HISD markets itself -- taxpayers win
Bruce Nichols of the Dallas Morning News has an interesting story about how HISD markets its products and services:
[HISD] dipped its toe into the marketing waters a decade ago and is now selling nine HISD-brand products and services to other districts, including Dallas.
[snip]
At a recent Austin meeting of school business officials, Houston ISD fit right in with the sellers of buses, janitorial supplies and gym equipment. Standing under a large HISD logo, the district's retired chief financial officer, Leonard Sturm, handed out brochures and answered questions about curriculum software, construction services and other wares the district sells inside and outside Texas.
[snip]
But Mr. Sturm – rehired as a consultant to lead the sales push – said the effort is a response to the rising pressures of tighter budgets, topped-out tax revenues, ratcheted-up performance demands and a political environment that favors private-sector solutions.
"Everybody that was coming to look at us was saying you guys need to treat the district more like a business," Mr. Sturm said. "That's really the origin of what we're doing."
He's had some success. Sales totaled $12.5 million in 2003-04, the last complete year for which figures are available. Nearly $1.7 million of that was net gain that could help defray operating costs. It's a drop in the bucket when you look at the district's $1.2 billion budget, but it's a start, he says.
The upside: Taxpayers, theoretically, save every time HISD sells something to another district. HISD recovers some of its operating costs. And customers save through the buying power of the nation's seventh largest district, with more than 200,000 students.
I don't have any problem with this at all. That last paragraph in the excerpt shows the many benefits, and contrary to the image local media gives us, HISD has many successful schools, so the district does have worthwhile products and expertise to market.
The other side says this:
"It's a bad thing because what it does is it creates an organization whose focus is further and further removed from actual teaching and learning of children," said Alex Molnar, director of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University. He also decries the drift toward turning schools into businesses, the "erosion of the idea of public education as a public good instead of a market-driven commodity."
No, HISD's organization is clearly not focused on marketing; the district pays someone to do it, someone no longer involved in day-to-day education operations.
And any story on HISD wouldn't be complete without a quote from our favorite naysayer:
"It's not like HISD is a shining star for management," chuckled Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers.
Poor Dr. Saavedra, having to deal with that woman. Gayle Fallon's own management style includes having her attorney son represent some of the HISD teachers currently accused of helping students cheat on TAKS tests.
Fallon is also opposed to the mere thought, hint, or whiff of any school reform idea that involves the words "outsider" or "private." So we can take her opinion of HISD's management abilities with a grain of salt.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/11/05 01:01 PM | Print |
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