Our county officials and state government have been tasked with making sure we receive a quality education in our schools. They make important decisions on funding and curriculum, and they ensure that competent teachers help us through the education process. These people are important and their decisions valid but, the truth is, students don’t have enough of a voice in the decisions that affect them.

Even at the local level, students barely even know what’s going on with MCPS and the decisions made “on our behalf.” We certainly don’t have any pull with these decisions. Effectively, our feelings on certain matters are insignificant. Sure, we have a Student Member of the Board (SMOB), currently Dahlia Huh, who we elect and who serves on the Board of Education, but how much of a difference can a single student representing 154,000-plus students make? Of course, it is reasonable to assume that our SMOB thinks the way we do, so appropriate representation isn’t the problem. The problem is how much a SMOB can actually do. Quite frankly, I don’t think it really makes a difference what a single teen feels about an issue when s/he serves on a board full of adults who think differently.

It is unfair that decisions that directly affect us and our schooling are simply made for us. All of us should work to be more aware of what issues are being discussed and debated on at the board. Involving ourselves would help us make the student bodies’ opinions a bigger factor on board decisions.

We should be able to incorporate our voices into decisions that are made for us in other ways besides the SMOB as well. A possible idea for this could include surveys that ask about our opinions on certain topics. A survey would be posted, likely on the MCPS homepage, allowing students to input how they feel about a certain topic. The Board should take a look at our opinions and see what they say about the student population. Obviously, they cannot base their decisions solely on surveys, but this simple measure could at least allow us to express how we feel and they could incorporate those ideas into their decisions.

Another possible idea could be allowing us to send in ideas ourselves. We are in the school system, so we see better than anybody what happens and what needs change. What we need isn’t a dramatic change in government; all we need is a little more student presence in MCPS’ decision making. Just Sayin’.