October 1, 1999

For the first time in our 24 years of marriage, The Husband Kurt plans not to vote for any school board candidates. He's choosing None of the Above. I'm tempted to join him in his protest against the same-old, same-old, but will give those running more time to cut the platitudes.

Their familiar verbiage reminds me of the joke about what a pet dog hears when its master issues commands, as in "Blah blah blah. Rover. Blah blah." From candidates for office voters hear: "I will blah blah my vision to fix the blah blah caused by the current administrations' blah."

Submitted for your rejection are the following meaningless phrases from school board hopefuls: "Improving the district depends on leadership and direction," "encourage more understanding of the issues faced every day at school sites," and a personal favorite - "it's important to have four new faces in there." (How about just getting incumbents a few Groucho Marx-disguise glasses?)

A few candidates have suggested workable ideas. Ivan Meadows said, "Money should be spent on school supplies, not public relations." Two-year veteran Bob Patillo cited his willingness to make unpopular decisions, including voting against year-round high schools and the creation of a PR director's post. John Boyle would like the school board meetings to be reformatted, putting public commentary first on the agenda. And just as I did two years ago, I like the down-to-earth common sense of entrepreneur Pamela Wright, who knows "how to do things."

What these four candidates have in common is not being government bureaucrats or employees in any K-12 schools. That's good because few people whose household incomes depend on government control of services can be objective about ceding that power back to private organizations and individuals. Due to their knowledge of procedures, public-sector insiders are better at affecting policies - policies that benefit their financial and professional status. But even the "outsiders" referred to above have failed to grapple with the issue of vouchers to allow parents to place their kids in whatever public or private schools they choose.

That's weird because most voters now realize that nearly 40 years of declining standardized test scores and massive growth in higher education's remedial classes can't be fixed by yet more programs, analysis, or enthusiastic approaches. As with any other product or service, competition alone results in improved quality and cost-benefit ratios.

© 1999 Cynthia Hahn