NCS superintendent makes almost as much as the governor

That Newark City Schools graduation rate is the third worst in the state was reported by the Advocate 3/12/09. Two days later, NCS Superintendent Richards, in another Advocate article, blamed the community for this; a day later, so did the Advocate.

Naming citizen-taxpayer-parents as villains in the abysmal performance of NCS is about a cheap a shot as might be made. Such an excuse from Richards is to be expected. But woe to whatever shred of credibility Advocate editorials ever mustered. Prostituting the institutional opinion page to Richards and his PR lady is a foolish mistake that’s easily recognized - and long-remembered - for the deception it is.

The many failures of King Richards are common knowledge and there are too many of them to list here. (Go to the box above and search “Keith Richards.”) In general, he has failed to manage taxpayers’ money wisely, he is deaf to constituents and oblivious to their needs. He is the third worst in the state at enabling students to graduate and he blames us for it.

For this prodigious performance, King Richards is paid about $2,000 less per year than the Governor of Ohio. The governor's annual salary, according to the Dispatch, is $133,292; Newark's superintendent makes, according to an Advocate report 10/5/08, $131,382 before benefits, a difference of $1,910.

Meanwhile, School Board Bobble Heads, who should have dethroned Richards eons ago, sit there and provide the man with the lifestyle of a pharaoh and their rubber stamps as a reward for having the third worst graduation rate in the state.

School Board Bobble Heads will, if they act as expected, also blame parents and taxpayers and bloggers because they are, you see, followers and not the leaders they were believed to be when elected. If they fail to acknowledge the cause of citizen discontent with NCS, as expected, they will only prolong the war between the community and the pharaoh, but likely they will not be back after the next school board election.