May 21, 2007
Condescension on School Board Membership
Over at AutismVox, Kristina Chew has a post entitled, “Who Sits on Your School Board?.” I’ll say, though, that it’s disappointing — the way former Senator Tom Daschle found almost everything disappointing — that the blog lapses into tired condescension about the ‘idiots’ who run for a public school board.
Dr. Chew quotes — approvingly — Pharyngula, who declares that
One of the big problems is that any idiot who may well lack any experience i education, or even any interest in education beyond destroying it, can run for school board and actually get elected. Case in point: Ken Willard, one of the Kansas rubes who tried to get Intelligent Design creationism into the curriculum, has just upped the ante and decided to run for the national presidency of the association of state boards of education. It’s incredible—he’s an insurance executive with no competence and no qualifications other than that he’s a fervent dogmatist who wants his religious beliefs taught, and that he has the backing of the Discovery Institute.
I don’t really care about Willard’s religious beliefs, but is there anyone on earth who really finds the idea that an insurance executive would serve on a school board incredible?
It’s a public school that Pharyngula describes, with a public school board. The district is a body representing the entire community, not merely those who are teachers. It’s an easy pose to decry the number of ‘idiots’ who might serve on a public body. It’s ignorant to doubt that public schools belong to all the community, including retirees, the childless, and those less educated. Even, by law and circumstances, supposed ‘idiots.’
If someone wants to run for public office, whether doctor, lawyer, butcher, baker, or candlestick maker — why not? Let the public decide who will hold office on a public board. If the public chooses poorly, someone else will be able to run at the next election, and explain why the public’s prior choice was misguided.
More directly, if a degree in education were a guarantee of insight, fairness, and help for those with autism, then there would be fewer violated rights, and less heartbreak, in the world.
