I once spent a considerable amount of time covering the Prince William County School Board. After conducting that effort for awhile, I was amazed to find we do not pay the people we put on the School Board. There is a salary, but it only amounts to $12,000 - $13,000 . For all practical purposes, we put volunteers in charge of the education of over 70,000 children and a billion-dollar plus budget. This struck me as insane; I don’t understand the need for such idiotic penny-pinching. Nonetheless, because some people very much care, this arrangement works better than we have any right to expect. Mostly out of the goodness of their hearts, our School Board members do an amazing job for us.
Sometimes the extra work (often 20 hours a week) does become too much. So it is that Julie Lucas is resigning (see here). Because of her able service, we all owe her a debt of thanks, our prayers, and our best wishes.
Other Views
The SkepticalObservor noted the story last week, School Board Member Julie Lucas Resigns. While James Young has a good opinion of Lucas’ performance on the School Board, he has a lower opinion of some of her supporters.
It is not my wont to link to BLACK VELVET BRUCE LI, but I doubt the wisdom of any rule that allows for no exceptions. BVBL strongly supported Lucas, and Lucas tacitly accept that support, so this link is relevant. In Julie Lucas Steps Down the BVBL raises a valid concern (albeit with the usual character assassinations).
I suspect the fact that two such often opposed blogs both speak well of Lucas says something positive about her. It tends to be harder than not to earn the respect of such crusty gentlemen.
What is BVBL’s issue? Who will replace Lucas? Because we do not pay School Board members appropriately for the amount of work involved, we can only hope someone honest and competent will volunteer to replace Lucas. In addition, we must hope voters will recognize honesty and competence when they see it.
Have you ever complained about the public school system? Do you wonder why we cannot trust politicians? Then consider how we select our elected officials. We use a popularity contest. To compound the problem, we pay most state and local officials relatively little. So the best folks often cannot afford to run. Inevitably, those that can afford to run too often have suspicious motives. How many honest and competent people want to work at a frightfully controversial job for much less than they can rightfully earn? Yet this sort of nonsense is inevitable with even the best government men can devise. Because the powers we give over to government are so dangerous, we must always compromise efficient and effective government with government we can control. That makes putting the government in charge of the delicate task of educating our precious children a dubious endeavor at best.
