Those of you who missed last week’s article by Board of Education President Cathy Allen and Vice President Dr. Sal Raspa missed a couple of thousand words about why the Board of Education cannot do what the public wants it so do. They are “buried under the law” as the headline for the article said, "unable to made (sic) decisions which make sense to most logically thinking citizens."

The article used very learned language, so we would know there was someone with a Doctor’s degree involved in its creation, and the article contained citations from another author as proof of the fact that someone agrees with Allen’s and Raspa’s unstated conclusion. That conclusion? “We cannot do anything because the law prohibits us from

taking action.” Only here’s the way they said it. “The legal side of society has created a mountain of operational difficulties for Boards of Education,” they are "unable to made (sic) decisions which make sense to most logically thinking citizens" and, according to a quote from Philip K. Howard of THE NEW YORK TIMES, no less, “There is an excessive amount of regulation and litigation which constitutes a stranglehold on our schools, our

principals, and our teachers.” That last quote was a particularly poor selection for making excuses for the Board of Education’s inactivity. The article doesn’t even mention boards of education.

There are also extensive quotes from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. (MABE). Now that sounds like an innocuous group, an “association of boards of education,” but don’t be fooled. MABE is where board of education members go to be taught that they are helpless and cannot do anything. As a candidate for the St. Mary’s Board of Education, I attended a training session for candidates that was held by MABE. That was a fascinating experience. Almost the first words out of the trainer’s mouth were, “You have no liability insurance if you are not sitting at the table with your colleagues.” This statement was

intended to intimidate candidates into saying nothing meaningful without the other board members and the Superintendent, whom MABE views as the person who runs all aspects of the schools, present to correct you if you should go off the trail MABE wants you to follow. MABE is the organization that recruited the school superintendent that Prince Georges County Board of Fducation members wanted to fire. MABE is recruiting for St. Mary’s County right now. Doesn’t that make you feel good about the process?

The other statement worth discussing in this article has to do with the Board of Education’s perception of the public. Here is how they think of us, “Unfortunately, disputatious individuals who are disingenuous and less than honest choose to make the schools their favorite battleground when they can’t have their way or when school boards of education do not listen to their contentious dictates.” They think you are argumentative,

insincere, and dishonest - that you only speak to them because you cannot have your way, that your statements to them are quarrelsome demands. Now, doesn’t that make you want to speak to the Board of Education about your school’s problems and needs?

Let’s face it, folks. The Board of Education is out of touch with reality. They are unable to endure even criticism intended to improve our schools without trying to belittle the people who dare to come before them with suggestions for improving our school system. They have a Board policy which says that their meetings are not the place for “negative comments,” which means as Thumper Rabbit says in Bambi, “If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” They sit behind their table at the Board of Education meeting room and look down on the audience members. Sometimes they even lower themselves to come into the audience and mix with the under classes. But don’t, oh don’t, expect them

to do anything. They are buried in a mountain of legal problems, and, at least in their article, have no solution for how to make our schools work better. Is that how you elected them to act?