Governor Sam Brownback has made another misstep in regards to the School Efficiency Task Force designed to find efficiencies in schools by not appointing any educators.
Not a single teacher or administrator is on the board.
Essentially, no one that knows the day to day requirements of running a school in 2012 was appointed.
A wide variety of professionals needed to be on that task force. At least one administrator and one teacher needed to be on that board.
Undoubtedly, the current board will find many efficiencies. Some of them will make sense because an outside view will find areas of waste or areas of spending that are not common in business.
However, they will also cut areas that will have unintended and detrimental consequences. They may recommend items that have been tried before that don’t work or are ill-considered.
Brownback has shown this one-sided thinking repeatedly. He contributed to the defeat of moderate Republicans at the state level so that he would have only his cronies in the legislature.
Once again, he made a short-sighted decision. The best way to make wise decisions is not to find someone with similar background and thinking, but someone with a different experience.
Brownback appointed the experts he wants. He has probably already knows what he wants to do and found the people that will reinforce it.
The state of Kansas is in for a bumpy ride over the next few years, attempting to fix the damage caused by careless decision making.

Karen La Pierre