Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Lobbyist in Chief

I keep getting stuff from our governor recycling his line from the State of the State about his desire to be the state's only "lobbyist for the students" when it comes to education.

I find this irritating. I've served on school boards of one sort or another for eight years. I consider myself a lobbyist for the students, and I consider all other school board members lobbyists for the students, and I consider the New York State School Board Association a useful and powerful lobbyist for the students, and I can think of several other organizations that I think could easily be called lobbyists for the students.

I know what he means. He means that teachers' unions aren't working for students. He suspects that administrative organizations aren't working for students. And he apparently thinks that school boards are working for school boards, and he has the kid-vid to prove it.

It might be time for the governor to get out of the cities where school board service is a paid and partisan job and into the majority of the state where it's unpaid drudgery. If I'm lobbying for myself, what the hell am I getting for my labors?

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