Mark Tallman: Maybe Kansas school boards had it right all along

January is School Board Appreciation Month. In January 2021, school boards have probably never felt less appreciated.

No one who ran for the local board and took office before last spring expected to be trying to manage public schools during the most serious public health crisis in a century. No one expected to be making life-or-death health and safety decisions or deciding on school learning environments never tried before on this scale.

From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, school boards faced two conflicting demands: from those who want to keep schools open as much as possible to meet the learning needs of children and the economic needs of families; and those who want limited exposure during a contagious pandemic to protect the health of students, their families and school staff.

We may be able to measure in some fashion educational and economic damage if school boards were too cautious. We will never be able to measure the death and damages to health that could have happened if school boards had been less cautious.

The deeper question is not what the right choices are, but who should make those choices. Under state law, modified by the 2020 Kansas Legislature in its special session, and the Kansas Constitution combined to give most of the power over health and educational decisions to local elected officials, including school boards. The new Legislature is expected to debate, in part, the correctness of that course.

In 30 years of representing the Kansas Association of School Boards, I’ve heard many criticisms of school boards: they don’t spend enough on instruction; they waste money on school buildings and “frills” like mental health and social programs; schools are usurping the role of parents, who should be raising children; sports and activities are not core functions of an education.

Now, some of those critics and some others are demanding those buildings be open for in-person learning, that mental health and social services — not just virtual instruction — are vital; that parents must be able to work, not stay home with children; and to “Let Them Play!” Perhaps local school boards — themselves parents and grandparents, business people and employers — had it right all along.

This is not to say every decision local boards make is right. But who has a greater interest in each community, a better understanding of the needs of its children, families, employees and business; or greater motivation to do right than people that community elects?

The purpose of public education has always been to look out for the common good of all children. Only a public school board can weigh all the consequences of health, safety and learning on the entire community; and make sure the school system meets the needs of all students.

At the conclusion of the Civil War, President Lincoln tried to see beyond, saying, “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in.” Kansas school boards must continue to deal with the pandemic, and hopefully improve schools going forward. School boards will have to lead that effort, striving to do what they believe is right, hopefully in times with less malice and more charity.