School board bill is nutty

A bill that would prohibit a Kansan from serving on a school board if a family member or roommate is employed by a school district sounds like a spoof. This couldn’t possibly be serious.

Yet House Bill 2345 is scheduled for a House Education Committee hearing Thursday.

And this is the same Legislature that advanced a bill allowing the prosecution of teachers for exposing students to harmful materials, so apparently nothing is too nutty.

According to the Kansas Association of School Boards, teachers already are prohibited from serving on their own school board. This bill would extend that to prevent any school employee’s spouse, sibling, parent or roommate from running for a school board, including the Kansas State Board of Education.

And the relative doesn’t even have to live in the same district. As the bill is written, a person in southwest Kansas, for example, could not serve on her local board if her sibling teaches in northeast Kansas, hundreds of miles away.

That’s crazy.

The bill also would prevent anyone with a “substantial interest in any business that works directly with or provides services to this state or the school district” from running for a school board. In some small towns, that could mean most business owners (and their spouses) could not serve on the school board.

The bill was introduced anonymously (how brave and transparent). But the fact that the bill is scheduled for a hearing indicates that GOP leaders are taking it seriously.

The stated purpose of the bill is to prevent conflicts of interest. But its real aim is to weaken support for public education.

As Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, said, “It epitomizes the war on public education.”

For the editorial board, Phillip Brownlee

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "School board bill is nutty."