Faith leaders have every right to weigh in on KC Public Schools’ next superintendent | Opinion
When Kansas City pastors and other faith leaders held a rally late last week to endorse hiring Jennifer Collier as the next superintendent of the Kansas City Public Schools, they were not crossing the important barrier between church and state.
Rather, they were doing exactly what they have a right to do and should be doing: making sure religion’s voice is heard in the public square.
And the group is no Jennifer-come-lately to this matter. In fact, some of these religious leaders have been studying and speaking out about area education issues for a long time, many of them under the guidance of the Rev. Robert Lee Hill, minister emeritus of Community Christian Church. Working with the Kauffman Foundation, Hill has been gathering clergy members for a yearslong series of meetings to learn about the area’s educational needs and how faith communities can help.
The question of who should succeed Mark Bedell as superintendent, of course, can’t and shouldn’t be settled by what a single activist group thinks. Bedell, who resigned last summer to accept a job in Maryland, was rightly credited with improving the Kansas City district in many ways, including regaining full state accreditation. So finding the right replacement for him is crucial.
Collier, who has worked for KCPS for 23 years in various capacities, was on Bedell’s team. She’s currently serving as interim superintendent, and deserves careful consideration for the job.
But before that decision is made, groups beyond these faith leaders need to weigh in, and members of the school board need to pay attention to them. These groups include parents, district employees and other community leaders. It’s important that the next superintendent continue the progress begun under Bedell because the futures of thousands of Kansas City children depend in many ways on the quality of education our public schools provide.
Support for choosing Collier seems to be growing, and the school board should take that into account.
For instance, at this past Thursday’s rally at which faith leaders endorsed Collier, the Rev. John Modest Miles of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church offered this assessment of her: “She has the trust of the community, as demonstrated in her handling of the difficult and ongoing school closing process. She has the trust and support of the teachers and their union. Kansas City Public Schools are in the midst of a rise. Dr. Collier is the surest way to keep this momentum going.”
And the Rev. Darron LaMonte Edwards of United Believers Community Church declared: “We will never, ever get this opportunity again. And there is no other candidate who has these kinds of credentials, who has served our children and come up through the ranks of Kansas City Public Schools.”
Those were strong words, but Edwards has become a strong religious voice in Kansas City — not just in education but also in how the police do their job in the Black community. He has consistently challenged the Kansas City Police Department to be more open and accountable. So much so, in fact, that the department, under former Chief Rick Smith, essentially quit talking to him.
But Edwards, undeterred, has continued to pursue police reform. And Kansas City needs such voices. Like another Kansas City activist pastor — Emanuel Cleaver II, who represents the Kansas City area in Congress — Edwards grew up in Waxahachie, Texas. (That’s a supply line of faith leaders Kansas City might want to encourage.)
When religious leaders take positions on public issues, they almost always hear criticism of breaching the church-state barricade. That boundary is important, but the reason it exists is to prevent the government from interfering with religion, not to keep religious voices from being heard on public issues.
So the faith leaders who endorsed Collier recently were acting as responsible citizens who care about the city’s children. Their collective voice should be heard — along with the voices of many others.
