Educational mire

How can the state school board possibly put too much emphasis on the educational experience of its new commissioner of education?

It would seem that the most important qualification for the state’s new commissioner of education would be experience in the field of education.

Apparently not, according to some members of the Kansas State Board of Education.

Six members of the board expressed displeasure Wednesday with the criteria established by the National Association of State Boards of Education, which the Kansas board hired to help them find a replacement for Andy Tompkins, who resigned as commissioner of education earlier this year. The consultants had evaluated the applicants according to certain skills. The problem? A group of board members said they believed too much weight had been given to candidates’ experience in the field of education.

Although a minority of the board argued that education experience should be the top priority and the consultant’s evaluation scale was sound, the six-member conservative majority of the board voted to change the criteria and presumably set the evaluation process back to square one.

Connie Morris, an outspoken conservative member of the board, complained, “Education expertise may have been given five times the weight of anything else.” She added that too few points had been allocated for business, civic and political skills.

Some might say there is entirely too much politics on the state board already.

The board interviewed four candidates in June, but couldn’t agree on a commissioner and decided to restart the hiring process. That wasn’t a bad move if board members didn’t believe they had found a satisfactory candidate. However, it’s September now, and almost no progress appears to be made.

According to Board Chairman Steve Abrams, the board has “a bunch” of applicants for the job, but the work the consultant has done so far apparently was largely wasted because it didn’t meet with the approval of a majority of the board. After a four-hour meeting in and out of closed session Wednesday, Abrams announced, “We’re done, and there’s no action.” The meeting adjourned until 6:30 p.m. Monday. What, if any, progress can be made at that time remains to be seen.

Should the board consider putting off the decision on hiring a new commissioner until after the end of the year? November elections may produce a state school board that is more genial and willing to work together. It hardly seems that the situation in January could be worse than it is now.

Hiring a new commissioner of education is arguably the most important current piece of business facing the State Board of Education. It’s disappointing to see the process mired in political bickering.