Senate Bill 155 would overturn last year's poorly conceived law creating a statewide nominating committee and restore 15 local panels that should not have been eliminated in the first place.

In 2003 legislators responded to business leaders who wanted more say in school-board decisions. They eliminated local district nominating committees and established a 12-member statewide selection panel composed mostly of business interests. The 2004 Legislature, in its waning hours, tried to ameliorate that mistake by recasting the central committee with representation from both education and business.

But the folly of dissolving the 15 local nominating panels became evident as the revised committee nominated candidates for the first time last year. The committee, with three members absent, failed to nominate incumbent Mike Anderson, who had been elected with 68 percent of his district's vote in 2000.

His constituents in District 12 were understandably irate over the panel's decision. Even Gov. Olene Walker, who could only select final candidates from the list of three per district presented to her by the committee, called its decision to eliminate Anderson "quite remarkable" and "without apparent cause."

The statewide committee also failed in another of its mandates, to recruit candidates with diverse talents, philosophies and professional backgrounds. In fact, the committee did little recruiting at all, with a total of 21 candidates filing for seven open seats, and some districts fielding only one or two. However, that failing can be partially excused, as the new committee was thrown into a tight schedule, being formed after the legislative session and faced with a filing deadline a month later.

But the most reasonable objections to the statewide nominating committee are based less on its performance in its first year and more on its lack of local representation. Nominating candidates for the 15-member school board that oversees and sets policy for the state's 40 public school districts is best done on a local level.

When each district has its own selection panel, there will be more local representation and, if the local committees do their job well, better recruitment of candidates.

Being a candidate for the State School Board is not a sexy venture. People from diverse backgrounds often need to be convinced to run, and SB155 rightly puts that obligation on local nominating committees with members who know and are known in their district and are more likely to persuade the best candidates to run.