In North Carolina politics, it was one of the all-time knock-down-drag-outs -- the 2004 contest in which June Atkinson defeated Bill Fletcher for the post of state superintendent of public instruction. Well, that over-simplifies matters a bit. The election was held in November, 2004, but it wasn't until August, 2005 that Fletcher finally caved. The margin had been very close, and the outcome was further muddied by a voting machine snafu in Carteret County.

So Atkinson, who had been an official in the Department of Public Instruction, took over the top job. In the public school kingdom, she became empress of all she surveyed. At least, she became empress of everything she could see from behind her desk.

That's because of a bizarre organizational kink in this state's governmental structure.

The state schools superintendent is elected by the state's voters. But that does not automatically put him or her in charge of the education bureaucracy in Raleigh. That responsibility falls, indirectly, to the State Board of Education, most of whose members are appointed by the governor. The superintendent acts as the board's chief staff officer.

The state board can choose to delegate more rather than less power to the superintendent. Atkinson, it seems, has yet to earn her spurs. This came to light in an N&O report noting the upcoming retirement of deputy super Janice Davis, who has actually been in charge of running the DPI.

Atkinson says she considers herself to be working as a partner with the board. That's fine, but it raises the question -- does the board need such a partner? Or given its educational challenges, does the state need a top education official who clearly is in charge?

Many proposals over the years have called for the state superintendency to be converted, via a constitutional amendment, to an appointed post rather than an elected one. They all have foundered on the rocks of politics. But letting the governor name the superintendent, and putting that person unequivocally at the helm of the state's central education machinery, would clarify the lines of authority and accountability. What's the point of electing a figurehead?

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