Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder can be his own worst enemy: He’s picked a fight with just about everyone in the city there is to pick a fight with. But that doesn’t make him wrong. He is dead-on accurate with his criticism of the city’s woefully underperforming schools. And he’s the only one in recent memory who’s been willing to knock heads with an intractable educational bureaucracy.

As Wilder stated in his most recent edition of “Visions,” an electronic newsletter:

Today, if our students are ill-educated and ill-prepared to enter the world beyond secondary school, we cannot blame it on a lack of money. Richmond Public Schools spends almost 60 percent more per student annually than any of the surrounding jurisdictions, while lagging far behind in critical measures of student achievement. In Richmond, we spend $12,385 per pupil per year; in Chesterfield the amount is $7,467; Henrico spends $7,637; and Hanover spends $7,496 per student.

Richmond’s dropout rate in 2005 was four times that of Hanover and almost twice that of Chesterfield and Henrico. In fact, of school systems with 10,000 or more students, Richmond had the highest dropout rate statewide. We should all be concerned and involved, as it takes the whole city to improve our schools.

Who suffers from this lamentable performance? The predominantly African-American student body, which enters the workforce lacking the tools to prosper in a globally competitive, knowledge-based economy. Says Wilder:

One’s academic status … relates to criminal activity and incarceration. Nationally, about half of young black men who do not graduate from high school are either locked up or are on probation or parole, according to the Richmond Sheriff’s Department.

I, for one, applaud Wilder for demanding accountability and performance from city schools instead of taking the easy course of demanding “mo’ money.” Could the mayor handle his dispute with the school board more diplomatically? Undoubtedly. Would more tactful behavior do much to change a dysfunctional system? Probably not.