Forget a partially elected appointed school board.
Sen. Bobby Zirkin said Tuesday he's proposing to change the composition of the Baltimore County Public Schools board to an all elected body beginning in 2014.
"I would support either a hybrid or fully elected," said Zirkin. "The principle here is to bring the democratic process to Baltimore County finally."
The bill would also create a leaner board with nine members plus a student member instead of the current 12.
The bill provides for a commission to establish districts separate from state legislative and council districts from which school board candidates would run. There would be no at-large members of the board.
Zirkin said the districts would seek to ensure minority representation on the board.
Zirkin served on a task force last summer that ultimately made no recommendation on solving the question of how members of the board of education should be selected. The Democratic senator has favored a partially elected school board for the last six years.
"As big a farce as that task force was, the one thing we learned was that student performance was not affected by how the board is selected," said Zirkin.
Two weeks ago, school board President Lawrence Schmidt told the county's House and Senate delegations that any changes to how the board is selected would to outgoing Superintendent Joe Hairston.
Zirkin called that "a bogus argument."
"That is yet another stall tactic," said Zirkin. "I'm sure that will be the line of the year to put this off. There's always a reason to stall giving Baltimore County residents their say."
Qualified candidates - the vetting of candidates for the school board would be an abomination. We already have many people on the ballot that no one has an idea if they are qualified or not. People vote for the first name they see at times. Hidden agendas - I can see it coming now, attempts will be made to legislate prayer, creationism, gay life styles, banning certain books, making a joke out of science, etc. Look around at elected school boards and see what they breed. Psycho talk. The curriculum taught in our schools must be independent. That said, the current manner in which board members are selected is preposterous as well. The Governor should not be appointing school board members. Instead, allow the County Executive to appoint school board members subject to approval of the County Council with at least 5 members approving said appointment. As an alternative, such appointments could be subject to voter approval, up or down, at the next regularly scheduled election.
I understand your concerns, but hidden agenda's and quality candidates are risks that are always present, for any office, in a democracy. I don't worry too much about it in this instance, as it is clear our lawmakers are now watching this group. If things turn out to be less than expected, then I think we could see a hybrid board. I'm ready for a change.
Do we start voting for the liquor board? How about the planning board? How about any other board? These positions also need to be appointed with Council approval. This is why we elect people to represent us.
http://bearingdrift.com/2011/03/13/time-to-end-elected-school-boards/
Again though, I don't know how much we actually disagree. I'm not anticipating a perfect situation. What I'm anticipating is a group of people, some of whom may be the same group we have now, who will ask the tough questions, fight the inside deals/contracts, and speak for those who don't have a voice right now. If that doesn't happen, it won't be hard to revisit this issue and rework the proposed set-up. Thanks for the link, that was a good read.
It would mean they would have to jump into the fray of fund-raising; the best candidates might not be willing to do this. With the low pay, there are often highly funded groups willing to fund a possible candidate to push their own agenda. Keep the school board selected by a group of highly motivated people. It's too important to be left to the highest bidder. Just look what happened in Dover, PA., where the School Board mandated the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in schools there. The parents had to take the School Board to court to get the ruling overturned.
No, we don't. Special interest groups and new super pacs do. I think what the commentators are saying is that the same thing could happen to the school board. Is anyone satisfied with the people who are placed in Congress? Yet, guess what percentage will be re-elected.
An elected school board must answer to the voters, those who are most affected by the board's decisions. An appointed school board answers to a professional politician who wants to further his own career and is less dependant upon our approval. The closer we are to politicians and issues, the better we can see them for what they are. As Tip O'Neil said, "All politics is local."