Say What?

Former School Board and House of Delegates candidate Jim Snider put forth a bizarre proposal for reforming the School Board Selection process in today's Capital(emphasis added):

Mr. Snider, a frequent critic of the appointed board system ever since, said he would like to see a 12-member board chosen by a caucus of informed citizens. Without that option, he prefers giving voters a choice, saying an elected board allows for more rigorous debate.

"What's the value of having seven people?" he said. "Really it's to have disagreement."

I can understand the point of a 12-member board; one member representing each feeder system. But I am hard pressed to think of a concept more elitist than "a caucus of informed citizens." Who decides who is informed? What makes a citizen informed? How different is an informed Caucus from the current system.

I disagree with HB625 as it is being presented, but Snider's idea is one of the worst school board reform ideas to date.