State School Board isn't place for partisan politics

There's a move afoot to double the size of the current 15-member State School Board and to make the new 29-member board run as partisan Democrats, Republicans or some other political party.

Currently, board members don't run through parties.

While the Utah Legislature comes up with some bad ideas every couple of years, this is one of the worst.

All we need in this one-party state is to completely politicize our State School Board.

While some lawmakers who favor this idea may use high-falutin' language to justify this change, what it really comes down to is brass-knuckle politics: Some legislators just can't stand the idea that the current State Board of Education refused to implement a very flawed private school voucher program passed by the 2007 Legislature.

Worse, the state board's decision was then upheld by the Utah Supreme Court.

Watch out, high court justices, conservative legislators may be coming after you next — dare to disagree with the conservative GOP majority in the Legislature and you, too, may find yourselves under partisan attack.

I actually remember when the State Board of Education elections were changed by lawmakers years ago.

Moderates in the Legislature realized that some real nutcakes (as Sen. Orrin Hatch may call them) had gotten themselves elected to the state board.

They were ideologues, obstructionists — and the state board was having a hard time functioning.

So direct election of State School Board members was removed from voters. Instead, nominating commissions were set up — later, the several commissions were wrapped into only one statewide commission — and those who pass muster with the commission have their names sent up to the governor.

The governor then picks a few candidates from each district to stand in the general election.

So voters still get the final say, they just don't get to whittle down a large field into a small field — the commission and governor do that.

This two-prong approach has worked well, many Utah educators believe.

The current system keeps partisan politics out of State School Board elections, which I believe is a good thing.

How do I know?

Just look at how much time legislators spend on redistricting the state board districts every 10 years after a Census.