“Don’t Buy Our Product…Please.”

I worked for a brief period of time in the Public Relations field before signing on with the DOE. I wasn’t there long enough to learn all that much, but I definitely picked up a few pointers.

The main concept that I learned was to do everything possible to make the organization look good. Bottom line. Do whatever you can to get a positive message out there. If the company sneezed properly we wrote a press release. If they recycled properly, we were all over it. We did everything possible to bring positive attention to the organization.

I also learned that it’s freakishly easy to get the message out. If you wrote a well constructed press release and sent it to the Associated Press, they picked it up and put it out there. They rarely even checked the validity of what was written.

Truthfully, most of the information that is put out for public view is the result of the tenacity on the part of the PR department.

Obviously, the CEO or owner of the company needed to make the company shine. We would often quote from him about the fabulous things that the company was doing. “At such and such a company, we are proud of the work we are doing to improve the lives of others…” You get the point. It didn’t matter if six months later he transferred to another company. While he was in his post, he was expected to make the company look good at all times. And he did.

So, knowing what I do, I find it very hard to understand why the leaders of some very large school systems as well as the systems themselves, say such horrible things about the schools that they manage.

“Urban education in the U.S. is broken and it is failing kids who really need the opportunities most.” -Joel Klein, New York City Public Schools Chancellor on the Teach For America Website.

Sorry, but aren’t you in charge one of the largest systems for urban education? Are you saying that you’re failing children? Aren’t you sort of in charge? Why on earth would you want to shake the public’s faith in what you are doing? It makes no sense.

Here’s another one from the DC Public Schools Website in which they provide a biography of their chancellor, former Teach for America member, Michelle Rhee. They describe Rhee’s very busy schedule, which requires her to do many things including “meeting with business leaders as she transforms a broken organizational structure “

So the website of the Department of Education of the District of Columbia describes itself as broken? Isn’t this just a bit odd?

For the life of me, I cannot understand how such learned people would put such incredibly bad press out there about themselves.

Unless, of course, they have another motive…

What do you think that could be?

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.