Public to be shut out of ed talks

So much for the idea of open government. SD Gov. Mike Rounds apparently feels that the public need not be involved in some focus-group meetings involving his education initiatives.

Over the next two weeks, at meetings behind closed doors, more than 100 unidentified people will comment on two objectives of Gov. Mike Rounds’ 2010 Education Initiative.

When Rounds unveiled his 2010 Education Initiative in Rapid City on Jan. 4, Secretary of Education Rick Melmer announced that Technology and Innovations in Education, or TIE, would conduct focus-group meetings to collect comments on two of the initiative’s objectives: providing laptop computers for all high school students and developing an online virtual school program.

The only problem with this is that all too often school reform initiatives have been top-down from the educational administrative establishment, which may or may not bear much resemblance to the reality of what will actually be effective and efficient.

This has worked well so far – right? Isn’t that why schools are in such great shape? (Oh…right…never mind!)