By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-974777.mp3
Dallas, TX – Dallas Mayor-Elect Mike Rawlings reiterated his goal to improve education, even though the mayor is not the Dallas superintendent. KERA's Bill Zeeble has more.
Rawlings told a group of educators and faith based organizations meeting at Southern Methodist University that he plans on creating a working group within 90 days made up city, School District and business representatives.
Rawlings: to lay out clear roles and responsibilities of how we continue our growth in DISD. We need to have something structural, we need to have something sustainable. There are thousands of people that want to help. It needs to be organized to make that happen.
Former DISD School Board President Sandy Kress is now an Education Policy Fellow with the George W. Bush Institute. He says obstacles to the Rawlings approach must first be overcome.
Kress: One of the things in Dallas that's been hard to do has been to get past the turf issues in these things, whether it's "I run this, my group runs this , you don't." Breaking down turf barriers would be something that would be very helpful.
Kress says Rawlings might need school trustee help to overcome that obstacles. But he says big cities with the best performing schools have broken down those barriers. Bill Zeeble KERA news.