We get Laboy was corrupt. But how does this impact the kids?

By Maria Ortiz Perez
March 15th, 2010

Some sad news from Lawrence:  Wilfredo Laboy, the school superintendent has been fired and may face more serious charges for stealing public money —he is the 3rd Lawrence superintendent being sacked from the job for mismanagement in 13 years.

The verdict? Laboy didn’t like transparency or accountability and he clearly lacked professional ethics. A deadly combination if you ask me.

What is surprising is that the State hasn’t put in place some serious management controls in Lawrence while knowing that communities across the state are paying 69% of the costs of Lawrence’s city government and 98% of its education costs.

But instead of going on and on about how wrong Laboy was, how we should have seen this coming, how frustrated we are all with corruption in Lawrence, I would like to raise a question: what is the actual impact on school children and their performance?

I am surprised I haven’t read much about that. If someone, be Laboy or the other two superintendents that preceded him,  is mismanaging school funds for years, how does that impact the kids? Does this undermine their chances of  success? Does this mean they get to grow believing that no one will truly ever care about their future?

Right now, people in Lawrence can either look at  Laboy with disdain, whisper among themselves that it is for the better that he is gone and move on with their day. Or they can start demanding that whomever replaces  is a competent and honest individual that will run the department with the children’s interest as a top priority.

Too naive? Add to that some transparency, accountability and management controls. A recipe for success, if you ask me.