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Public Input: State board should not be locked to agenda

West Virginia Board of Education members are right to be back-tracking from an agenda item that appeared last month, banning members of the public from speaking during meetings about items not listed on the agenda.

Board President Tom Campbell has said he wants to remove the ban from agendas going forward. In fact, during the board’s meeting last week, West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee stood up to speak:

“As we travel across the state we have many things that we see that may need immediate attention, that’s not on the agenda,” Lee said, particularly noting the fast-changing pace of state legislative sessions.

It can be dangerous to allow any public board to control to that degree the speech of those who come before it; and timing is not the only reason.

On the other hand, Campbell made the reasonable point that it should still be within the rights of the board to limit to one or a few speakers those discussing the same side of a single issue. If it is clear that many others gathered for a public meeting share the sentiment that is voiced by one or a few, there is usually no need to extend the length of a meeting to hear them all repeat the message.

But the message should still be heard.

Now as much as ever government and public entities should strive to encourage freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble and the right to petition for a governmental redress of grievances. The state board should remove the ban from its agendas.

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