Too many public workers on local school boards?

The sage and respected editorial board of my newspaper wrote an editorial in Wednesday's edition pointing out the fact that there are many former public employees sitting on local boards. On local school boards too.

The editors point out that there needs to be a diversity of opinions, and that some of the troubles we're facing, namely pension reform, could be linked to boards that could easily be sympathetic to public employees. We need more insurance agents, moms, and merchants. "At least some of the office holders may have a tendency to see the public as complainants rather than as customers," the editorial reads.

Nobody asked my opinion, but as a person who has to sit in countless of board meetings, here's my two cents.

Yes, we need diversity of opinions and backgrounds. But the schools need diverse and INFORMED opinions. I've seen many a well intentioned board member who has hardly ever sat at a meeting before getting elected (or appointed) trying to cope with ADA, LEAs and SATs and trust me, the picture's far from pretty. And if the adult in question is not only informationally challenged but also reluctant to admit it, the results can be rather unpleasant. Add distrust of administrators, and please, hide the matches. Top that with the daily duties of motherhood, insurance agencing, merchanting, or whatever it is people who don't work for a school district do for a living, and there's really no time to learn the jargon, nomenclature, formulas, budgets, legislation, you name it. Only a brave soul would take on this kind of challenge. Hopefully an informed, brave soul.

(Of course, there will be people out there who will say the educational jargon needs to be brought down to earth so the average people can attend the meetings without the need of an interpreter. Agreed. Try to tell that to Sacramento or Washington)

So yes, we need more people to take on the challenge of public office. We need good, diverse board members. We have until Aug. 12 for people to declare their candidacy. So this is a good time for people to start attending meetings so they can get up to speed with the various districts' issues and prepare themselves for an incredibly steep learning curve.