By Ron Tupa, DFER Director of State Legislatures
Like every other American teenager, I learned everything a citizen needs to know about our system of government, or at least the minimum said government thought I should know, in a high school civics class. And, as an impressionable but naïve seventeen year old, I honestly believed it was the duty and responsibility of every elected official – from dog catcher to member of Congress – to read each bill, statute, ordinance, rule or regulation that came before them prior to passing judgment.
However, before becoming a high school social studies teacher and educating yet another generation of impressionable but naïve freshmen about our government, I had the good fortune of experiencing first-hand how the political system really works. Serving first as a member of the CO House of Representatives and later as a State Senator, I learned about the system in a way that is not taught in any textbook or learned in any classroom. It was there, in the very bowels of sausage-making democracy, that I discovered this harsh reality: not only was it not required to actually read proposed laws before voting on them, it was not even expected. In fact, doing so could quickly make you unpopular with your colleagues. It was like learning the unkind truth about Santa Claus, but for adults. (No Virginia, they really DON’T read each bill before voting on them!)
On this issue, two other points: 1) just as politics abhors a vacuum, there exists an inverse relationship between the probability that something will actually be read before a vote and the amount of reading that is required – i.e. the more reading that is required, the less likely it will actually happen; and 2) a common joke in state capitols across the country goes something like this: in a near unanimous vote with all but one person voting with the majority, the non-conformist (i.e. the lone “no” vote) is likely to be the only one who actually read the bill.
Which brings us to the education reform topic du jour – individual state teacher evaluation and tenure reform legislation, and the curious case of Illinois’ SB 7. The bill passed in May amid much fanfare, gushing praise, and abundant comparisons to history being made in the Land of Lincoln. It was quickly signed into law following a 54-0 Senate vote and a 112-1 House vote.