School board bungles Carstarphen’s ouster

The Atlanta School Board’s handling of Superintendent Meria Carstarphen’s ouster has been – in a word – disastrous. This is the kind of bungle that cause parents and voters in general to lose confidence in its elected officials.

It’s clear that Carstarphen was a polarizing figure: she was beloved by many students, parents and community leaders for her efforts to repair the school system’s tattered reputation after the standardized test cheating scandal. Her no-nonsense approach reportedly rubbed some of her colleagues the wrong way, and maybe some of the school board members, too, who didn’t like that she was the very public “face” of Atlanta Public Schools. Teachers and administrators were vocally unhappy about Carstarphen’s move to use private charter companies to turnaround six of the system’s low-performing schools.