Jane Cunningham: Teachers, superintendents run Jeff City

Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, won't be in the Missouri Senate next year, and she apparently has no desire to leave gracefully.

In a one-sided profile in West and MidRivers News Magazine, the senator quotes one of her colleagues as saying the men in the legislature were intimidated by her (actually, my sources tell me Mrs. Cunningham didn't frighten them; they just thought she was a nut), teachers and superintendents run Jefferson City, and her interest in education came from the wonderful three years she spent as a member of the Ladue School Board.

Hopefully, someone will challenge that last one. By the time she was finished on the Ladue School Board, she had alienated just about everyone and she was beaten in her bid for re-election. Ladue has always been a high-performing school district, but after Mrs. Cunningham's defeat, it and all other public schools became the source of everything that is wrong in education, and teachers, in particular, became public enemy number one.

From the story:

“I invited many of my senate colleagues to dinner individually to try to get to know them better and to let them get to know me – my bonding project, if you will,” Cunningham said.

“One of the men was very forthright with me and said, ‘Jane, the men are intimidated by you,’” she recalled.

And these thoughts:

“No one should own their job after five years,” she said, referring to the current requirement for public school teachers to receive tenure after that period. “Sure, the law said a teacher with tenure can be dismissed for ineffectiveness, but the time and cost involved make that step prohibitive.”

Cunningham also faults public school officials for not telling parents about the availability of virtual courses that students can take online.

“This is the delivery system of the future,” she argued. “To withhold this information from parents is irresponsible.”

The veteran legislator also pulls no punches when it comes to her evaluation of the situation.

“Everyone at the capitol will say that education reform is needed,” she said. “But we can’t pass anything. Why? Because the teacher organizations and the superintendents control that building and the people in it.”

Good riddance!