Keeping An Eye On The Prize of Quality Legislation
The Missouri legislature has hit the ground running, as they always do this time of year, and is moving forward rapidly on a number of proposed bills. Yesterday Senate Bill 706, which attempts to provide framework for fixing the problem associated with the unaccredited school districts transferring students to the adjoining accredited districts, got its first public hearing. The cyber world was abuzz with issues about it and several groups provided input through the public hearing process. It should have been a time to admire the legislative process, where elected officials perform their duty to address issues that cannot be addressed solely by private citizens, and private citizens can provide input to their elected officials on the specific work they are doing. But in the world of politics, it seems, it is very difficult to separate ego from process.
The way the process is supposed to work is that citizens can
