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Will we NEVER learn about politicians? UPDATE/CORRECTION
SEE THE UPDATED, CORRECTED INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE.
A recent issue of The Jeffersonian carried an article about a bill introduced in the state legislature that would change the way Baltimore County's school board members are selected.
The school board has twelve members, who under current law are appointed by the governor. Considering that Maryland's governor is the same person under whose watch the Baltimore City school system not only went into the toilet academically, but lost track of tens of millions of dollars, Martin O'Malley might just be among the least qualified people to appoint school board members. In any case, how is something related purely to the governance of a single county under the control of the state?
The problem is that this bill (House Bill 954) seems as though it will make matters worse than they already are. The proposed change would "establish a nominating commission to recommend three names to the governor." But get this: the 13-member nominating commission would be made up of three members appointed by the governor, three appointed by the Baltimore County Executive, with the remaining six membership slots reserved for representatives from a select group of, ahem, community organizations. These members would represent the county teachers' union, the county PTA council, chamber of commerce, county-wide student council, and local chapters of the League of Women Voters and the NAACP.
There's no explanation why these particular seven entrenched interest groups should get a reserved spot on the nominating committee. Most of the League of Women Voters members I've encountered are old enough to be great-grandmothers, and pretty well out of the flow of things. Giving the teachers' union a say in who runs the system is a move that could best be described as "novel," and more truthfully is a matter of hiring a fox to guard your henhouse. And as far as the NAACP involvement is concerned, why is that bunch any more deserving of a place at the table than the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, The B'nai Brith, the Sons of Italy, the Polish National Alliance, or for that matter, the Ku Kluxers?
Now, all this fuss will apparently result in the nomination of only three potential members, with no requirement that the governor appoint them anyway. The remaining nine school board members will be political friends of the governor that he has not yet found a way to reward. I don't even believe the county executive is qualified to name members to this committee, considering that he has been part of a scheme to create a new $90,000 a year county job for the governor's little brother, whom he described (with no further elaboration) as "uniquely qualified." Indeed.
The common-sense solution would be to have the entire school board elected by the voting (read: taxpaying) public. This works in countless jurisdictions across the country, and is one hell of a lot less complicated than this goofy scheme that is being proposed.
But we Marylanders do have this unfortunate habit of electing, and re-electing politicians who do what they damn well please to line their own pockets and spread favors among their bedfellow, and to Hell with what the People might actually want.
But then, that's life under an essentially single-party system where the opposition has been browbeaten into silence by a governor who values "solidarity" more than healthy discussion of alternatives.
CORRECTIONS: My sincere apologies for having depended solely on the reporting of The Jeffersonian in drafting the above. Today, I had an opportunity to read the text of HB954, which can be found on the web in PDF form.
1. Terhune's article omitted the fact that the bill proposes reducing the size of the school board from 12 members to 10. No explanation is given as to the rationale behind the change. As the law currently stands, the board includes one member from each of the seven county council districts. Under the proposed change, these seven will be replaced by five members, one representing each of the five "administrative areas of the Baltimore County Public School System." *
2. Contrary to the newspaper article, the nominating commission will give the governor a choice among three nominees for each school board seat. However, the governor has the right to reject any and all of these and order the commission to nominate other candidates. In short, he can continue refusing nominations until he obtains a list of candidates that suit his personal agenda. Therefore, the entire nominating-commission process is a sham.
3. The six members of the nominating commission appointed by the Governor and the County Executive "SHALL BE MADE WITH CONSIDERATION OF THE GEOGRAPHIC, RACIAL, ETHNIC, CULTURAL, AND GENDER DIVERSITY OF THE COMMISSION." [reference page 3, lines 16-19.] Read this requirement however you will--I think it's meant to give O'Malley and Smith the power to "stack the deck" racially. Among the parties not automatically invited to the table are Asians, Middle Easterners and Latinos. And it goes without saying that nobody will be appointed to appoint "white interests." That would comprise racial prejudice, since there are only "black" and other ethnic interests. I question the constitutionality of this requirement.
* Not solely related to this bill, I have to question why the taxpayers of Baltimore County have been so willing to tolerate a political system that divides the county into 5 public school districts, but incorporates 7 county council districts and ten police precincts. Would it not make sense to have one set of boundary lines common to these government functions?