Announcing Sec. Rod Paige’s visit to Tallahassee, Florida (2004)

 

Sec. Rod Paige’s campaign stop was for the benefit of Florida State Rep. Bev Kilmer. She lost anyway to the incumbent, Rep. Boyd. The Tallahassee Democrat covered the story, with photos of adorable munchkins being read to, on July 14, 2004, page B1.

 

I shook hands with the Secretary as he entered the building for the campaign event, and thanked him for coming. I then handed him the following letter, which he briefly gazed at, then unceremoniously passed over his head to whoever was standing directly behind him. That would be Jim Horne, then Florida Commissioner of Education. Jim Horne repeated the motion, passing my letter high over his head without looking back to whoever was standing behind him. That happened to be Chad G. Colby, Deputy Press Secretary at the US Dept. of Education. Just to be on the safe side, I asked for and received his business card. Alotta good it did me.

 

It was all very comical. Everyone was perfectly, expressionless, except for me: I was grinning and enthusiastic. Little did I know that this would be the last I’d see or hear about anything having to do with my letter. I never did receive a response. So much for “Hand Delivery.”

So, that’s the story of my meeting with the US Secretary of Education. I know it wasn’t much, but at least I tried to break through the bureaucratic barriers that imprison the Secretary just as much as they serve to keep the public at bay and stop them from interfering in the Department’s business.

 

At least that’s how I see it. My subsequent trip to Washington D.C. has only served to confirm this view, the view that the Department of Education is run by an entrenched bureaucracy that has somehow become tragically divorced from the public that it is supposed to serve. This, as well, is what sociologists that study bureaucratic organizations, such as Etzioni and Weber, are telling us.