FLORENCE – C. Ed Massey is trying to bring the collective weight of local Kentucky school boards and state school board associations across the country to bear on education legislation and funding.
“How powerful we could be if we could bring the things we all believe in together before Congress,” he told members of the Florence Rotary Club on Monday, July 16.
Massey is president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA). He also has served on the Boone County Board of Education for 12 years. The two roles put him in position to advocate for education at the local, state and national levels.
The NSBA provides legal and legislative advocacy on Capitol Hill in Washington as well as training for school boards on legislation and lobbying. Massey said Congress has acknowledged the NSBA as “a viable source of information on education issues.”
“A lot of congressional members just get snippets of information,” he explained. “Because they are not educators, they don’t understand the issues in depth.”
For example, NSBA helped U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) understand the implications of the No Child Left Behind provision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which is up for reauthorization. The senator later suggested NSBA leaders help rewrite proposals for improvement in the law.
What local school boards most need relief from are “mandates that come down from Washington or Frankfort that are inflexible and tie us up,” Massey said. “If Congress gives us a mandate, they need to give us the money to fund it.”
As a public advocacy body, the NSBA works to make certain tax dollars are well utilized and every child gets a quality education. Massey said the Boone County School District “is in the top 10 in providing the best bang for the buck” even though it is not among the schools that receive the most state funding.
The Boone County system also is in the top 10 in terms of quality of education, according to Massey. That’s because the site-based council developed a challenging curriculum, the school district gives teachers the best professional training available and administrators assure that quality of instruction is consistent across all schools in the district.
The NSBA, the local school board, district administrators, parents, students, the local Chamber of Commerce and organizations like Florence Rotary Club all play important roles in the quality of education in a community, according to Massey.
“We want to hear from people in the community,” he said. “The only way to achieve a quality educational system is through our collective weight.”
For information about weekly meetings, guest speakers and community service opportunities of the Florence Rotary Club, contact Brad Shipe, President, at bradshipe@hotmail.com or (859) 282-7040. Visit the group’s web site at www.florencerotary.org . Florence Rotary meets weekly on Mondays at noon at the Airport Hilton Hotel in Florence.
