The North Carolina Public School Forum met in Greenville on Tuesday to discuss with public officials and candidates for public office pressing issues regarding public education. Unfortunately, the meeting was closed to those at the very heart of the Public School Forum’s mission — the public.
The Public School Forum of N.C. is a not-for-profit think tank that partners with business leaders, education leaders and government leaders to shape public policy regarding public education. The group has been making important contributions toward influencing the direction of public schools since 1986. Most of its meetings are, as they should be, open to the public.
That’s why it is so puzzling that Keith Poston, president and executive director of the Public School Forum, would choose to close Tuesday’s meeting. It was closed to the public, he said, so that public officials and candidates for public office could “speak without having to be too cautious.”
Never mind the fundamental right of citizens to hear what any public official or candidate for public office has to say regarding policy for the public schools supported by their tax dollars.
It must be noted that Pitt County Schools Superintendent Ethan Lenker and several members of the Pitt County Board of Education were among the participants Poston afforded the freedom to “speak without having to be too cautious.” The Daily Reflector’s education reporter was turned away from the meeting at the Hilton Greenville despite having been invited by Michael Priddy, who serves as chairman of the Public School Forum Board of Directors.
To his credit, Priddy, a former superintendent of schools for Pitt County, seems to understand the need for public policy discussions to be open to those directly affected by the policies and programs funded by their tax dollars.
In issuing the invitation to The Daily Reflector, Priddy may well have been acting from the “Mission” and “History” section of the Public School Forum’s website.
The last sentence under “History” reads, “(The Forum) also offers capacity-building seminars and conferences created for policymakers, candidates for elected office and education reporters who cover their actions.”
Public schools in North Carolina are smack in the middle of a very public struggle for adequate funding to fulfill the goals that are central to the Public School Forum’s mission “to shape a world-class public school education that supports all children in reaching their full potential and drives a vibrant North Carolina economy.”
Holding meetings behind closed doors with public officials on public policy for public schools creates the appearance that the Forum’s motives are not entirely in the public’s best interest.
http://www.reflector.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-privately-shaping-schools-2543041
