Corruption and stupidity go together well. Sprinkle them into an hierarchy of ability and integrity and you can quickly get institutional incompetence -- where an organization composed largely of able and well intended individuals is non-the-less incapable of properly performing its intended function.

In the case of LAUSD careerism was a relatively benign factor that had malignant consequences. In LAUSD someone with a principal's certificate and at least one successful appointment as an assistant principal, provided they avoided scandal and outright criminality - for the most part - was impossible to dismiss. This was a consequence of the existence of the Principals' Union, which existed to prevent arbitrary treatment of its members. This led to the unofficial dogma that a principal's certificate was a qualification for any position in the administrative hierarchy, including Architecture and Engineering.

Combine careerism with personal loyalty - principals and loyal assistant principals often rose together, as loyalty was personal. It was not unusual to see very interesting situations, such as a ham radio enthusiast and former electronics shop teacher first becoming head of the Information Technology Division and then, despite have no construction experience beyond remodeling one of his own bathrooms, being put in charge of the construction of a new high school located over an old oil field just north of downtown LA.

Another example was a lady physical education instructor with a principal's certificate being appointed to be head of Architecture and Engineering. I could see how skills in getting teenage girls to do things they did not want to do could be turned to getting architects and engineers to do things they did not want to do, except that some of those things involved their judgements as licensed professional engineers and architects and often were a very bad idea.  
   

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."

I'm pretty much on the same page. I just emigrated to a different place... I prefer not to use such concluding wording, but essentially that's more or less where I want to get.

I'd just add that "stupidity" - lack of vision, pure ignorance - mostly plagues the top branches of the hierarchy, making it easier (and cheaper) for the multinationals to corrupt middle tier technicians. A famous IT professor openly states to his audiences that institution leaders in Portugal are the least knowledgeable on the matter in Europe. It is very easy to convince someone that the most expensive product is the absolute best, something also common to the third world.

How institutions came to be leaded by such people is another question, and a deep one.

luis_de_sousa@mastodon.social