Imagine if, what a great way to begin an editorial. This type of context gives the reader a sense of imagination, which helps place them exactly where the writer wants. Mark Mahoney does an exceptional job doing this in his editorial, Boards should be invited in, not locked out.
I actually just listened to a podcast covering transparency and how important it is! Mahoney is begging for that same transparency within school districts.
For some reason elected members of the school board are either banned from going into classrooms and observing the educational process in action, or they have to get specific permission from the employees’ union to do so.
These are the people who are responsible for how the multimillion-dollar budget is positioned, yet they can’t see for themselves what their budget is doing. Mahoney states that, “School board members, as elected representatives, and are the eyes and ears of the general public into the school system.”
He’s correct, considering their individual impact when deciding how to distribute the budget. The reason being, as to why they can’t is to not overwhelm their teachers. But, Mahoney believes people standing in the back of a classroom shouldn’t unnerve any competent teacher.
It’s stated that principals and superintendents regularly observe teachers so why can’t elected officials? A possibility for their reasoning maybe so those “anti-tax advocates on the school board, during one of these visits, get some ammunition to propose cuts or eliminate wasteful spending?”
But Mahoney says that’s exactly what they need. Bringing these types of issues up isn’t a bad things for taxpayers. Because school board members aren’t the only ones who have a stake in the operation of schools, parents do too.
Transparency shines a light into our schools and that should be the top priority, considering for example, general concern as to what they’re doing in gym class these days and wanting to observe.
Providing an educational day for those on the school board and parents to come in an observe their children would give parents and the board the transparency they need.
Another editorial I read was Keeping the school board zipped up, which follows the first reading flawlessly. The problem for keeping the board away from the school has to do with the board members speaking out of term.
Meaning, they tend to attract unwelcome media coverage and stir up rowdies crowds who disrupt meetings complaining about their tax bills. And the reason behind this is because school board members are elected government officials. They establish local policy for the education of your children and administer the largest portion of our property tax bill, which Mahoney says is more than 60 percent.
A great point of Mahoney’s is keeping the school board zipped is restricting their First Amendment rights. And furthermore there is not law prohibiting school board members from commenting on sensitive materials involving students and staff.
We need school board members who are willing to break the rules. In order to continue and evolve public education we must break the boundaries for our youth.
As Mahoney says, “board members don’t leave their First Amendment rights at the school board’s door. So this rule is completely unenforceable.”
I agree that this suppresses good school board members and it is not good for overall democracy of these elements within public education.
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