An undiscriminating editorial eye.

I'm varying from my usual practice of previewing the contents this month because one of AASA's state affiliates raised a vehement objection to an article we carried back in October in an issue that examined the current role of religion in public education.

In the piece titled "Sorting Out Beliefs in a Job Search," the author, a veteran superintendent search consultant, described the common use of religious preferences by a school board in filling a vacancy for a school district's leadership, suggesting this occurred in up to half of all searches she managed and that a board be allowed to use religion as a screening measure in a superintendent search.

The Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents took considerable offense at our editorial judgment in allowing such claims to go unchallenged in print. What follows are excerpts from a letter to The School Administrator from the Connecticut association's board of directors received at the end of January:

"CAPSS was profoundly disappointed by the article ... which might have been more accurately titled 'How To Discriminate Against Candidates on Religious Grounds Without Being Caught.' We were stunned that AASA would choose to solicit and publish an article that suggests how to violate the equal opportunity employment laws of our nation. Aiding and abetting in discriminatory hiring practices is not a topic worthy of our professional magazine nor is it an approach consistent with the ideals of our profession....

"It is not enough that the statement on the editorial page reads: 'The views expressed in The School Administrator do not necessarily reflect AASA policy.' That is fine for letters to the editor; however, this article should never have been published...."

AASA, of course, does not endorse the use of any personal characteristic--age, race, gender, religion, disability--to discriminate in hiring at any level. We published this article to suggest superintendents who are job hunting ought to consider the makeup of the communities that are seeking new school district leadership and that these considerations might include the importance of faith. What we published had the effect of shining the light on how some superintendent searches are being conducted by boards of education today, however questionable.

As an organization, AASA leadership is deeply troubled by the observations and claims raised in this report and intends to follow up on them. The fact a prominent search consultant reports at least 40 percent of the school boards for whom she has worked establish, in one way or the other, a religious litmus test when they seek a superintendent cannot be ignored. We owe it to our members to do whatever we can to end this highly discriminatory practice.

More importantly, we owe it to the children whom our members serve to stand up for what America is all about, a nation where people are judged by the knowledge and skills that they have instead of by the religion that they profess.

Jay P. Goldman

Voice: 703-875-0745

E-mail: [e-mail]