[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 43 (Tuesday, April 19, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      THE ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD: AN AMERICAN TRADITION REAF- FIRMED

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                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 1994

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call the attention of my 
colleagues to the following article on educational policy by Dr. Thomas 
Shannon, Executive Director of the National School Boards Association. 
Dr. Shannon's article, published in the March 29, 1994 edition of the 
School Board News, focuses on the advantage of democratic governance of 
our schools through local school boards.
  As Dr. Shannon points out, the resounding support of Virginia voters 
for elected school boards is just one indication of the strength of the 
institution of school boards and their democratic governance of our 
local schools. I urge my colleagues and their staff to note Dr. 
Shannon's views.

       The Elected School Board: An American Tradition Reaffirmed

       Virginia has a lesson for critics of public school 
     governance. Those who make claims that elected school boards 
     are not an integral part of the future of public elementary 
     and secondary education need look only at how voters in the 
     Old Dominion state overwhelmingly rejected that spurious 
     notion.
       A state law enacted in July 1992 allowed Virginia citizens 
     to petition for a referendum election on the question of 
     whether local school board members should be elected by the 
     voters of their districts, instead of continuing to be 
     appointed by county boards of supervisors.
       Eighty school districts (out of a total 138) have held such 
     elections so far. In all of those elections, the voters chose 
     to have elected school boards. And the overwhelmingly ``yes'' 
     votes were impressive indeed in these times when a 43 percent 
     plurality of the popular vote elected our president, and when 
     our governors, members of Congress and state legislators 
     typically receive only a bare majority approval. The 
     resultant facts in Virginia: The average majority vote 
     percentage for all districts was 81 percent. And this 
     percentage was substantially the same for the largest and the 
     smallest districts and for rural, suburban, and urban 
     communities across the state.
       The Virginia lesson has several dimensions. First, there 
     clearly is a deep and abiding faith in the American 
     institution of free, democratic representative governance of 
     the public elementary and secondary schools. The people trust 
     their own elected representatives over any other form of 
     leadership. Even when voters are frustrated and disappointed 
     with their elected officials, there is amply evidence that it 
     is political suicide to assume voters would rather hand over 
     governmental leadership to someone not directly accountable 
     to them. Indeed, any agreement about the worth of electing 
     public officials by popular vote is usually quashed by the 
     simple question: What would you replace our system of elected 
     representative governance with?
       Second, it ineluctably follows that if the voters want to 
     elect their school boards, they want them to govern. They 
     don't want school boards just to advise professionals, 
     lead cheers for the school system, bow down to teacher 
     unions, look to federal and state policymakers and 
     administrators to govern in their stead, or turn over 
     fundamental policymaking to groups of school employees and 
     parents at school sites. The people clearly want the line 
     of responsibility and accountability to be direct and 
     unfettered between them as voters and their elected 
     representatives. They want school boards to be in charge 
     of their schools for them, with all that portends for the 
     quality and equity of the instructional program, the 
     competency of the staff, and the cost of education as 
     mirrored in the school tax rate. And an important 
     corollary is that the people expect federal and state 
     government officials to respect their strong support of 
     elected school boards by trusting the judgments of school 
     boards to govern effectively.
       Third, critics of school governance should focus their 
     talents on making representative governance of the public 
     schools works in the local community, rather than on how 
     federal and state government officials, school employees, 
     self-appointed groups of parents accountable to nobody, and 
     teacher unions can end-run or subvert local representative 
     governance. ``Make the system work!'' is an injunction that 
     all of us should heed. It should be encouraged as a personal 
     and individual duty of every person in a democracy.
       The reason is simple--and Virginia voters implicitly 
     endorsed it by gargantuan margins--our American institution 
     of free, democratic representative governance (that is 
     epitomized in public education by the school board) is the 
     best system of governance ever devised by humankind. In these 
     times of enormous change necessitated, not by the failure of 
     schools today, but by the need to adjust our education system 
     to the needs of tomorrow, our system of governance is not 
     always the most peaceful, the least argumentative, the most 
     efficient, or even every time the fairest. But overall it is 
     the best, as we Americans know deep down in our bellies.

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