Observer Questions Motives of DISD Donors
Muckracker Jim Schutze has a new cover story titled “The North Dallas Plot to Takeover DISD.” In it, he questions the motivations of Preston Hollow people (note the all-important lowercase p) and others in getting involved with the public school system.
An excerpt:
In the recent Dallas school board election, an unprecedented river of cash poured into a handful of campaigns, the lion’s share from donors in downtown, the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and far North Dallas. That money came from affluent people, the majority of whom are white, some of whom must think that sending their own kids to a public school in Dallas is like sending them to the gallows.
Schutze explores many possibilities for the sudden flow of cash, including the extremes that:
- “A bunch of wealthy white people” suddenly decided to start supporting DISD out of the goodness of their hearts, as DISD trustee (and Preston Hollow resident) Mike Morath claims.
- The flow of cash is actually a sinister one, meant to create charter schools that will pluck the best students out of DISD and leave the others “behind to rot,” as Black community activist Joyce Foreman believes.
The article isn’t just extremes, though. It holds a number of interesting points about various public school reform efforts, as well as an interview with Preston Hollow resident Ken Barth.
