Zirkin Proposes Elected School Board
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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 hurt an ongoing search to find a replacement 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."
Paul Amirault
12:30 pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
I oppose this bill on a couple of different grounds. Yes, the school board and/or superintendent have appeared at times to ignore the public. But this is not a reason to go to an elected board.
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.
Vicki Rummel
7:12 pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Nothing they do will be worse than the group that's in there now.
Paul Amirault
7:29 pm on Tuesday, January 31, 2012
As Mark Twain said, "In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards." Just sayin'.
LuAnn Beck-Day
6:59 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
I am amazed that anyone argues against electing a school board. We elect the "leader of the free world", congress, and our state and local representatives, yet there is concern that the general public lacks the ability to place appropriate people on the school board.
Matthew
8:13 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Paul,
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.
Paul Amirault
8:34 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
We agree to disagree, higher level candidates get a lot of media attention and voter attention. As an example when judges are on the ballot, do you really think the voters research them? Do voters skip that part of the ballot? Do they vote for the first three? A school board would be no different.
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.
Paul Amirault
8:55 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
An interesting link to a conservative voice about an 18 year experiment in VA with elected Scholl Boards. Worth the read.
http://bearingdrift.com/2011/03/13/time-to-end-elected-school-boards/
reader
9:09 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
One of the problems with voting for judges is that we never get to assess their records. They may campaign but rarely do we now how liberal or conservative their rulings have been. The current situation with appointed school board members is to me certainly silly, how many of the current members are nothing more that political hacks of the likes of governor gasbag. Let's move to the elected board, it would certainly be no worse than we have now, and they could always be voted out.
Matthew
9:17 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
One of the important differences-pay. The school board gig is not going to be a particularly 'rewarding' one. Judges aren't exactly living on scraps. The work-pay ratio should attract people who want to do it for the right reasons.
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.
Bart
10:34 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
I don't think elected Shcool Boards are a good choice.
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.
Josh Glikin
11:11 am on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Dear commentator who says, "We elect the "leader of the free world", congress, and our state and local representatives, yet there is concern that the general public lacks the ability to place appropriate people on the school board."
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.
Karl Pfrommer
3:02 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
We are not happy with the current school board. Why on earth would we want to delay change in the way board members are chosen? Why allow the current board to appoint the next superintendant? Justice delayed is justice denied.
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."
Paul Amirault
3:31 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2012
All I can say Karl is beware of what you wish for, see links and comments above as to what you may get. I believe an elected board is worse than what we have now. The highest paid superintendent in the state of Maryland is leaving and the Board knows we are unhappy.