“The survey requested by the Legislature’s Special Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government is designed to assess the impact of a bill (HB 2345) introduced last session that would make it illegal for anyone to serve on a local school board if his or her spouse, parent or sibling works at any school district in the state. That’s right; not just the school district governed by the local board, but any school district in the state. So someone whose mother teaches in Hoxie would be barred from serving on the Emporia school board.
“Do we also need to ban people with children from serving on local school boards?…
It’s hard to see why conflict of interest — or the perception thereof — would be a bigger problem for school board members than for any other elected official…
“Having a family member who teaches in a Kansas school actually might make a school board member even more qualified to discuss and decide important issues before the board. Members of local school boards, by state statute, serve without pay. They give their time and energy to this important job out of a sense of civic responsibility and a commitment to education. As is true of all election officials, voters and district patrons have ample opportunity to assess whether board members are taking advantage of their positions for personal gain…
“Rather than ordering surveys and questioning the integrity of school board members, legislators should be thanking local school boards across the state for the important work they do.”
Read more here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2015/oct/04/editorial-insulting-effort/?opinion