The Territorial

It appears that some folks have got it in their heads that Nevada’s schools, with all their fine reputation, lack precisely one thing: a student trustee to warm a chair and nod thoughtfully at county school board meetings.

Yes, State Senator Angela Taylor and Assemblymember Duy Nguyen have hatched AB 316, a scheme to install a “non-voting pupil trustee” on each county school board, presumably so the students might gaze upon the machinery of government and get disillusioned at an earlier age. Now, this student trustee—who must be an 11th- or 12th-grader—shall be chosen by a vote of middle and high school students, an electorate famous for its maturity and good judgment.

The lucky lad or lass will serve a one-year term, during which time they may sit in closed-door meetings, offer opinions on matters of grand importance, and generally be treated as a trustee, save for the pesky matter of actual voting. The Clark County School District has 11 trustees and four non-voting members appointed by municipal governments, highlighting the inefficiency of having extra seats at the table.

And now, our enterprising lawmakers suggest that the youth, not yet old enough to buy so much as a cigar, should be brought in to help guide the ship. One wonders how far this sophisticated European-style tinkering will go.

Perhaps we might next install a toddler advisory board in the governor’s office or a panel of house cats to weigh in on state budgeting. The voter asked for local control, not for state politicians to meddle in county matters with bright ideas about student governance.

So perhaps they ought to take their hands off our school boards and their eyes off Europe and let Nevada be Nevada.