As an educator, I am aware of the importance the Bush Administration has placed on the professional qualifications of the teachers and administrators educating our children.
It is incomprehensible, therefore, to learn that this emphasis on professionalism was so lacking in President Bush when it came to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
So, how does Bush and his administration stand up to the stringent educational reforms he has shoved down states' throats if they want federal financing?
More below the fold.
Under No Child Left Behind, teachers who teach 15-36 students per year are expected to be HIGHLY QUALIFIED. Competency is demonstrated through academic degrees, professional experience and training, state certifications and performance evaluations. Individual teachers as well as schools are held accountable through annual high-stakes testing, with automatic consequences to students and schools for not meeting standards.
If President Bush expects educators and their students to meet high standards and be held accountable for their performance, then the American people should be able to do the same for Bush and his administration with regards to their performance before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. This raises some disturbing questions.
Why did President Bush appoint Michael Brown and his top deputies to such crucial leadership roles when none of them has the qualifications to be deemed even MINIMALLY qualified-- let alone HIGHLY qualified -- to lead the United States's primary national disaster management agency?
Surely the responsibility of directing thousands of employees and coordinating emergency efforts with hundreds of governmental bodies and nonprofits should be in the hands of professionals with the appropriate credentials and extensive experience in emergency management?
Why shouldn't President Bush, the Department of Homeland Security's head, Michael Chertoff and FEMA's head, Michael Brown, be assessed, on a timely basis, on their performance under the high stakes situation of Hurricane Katrina?
What should be the standards for such an assessment? A good start would be the DHS's own National Response Plan, which specifically spells out the roles, responsibilities and actions in exactly such disaster situations.
The National Response Plan explicitly states that the federal government can take primary "proactive" responsibility for a (prospective) disaster under several circumstances: 1. when a (prospective) disaster "overwhelms the resources of State and local authorities and Federal assistance has been requested."
Low and behold! Gov. Blanco said that they were overwhelmed specifically when she asked the federal government prior to Katrina's landfall.
Another circumstance when the federal government can take proactive action is when the "[Homeland} Secretary has been directed to assume incident management responsibilities by the President because he has determined that an Incident of National Significance has already or is about to happen. In other words, the President can activate the full resources of the federal emergency system and cut through red tape at his own discretion, based on extraordinary circumstances. Is there any indication that he made such a declaration and directed his Secretary to act immediately and decisively? Not that I am aware of.
Why didn't the President do more to do to ensure a timely response? Why have there been so many examples of red tape snafus and stalling to take action when the act specifically says that assistance should NOT be held up because of rules and regulations, but can and should be expedited!
Unfortunately, the words "proactive," "responsive," or responsible" cannot be attributed to the Bush Administration's efforts.
In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the consequences for not "making the grade" are not merely being left back or summer school. Rather, our government has become complicit in adding to high toll of untold number of Americans dying lonely, terrified deaths, and the dislocation of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children sure to suffer mental and and possibly physical anguish for years to come.
An independent investigation is needed to document what Americans already are beginning to realize -- that the federal government through incompetence, mismanagement and shortsightedness -- has added to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina long after Katrina has dissipated.
It has already become painfully clear that performance standards designed to protect out country have not been met. At a school, a disaster of this magnitude in terms of assessment would affect the job security of the superintendent, principal, assistant principal as well as the teachers.There must to be serious consequences for all the leaders involved, starting with President Bush and Congress as well as DHS and FEMA.
Substantive changes at DHS and FEMA in its command and management are required. President Bush should be impeached, Non-professional FEMA directors and personnel should be fired.
Accountability. Standards. Highly-qualified professionals. Timely performance based assessments.
Anything less would be a deadly double standard.