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Message from the President - February 2008
Fellow School Board Members:
Entering the month of February means that my year as MSBA President is already more than half over. Not only does this prompt me to consider my own personal resolutions for 2008 (such as the New Year's letters still left unsent), but this midpoint of my term causes me to take stock of the school board work yet to do. As I write this just after the start of the legislative session, it is plain that vouchers, school choice, and other so-called reform efforts will be up for debate once again. Political Action Committees set up to funnel money to pro-voucher candidates and calls for the elimination of mandatory school board training just add to the challenges we face in defending the concept of public education in our state. The members of MSBA, locally elected volunteers from every region of the state, devote a lot of effort to fighting the anti-public school agenda, but there are other initiatives on the horizon that are much more positive for our association.
To celebrate our association's 50th year of existence, the MSBA Board of Directors and staff are working on ways to help our members celebrate the accomplishments of the association over this half century, to reflect on the value of school board service, and to position our association to look forward into the next 50 years. We want the next decades to be even stronger for the association and you will see renewed efforts not only to encourage non-member districts to join, but also to spark more active participation by the local board members of our existing member districts.
We will also be working on plans to re-energize MSBA's Future Builders program: to raise its visibility and also to give it a new focus on developing research that can answer the anti-public school rhetoric that pervades the media today.
I hope you, too, will take a few moments to examine your own school board service and that you will find ways that you can help promote public education. We have numerous opportunities in the coming months to tell the positive stories about our schools and to let legislators know how we feel. Please consider:
Finally, as you read this your MSBA officers are in Washington, D.C. participating in the NSBA Federal Relations Network. We are lobbying our members of Congress to encourage them to support common sense reforms of both NCLB and IDEA and to fund them appropriately. Wish us luck!
Entering the month of February means that my year as MSBA President is already more than half over. Not only does this prompt me to consider my own personal resolutions for 2008 (such as the New Year's letters still left unsent), but this midpoint of my term causes me to take stock of the school board work yet to do. As I write this just after the start of the legislative session, it is plain that vouchers, school choice, and other so-called reform efforts will be up for debate once again. Political Action Committees set up to funnel money to pro-voucher candidates and calls for the elimination of mandatory school board training just add to the challenges we face in defending the concept of public education in our state. The members of MSBA, locally elected volunteers from every region of the state, devote a lot of effort to fighting the anti-public school agenda, but there are other initiatives on the horizon that are much more positive for our association.
To celebrate our association's 50th year of existence, the MSBA Board of Directors and staff are working on ways to help our members celebrate the accomplishments of the association over this half century, to reflect on the value of school board service, and to position our association to look forward into the next 50 years. We want the next decades to be even stronger for the association and you will see renewed efforts not only to encourage non-member districts to join, but also to spark more active participation by the local board members of our existing member districts.
We will also be working on plans to re-energize MSBA's Future Builders program: to raise its visibility and also to give it a new focus on developing research that can answer the anti-public school rhetoric that pervades the media today.
I hope you, too, will take a few moments to examine your own school board service and that you will find ways that you can help promote public education. We have numerous opportunities in the coming months to tell the positive stories about our schools and to let legislators know how we feel. Please consider:
- putting a link on your district web site to our daily ESGN broadcast, Education Today.
- signing up now to attend the February Legislative Forum.
- checking the MSBA web site for Region meeting dates and locations and plan now to attend.
- setting aside the weekend of June 5 for the Leadership Summit to be held in Branson.
Finally, as you read this your MSBA officers are in Washington, D.C. participating in the NSBA Federal Relations Network. We are lobbying our members of Congress to encourage them to support common sense reforms of both NCLB and IDEA and to fund them appropriately. Wish us luck!
Robin Krause
MSBA President
Posted: 2/1/2008
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