Schools are a natural fit here. So many young people experience secondary public education (and even college education) as a disempowering and mostly passive exercise. Sortition and deliberation could help empower and involve all young people fairly in decisions that affect them. That's the path to becoming involved citizens in a democracy.
I think Liz was thinking school boards, not student government. Student government typically has no real power or authority over what happens in schools except fringe activities.
You’re right Bob, student govt doesn’t have power— there in lies problem. It should. Schools literally train kids to be good with not having power, right? So actually, I was talking student govt. Adults don’t particularly care, so students could sneak in ways to have inputs—or at least begin to have a collective voice?
The reason that I don’t think school board is adults would never allow… yet. I was on a school board and they are simply a way to give an administration body the veneer of democracy. They are designed to ensure the bureaucracy keeps status quo around what counts (education) vs. what the public sees (grinding cultural issues). So… start with students?
Yes, Liz, no reason not to try with student government. Terry’s newest post says it can work. Thanks for your notes on school board activities. Like most boards, school boards can be a rubber stamp for admin. But in some cases they are activist, usually on the right side of politics, with a healthy dose of religious zeal. Sortition could make that less likely, while maybe gaining some power over public school administration. Worth a shot.
An institutionalized sortition- based citizens assembly might actually be able to improve education?
Problem is the finances of schools are intentionally obtuse and misleading, so getting clear, honest information from school bureaucracy is a huge part of the accountability problem. Money is moved between categories at the discretion of the Super: one day a Curriculum Director will be listed as “admin” and the next they’ll be changed to “educator” if it’s more politically expedient to show the admin budget going down. You get the idea.
Citizens juries/assemblies are only as good as the quality of information that they are able to get and the time they have to understand it well.
Terry, I think this post is fantastic! NGOs, schools, companies, and other organizations could definitely try sortition for governing structures. With the results known, sortition could then be tried at the government level. And for small town governments like where I live, the scale is about the same, so sortition should work about the same. Can’t wait to hear more!
Schools are a natural fit here. So many young people experience secondary public education (and even college education) as a disempowering and mostly passive exercise. Sortition and deliberation could help empower and involve all young people fairly in decisions that affect them. That's the path to becoming involved citizens in a democracy.
Indeed, in an upcoming post I have a whole section about replacing elected student governments with a sortition systems.
Looking forward to that!
I think Liz was thinking school boards, not student government. Student government typically has no real power or authority over what happens in schools except fringe activities.
You’re right Bob, student govt doesn’t have power— there in lies problem. It should. Schools literally train kids to be good with not having power, right? So actually, I was talking student govt. Adults don’t particularly care, so students could sneak in ways to have inputs—or at least begin to have a collective voice?
The reason that I don’t think school board is adults would never allow… yet. I was on a school board and they are simply a way to give an administration body the veneer of democracy. They are designed to ensure the bureaucracy keeps status quo around what counts (education) vs. what the public sees (grinding cultural issues). So… start with students?
Yes, Liz, no reason not to try with student government. Terry’s newest post says it can work. Thanks for your notes on school board activities. Like most boards, school boards can be a rubber stamp for admin. But in some cases they are activist, usually on the right side of politics, with a healthy dose of religious zeal. Sortition could make that less likely, while maybe gaining some power over public school administration. Worth a shot.
An institutionalized sortition- based citizens assembly might actually be able to improve education?
Problem is the finances of schools are intentionally obtuse and misleading, so getting clear, honest information from school bureaucracy is a huge part of the accountability problem. Money is moved between categories at the discretion of the Super: one day a Curriculum Director will be listed as “admin” and the next they’ll be changed to “educator” if it’s more politically expedient to show the admin budget going down. You get the idea.
Citizens juries/assemblies are only as good as the quality of information that they are able to get and the time they have to understand it well.
Terry, I think this post is fantastic! NGOs, schools, companies, and other organizations could definitely try sortition for governing structures. With the results known, sortition could then be tried at the government level. And for small town governments like where I live, the scale is about the same, so sortition should work about the same. Can’t wait to hear more!