Senator Goodman successfully lobbied the Missouri Legislature into passing a proposition that requires school district to hold a public meeting before starting school 10 days before labor day. We've covered this extensively but I'll rehash: the net result for Missouri tourism is millions of dollars every day schools are out of session. School districts tend to be hardheaded about any detail requiring management of their multi-billion dollar coffers. Ironically, the Branson school district itself will have to hold a special meeting (I sincerely hope area citizens show up).
School districts tend to hold loyalty to the Jefferson City Bureaucrats before their local constituency. It's an administrative heavy industry with top down thinking. Parliament first, Teachers Second, Parents Third, Students .....
A good example of this is uber-blogger Randy Turner who is quick to post issues such as corruption and address candidate finance issues but seems to always avoid addressing the multi-billion dollar education lobbying industry. Education finance ethics is a hard issue to address but as susceptible to corruption as any other industry its size - but, less commonly reported.
Luckily, local residents are elected to school boards, slightly altering the balance of power.
The legislation made headway through the House with the help of educational proponent Maynard Wallace. A lot of work went into getting this bill passed, including funneling the initiative through the right committees. Big thumbs up to Jack Goodman and Maynard Wallace.
