Rudy's Escape

Today the Miami-Dade County School Board voted to negotiate a buy-out of Rudy Crew's contract, but the embattled superintendent had already been planning his exit from our sunny shores for quite some time. It was only last year that Crew had put his name in for other top schools jobs, including the superintendency in the nation's capitol. He didn't get that gig, but it was a clear sign that Crew was no longer interested in helming the country's fourth-largest school district. But then again, the Poughkeepsie, New York-native's priority has always been promoting himself for the next big gig than about producing meaningful results where he's at.

So now all that's left is figuring how much more taxpayer money we have to give Crew, who already earns close to half-a-million dollars a year, so he'll just go away, giving him the free time to go work for Barack Obama's presidential campaign and position himself as the next secretary of education. And if Obama loses, Crew has his pick of superintendent jobs in the nation, while our Banana Republic looks foolish for firing him. As one former Crew supporter told me: "He adds martyr to his 'genius tag' and is the big winner."

The big losers? The children attending public schools in Miami-Dade County.

-- Francisco Alvarado