It’s hard for the people of Kansas to have much faith in the process being followed to hire a new state commissioner of education.

After receiving a report on candidates for the job last week, some members of the Kansas State Board of Education complained that the consultants screening applications had placed too much emphasis on the candidates’ educational experience. Although it seems educational experience would be the top priority when hiring the state’s highest education official, some conservative board members said more weight should have been given to applicants’ civic, political and business experience.

On Wednesday, the board announced its five finalists for the job. The list included four people with educational backgrounds, one of whom is known to be a personal friend of the state board’s president, Steve Abrams, and a strong conservative, like six members of the 10-member board. The fifth finalist has no significant educational credentials except as a lobbyist and activist who opposes increased school funding and supports school vouchers, a system that many observers fear will hurt public schools.

It seems highly unlikely that all of these candidates were among those recommended by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), which had been hired to screen and rank applications. In fact, after being ordered to change its evaluation system, the NASBE dropped out of a process it no longer saw as within “the most fundamental principles of personnel practices.”

The exact process that was used to arrive at the list of five finalists isn’t clear, but it certainly seems possible that personal or political factors influenced the addition of at least a couple of the candidates to the roster. Board President Abrams, on one hand, denies that was the case, but, on the other hand, acknowledges that the board wants to hire “someone who agrees with us philosophically.”

Given that the “philosophy” of a majority of current state school board members is weighted heavily toward religion-based conservatism, Kansans should be getting a pretty strong idea of what the board is looking for in a commissioner.

A more moderate member of the board said Wednesday that the list includes “a number of viable candidates” for the job. The board is scheduled to interview the finalists Sunday and Monday. Kansans should contact their board representatives now and insist that they select a new commissioner with solid educational credentials, a true dedication to public schools in Kansas and no political agenda beyond providing the best possible education for Kansas children. The State Board of Education shouldn’t be allowed to use the children of Kansas as a political football in an effort to promote any political, social or religious philosophy.