This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The habit of Utah state officials to mount furious appeals whenever a federal court ruling goes against them has cost all involved a lot of money and wasted a lot of time. So it was reassuring to hear the other day that Gov. Gary Herbert was going to quietly abide by a recent decision that struck down the state's Byzantine method for choosing members of the Utah State Board of Education.
Of course, a decision to do nothing is about as quiet as one can get. And it was the right thing to do, for now. Because what needs to happen next is for the Legislature to agree on a new way of electing state school board members.
Unless they want the federal courts to solve that problem, too.
Utah has a particularly unreasonable, and unreasonably complicated, method for electing members of its 15-member state board. A method that basically tells the voters of the state that they aren't smart enough, or connected enough, to participate.
The law requires the governor to appoint a 12-member nominating committee, which is to include six people from the education establishment and six others from specific sectors of the economy — manufacturing and mining; transportation and public utilities; service, trade, and information technology; finance, insurance, and real estate; construction and agriculture. Those worthies screen candidates for the board and recommend at least three candidates for each open seat. The governor then picks two candidates for each seat and, once nearly all the screening has been done, the voters get called in at the last minute to choose between two people they've likely never heard of.
But last year U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups voided the whole mess, ruling that the star chamber selection system amounted to a violation of free speech because candidates were discouraged from expressing themselves lest they alienate the selection committee.
The 2015 session of the Legislature kicked around some alternate ways of filling board seats. They included direct elections — maybe partisan, maybe non-partisan — or just having the governor appoint them all. But lawmakers couldn't agree and nothing got done. It's time to get it done.
The best, most democratic route would be direct elections on a non-partisan basis. But just about any change would be an improvement over the now inoperative status quo.
The state's educational system of crucial importance to all Utahns, individually and collectively. It needs to be led by a board that has a real mandate from the people it serves, and taxes, not one that is selected by a special few.