The state of Utah's education system makes John W. Gardner's comments ring true, "The last dying breath of a bureaucracy is to write another policy in the policy manual." State and local school boards, their bureaucracies, along with the multitude of legislative committees, dilute the responsibility so everyone and no one is accountable for whatever the education system is supposed to produce. Where does the buck really stop? School boards are vestiges of the past; and, if you ask most citizens to name their board representative, they would draw a blank.

Some legislators think that adding more members to the state school board, and making the elections partisan, will solve education's problems. But the problem is that no one seems to take the time to understand how the world has changed and the need to restructure our state's education system so it can respond to change. Are local school boards needed as we try to prepare students for the new economy? We now have a disjointed system of governance going in different directions where no one can be held accountable and provide leadership.

Regardless of the governance structure that may be recreated, unless we have elected officials like Sandy Packard, who believes she was elected to make sure public institutions are accountable to citizens and is not afraid to act, our schools will continue to die of neglect.

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Utah native John Florez has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations, served on the staff of Sen. Orrin Hatch and on more than 45 state, local and volunteer boards. He also has been deputy assistant secretary of labor. E-mail: jdflorez@comcast.net