Miami cannot afford to lose Rudy Crew
Progreso
Weekly Editorial
Miami
suffers symptoms that in a human being would be called a cancer. In
our community the results have been devastating.
Fear
of violence and reprisal has led many in our community to allow that
cancer to grow and fester. We are about to allow the cancer to affect
us again. Destructive ethnic games and stupid politicking may lead us
to the loss of one of the most respected educators in the country.
And with all the negatives this community has experienced over the
years, to a city like Miami, considered one of the poorest in the
nation, the loss would be critical.
Rudy
Crew’s head is on the chopping block. The Miami-Dade superintenden…
Progreso
Weekly Editorial Read Spanish Version
Miami
cannot afford to lose Rudy Crew
Miami
suffers symptoms that in a human being would be called a cancer. In
our community the results have been devastating.
Fear
of violence and reprisal has led many in our community to allow that
cancer to grow and fester. We are about to allow the cancer to affect
us again. Destructive ethnic games and stupid politicking may lead us
to the loss of one of the most respected educators in the country.
And with all the negatives this community has experienced over the
years, to a city like Miami, considered one of the poorest in the
nation, the loss would be critical.
Rudy
Crew’s head is on the chopping block. The Miami-Dade superintendent
of schools leads the second largest school district in the country.
Before Miami, he led the largest in New York City. Everywhere he’s
been Crew has had backers and detractors. At Progreso Weekly we’ve
always believed that a person who does not have both is not doing his
job. It appears his biggest detractors in Miami are a small group who
manipulate members of the Cuban-American community.
They’ve
referred to him as aloof, arrogant and not sensitive to some in the
community. What this group has never proven is that he is not
effective and successful. A recent Miami Herald editorial in support
of Crew summed up his accomplishments during his four years here:
-
Superintendent
of the Year, a national prize where he was described as a “gem”. -
Florida’s
2008 Superintendent of the Year. -
Halved
the F-rated schools in Miami while raising the number of A schools. -
Helped
create the Parent Academy — described nationally as an imaginative
program which helps parents become part of the child’s educational
process. -
2007
runner-up to the “Nobel Prize for education” the Broad Prize for
Urban Education.
Still,
this group insists that Crew should be removed from his post. They
are still wounded by the fact that Crew stood up against
censorship in Miami-Dade public school libraries, never wavering or
giving an inch. The book in question was Vamos
A Cuba
which described, in a very elemental way, a normal day for school
children in Cuba. This group wanted the book removed — they saw
Fidel Castro leaving his hiding place behind every tree in Miami and
straight into the schools.
So
the cancer continues to grow. We would hope that at this time,
though, institutions and community leaders stood up and faced the
consequences of losing a Rudy Crew to cheap Miami politicking. The
last time something similar occurred, Miami lost another well
regarded professional, Angela Gittens, who warned us of cost overruns
and irregularities at the Miami International Airport’s (MIA)
expansion project. To date, MIA is still way overdue and costs
continue to rise.
We
also find the solution offered by two of Crew’s fiercest detractors
as downright sophomoric. Actually funny if the situation was not so
critical. Both detractors are locked-up in a bitter no-holds barred
(including our children’s future) political battle for a School
Board seat. Incumbent and rival propose making the School
Superintendent’s position electoral — left to the voters.
Progreso
Weekly disagrees wholeheartedly. What we need in the position of
Superintendent of Schools in Miami is what we currently have, a
professional. That is why we stand by Rudy Crew.
Our
final fear is that the cancer may spread too widely. If that was the
case, Progreso Weekly foresees a future where schools in Miami have
no books. They’ve all been censored. Even the Bible has been
removed from our libraries — they found passages describing
homosexuality, fornication and murder.
