12 schools who lack much in their management and the results expected from them.  Test scores and achievement have stagnated and/or declined.  There will be a myriad of reasons for this decline.  One of them is the three-headed and at times conflicting, roles of management.  You have the Governor, the State Board of Education and the State Schools Superintendent calling the shots.  This doesn’t work in business and it won’t work in education.  An appointed State Schools Leader would streamline the process and hopefully align all forces, making real progress and change possible.  With the Governor and the State Legislature working in concert, positive and meaningful reform is possible.  We’ll see…