Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010

Give voters power

The way Wake County elects its school board contributes to the board's turmoil and troubled reputation, it seems to me.

So I think we Wakers should push to change it.

The problem is that all nine school board members are elected by district, and none at-large.

As a result, every member is directly accountable only to the voters in a single district.

Conversely, Wake voters have leverage over only one of nine board members, which isn't nearly enough.

Consider the price the public pays in the board's lack of responsiveness and its vulnerability to extreme lurchings.

Critics of the previous school board often complained that it was out of touch with public sentiment on key issues, from frequent student reassignments to mandatory year-round schools to Wednesday early releases. Culturally, urban interests often trumped conflicting suburban needs.

Now that the tables have turned, detractors of the four board members elected last fall complain that most Wake residents didn't get a chance to vote for or against them.

Now the suburban viewpoint dominates, and fans of the old guard protest.

Both sides have a point.

Policy disagreements are inevitable in any elected body. Often, they are desirable, giving voice to a diverse populace.

But they're amplified unnecessarily when individual voters have too little say in the public body's makeup.

Other top political bodies in Wake County benefit from broader voter empowerment.

In Raleigh, each voter picks a district representative to the City Council, two at-large members and the mayor -- four of eight seats, or half the total.

For Cary's Town Council, voters choose a district representative, two at-large members and the mayor -- four of seven seats, or a majority.

Wake County's commissioners run from districts, which ensures geographic diversity of representation. But all county voters vote on them.

The approach in Raleigh and Cary makes the most sense to me, but there's not just one right way to do it.

The principle I'm arguing for is that each voter should have a say in at least half of the board's membership.

That's bound to make the board as a group more accountable to voters, and more mindful of interests, concerns and perspectives beyond district boundaries.

In the case of Wake's school board, a healthy hybrid of representation could be achieved by reducing the number of districts from nine to five and converting the remaining four seats to at-large spots. That way, every voter would help choose five of the nine school board members, a majority.

This would require changing state law. So if you like the idea, tell your legislators.

The writer is editor of the North Raleigh News.