Duelling Editorials: Strikingly Differing Utah School Board Superintendent Leadership Viewpoints From The Tribune and the Deseret News

The world-wide web eagerly awaits your comments on this thorny topic, of course

With the recent selection of Ogden School Board Superintendant Brad Smith to serve as Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction, we're delighted to present two Utah print media editorials, commenting upon the pending appointment of this locally controversial figure to Utah's most powerful public education post. The Salt Lake Tribune expresses palpable "wariness" of this development:

• Editorial: With Smith, state school board is taking a big risk

The Deseret News, on the other hand, expresses a contrarian viewpoint:

• In our opinion: New Utah school superintendent could be the reformer the state needs

With Mr. Smith's recent Ogden School District layoffs and the D-News-cited "50 percent turnover in teaching positions during his (Smith's) tenure" fresh in Ogden residents' minds, we're of course wondering what our Gentle WCF Readers might think about this startling development.

We're already hearing groans from Utah teachers, former Highland Junior High teaching veteran Lisa Vipperman, for instance, who doesn't mince words about the "wisdom" Mr. Smith's pending appointment:

“I’m afraid of what he’ll do to schools,” said Lisa Vipperman, one of Smith’s loudest opponents.
Vipperman worked for Ogden School District for 13 years before moving to Davis School District.
“I’m frankly very upset about this,” she said. “I’m upset because I don’t think he’s qualified to do this — he’s not a professional educator.”
Vipperman believes Smith was selected because of his presentation of the way Ogden schools have made strides in scores and graduation rates.
“He has insulted teachers — he makes it sound like we never did anything until he showed up, but we did a lot in Ogden, for many years, to improve test scores and we did improve test scores long before he showed up.”

The world-wide web eagerly awaits your comments on this thorny topic, of course.

Our take?  We're inclined to go along with Ms. Vipperman.

Don't let the cat get your tongues, O Gentle Ones...