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Category: Readers' Opinions

■ 03 March 2008 | 7:06 AM

elect our school board

NORFOLK IS THE LAST MAJOR CITY in the United States that has school boards appointed by city government. This situation does not speak well for Norfolk's governing elite. One suspects that the city's reluctance to move to elected school boards is part racial and part class discrimination.

Or as Martin Mayer, author and former appointed school board member in New York City, phrased it four decades ago: The fear is that such elected boards would usher in 'poor, ignorant welfare mothers telling superintendents what to do.'

Mayer was misguided. Elected school boards not only energized a formerly disenfranchised poor black and Latino constituency in New York, but they became as knowledgeable on educational policy as their white middle-class suburban counterparts.

Elected boards would ensure that parents' voices could be heard more readily. School board members could be voted out of office as easily as they could be voted in.

Norfolk has come a long way in becoming a 'renaissance city' in development and services. It is a shame it still maintains an antiquated school governance system.

Maurice R. Berube

Norfolk

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