Ed Kirkland divorced from reality.

The candidate's forum on Tuesday, 21 April, revealed a trustee who can persuasively and convincingly tell an audience absolute garbage.

Ed Kirkland continues to insist that the LISD has made years of extraordinary improvements in TAKS scores, and has been careful with spending. In particular, he insists the number of administrators and the amount of money spent in school administration is in line with, or below, TEA guidelines.

The hard data, provided by LISD's own PEIMS submissions and reported by their own auditors each year, indicates the complete opposite.

In fact, the test scores in LISD are rising more slowly than the state average. Any gains made, and there have been many, are nevertheless smaller gains than our neighbors have accomplished in the same period, and leave our kids farther behind. Kirkland either is not capable of understanding that, or prefers to that the voting and taxpaying public not hear it.

In fact, the share of funds spent in administration (function code 41) for LISD is more than double the share spent in other districts and in the last year of his board presidency was over three times the state average. (State average spending on admin is about 4%) We have short -changed our campuses of aides and leadership positions in order to staff the headquarters building with "directors" and "specialists" positions filled with people who never teach a class.

Maybe such staffing is actually a good thing. But that is not the case Kirkland attempts to make. He prefers to deny the facts.

He is the smoothest public speaker now running for a trustee seat, with a deep and calm voice and (when he chooses) a pleasant demeanor. But he is unable to use his gifts in service of the truth.

In the last months of his board presidency he attended a meeting at TEA with the audit team that investigated our district finances. Hear his comments on an audio recording of that meeting, archived here: http://bestsouthwest.blogspot.com/2009/04/lisd-ed-kirkland-who-is-her.html (Kirkland's comments are near the final five or ten minutes)

Again, even after an hour of hearing Dr Lewis esssentially confess to, but attempt to justify, excuse, and explain the factual situation, Ed Kirkland lambasts the TEA team for daring to come into a minority-run district and hold them accountable to follow procedure and meet standards. How DARE they pick on a minority district?

This, while denying the rest of the board -- his peers and our elected officials -- access to the same report he was in Austin responding to.

It cost this district, as was pointed out last night, over $200,000 in legal fees to make plain that somebody was "tampering with the mail" -- among other violations -- in covering up and concealing this districts' problems.

Dr Lewis lost his job at the end of that investigation.

Ed Kirkland MIGHT be able to keep his. Because, as we all know, lies, cover-ups, denials and concealment work.

At least, for elected politicians.