Dr. Hill’s weapon of mass distraction may soon be launched

Down here in Spotsylvania, local politics took an entertaining turn when Schools Superintendent Dr. Jerry Hill demanded certain documents for a possible lawsuit against “unknown parties” (Free Lance Star) who had him charged with violating election law – in particular, campaigning against a school bond measure in 2005 on account of it being too small to feed his political ego.  Last week, he got the documents he wanted.  The next step is up to him.

Now, as a good Spotsy Republican, I know I’m supposed to attack everything Dr. Hill does, but truth be told, I never thought prosecuting him was a good idea.  I honestly have trouble with the law itself (county employees are not allowed to comment on bond issues).  If it doesn’t violate the letter of the First Amendment, it certainly violates its spirit.  Besides, voters are smart enough to know the bias behind any public employee who opens his/her mouth on a subject like that.  Attempting to silence Dr. Hill accomplished nothing but gain him sympathy he didn’t deserve, and give him an excuse to possible file a lawsuit.

More importantly, it’s been a huge distraction from something far more important, namely, Dr. Hill’s terrible record as superintendent.

I just happen to have the latest (2007) SOL results for the Spostylvania (you, dear reader, can access any county you like here).  Spotsylvania had 34 subject categories to track against the state.  It was below the statewide performance on 24 of them.  For the heck of it, I also downloaded Stafford County’s numbers.  Of the 31 subject categories that applied to both counties, Stafford outperformed Spotsy in 24 of them (77%).  Stafford managed to wax Spostylvania despite spending less to operate a school system with more students (the test files include student population, for actual 2007 levels, here’s Spotsy, on page one, and here’s Stafford, on page 247). 

So far, there has been no discussion within the School Board about Dr. Hill’s performance as superintendent (I know, I checked the minutes).  The lack of accountability is deeply disturbing.  If Spotsylvanians focused on this, we would be far better off – especially the children we trust to him to educate.  Instead, the paper gives us the latest on Dr. Hill’s will-he-sue-or-won’t-he soap opera, even as he ignores his own record and wins a property-value-crippling tax increase from the Board of Supervisors (FLS).  Even without unsheathing it, Dr. Hill’s weapon of mass distraction has, tragically, been very effective.

Cross-posted to Rappahannock Red