LETTER: Appointed School Board NOT Better Than Elected

DEAR EDITOR:

Arguments have been presented as to the reasons why an appointed school board is superior to an elected one. We wish to rebut those arguments and to ask the voters to consider these facts:

Over 250 years ago the king of England and his advisers determined that they could better “vet” and determine which candidates would best govern the colonies in America. That process worked about as well then as the present system works today in Northampton County.

The argument is made that the same politicians who are responsible for the $38 million county debt for new courthouses, offices for the bureaucrats, and everything else as well the closing of our middle school are better able to “vet” and choose the most “qualified” candidates.

To advocate the selection of the school board by five members of our community as opposed to an open election decided by 1,700 voters demonstrates the same arrogance shown by the king of England.

If that logic is applied to the Board of Supervisors, then perhaps the “most qualified candidates” should be vetted by the General Assembly and the Supervisors should also be appointed.

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When our constitution was being written our forefathers also had doubts whether the people could be trusted, but they decided that even though bad choices sometimes would be made, trusting all the voters to make these choices was a better method than trusting a selected few to make them.

Through the same method used by the voters to elect the Board of Supervisors, the qualifications of the candidates for the school board can be examined. Let’s face it, left to their own devices, people do not always do the right thing. That’s why we have elections.

Decisions do not always lead to fairness. In point of fact, in 1985, in response to public outcry and a petition by the NAACP, the Board of Supervisors agreed on an eight-member school board, with a 50/50 racial distribution. This was successful until the late 1990s when that arbitrarily changed, without a public vote.

Today the racial makeup of the school board is 28 percent African-American, yet our elected Board of Supervisors is 40 percent. It appears that an elected board has a better chance of being more representative of our community than an appointed one.

The agenda of an appointed school board is not necessarily what is best for our children, but perhaps reflects the desires of those individuals who appointed them. For whose benefit was the middle school closed? Certainly not for our children. Why is their turmoil in our schools, low morale of teachers and students, and an extremely large number of new teachers this year?

If bad choices are made by the voters through an election, those choices can be undone in the next election. But what method does our community have today to remove bad choices?

The argument was made as to the decrease in the number of expulsions as well as the number of referrals of students for bad behavior — especially this past academic year. We agree that there was a much needed improvement. But what is strange is that the high school administration, under whom that improvement was made, was dismissed last year.

Eighty percent of school boards in Virginia are elected. Please consider voting yes for referendum #3, “direct election of the school board,” November 6.

Virginia is the cradle of democracy, and it is time that the people, as opposed to a selected few, determine those persons who will represent us on this all-important board.

RANDALL PARKS
DAWN GLADSTEIN

Letters to the Editor are welcome on any subject relevant to Cape Charles, and a diversity of opinions is encouraged.  Letters should be original and never submitted elsewhere. Email submissions to [email protected].