Laptops Funding: Issue Is Honesty, Authority

Governor Rounds sends good soldier Rick Melmer, state Secretary of Education, for one more round of dutiful obfuscation before heading to his plum job as Dean of Education at USD. Called to testify before the Legislature's Government Operations and Audit Committee, Melmer brought a full stringer of red herrings:

"I still continue to be mystified about the emotion that has been generated as a result of this program," Melmer said.

"Do people just philosophically object to putting 21st Century tools in the hands of kids for the future? If so, that's a conversation worth having," the education secretary said. "It almost appears to me that people are angry we're providing kids with this opportunity."

Melmer said initial evaluations of the laptop project soon will be available to help lawmakers judge whether the computers help improve students' performance [Chet Brokaw, "Education Secretary: Students Need Laptops," AP, 2008.07.08].

Melmer tries to throw us off the trail with talk of emotion (a typical rhetorical tactic to belittle the opposition as irrational), opportunity for kids (and Republicans used to criticize Democrats for using children as human shields for big government proposals), and coming data on laptops and student performance. Clever—reminds me of the time I asked Governor Rounds how a Republican could support the big-government No Child Left Behind Act, and the Governor responded that he couldn't imagine anyone not supporting the best education possible for our kids.

Melmer's response totally misses the point. The main question here is not whether laptops are a worthwhile educational tool (although that is also an important debate to have). Legislators (and some of us regular citizens) are primarily upset that the governor appears to have lied to the Legislature about the funds available for funding the laptop program and is now ruling by executive fiat to circumvent to proper fiscal authority of the Legislature:

“If we want to have a state program, I think it should go through the normal process of the Legislature,’’ Republican Sen. Jason Gant of Sioux Falls said. “It just seems like it was a back-door way of trying to fund this program, when it could have been straightforward, upfront" [Terry Woster, "Laptop Talks Spark Sharp Exchange Between Legislators, Administration Officials," that Sioux Falls paper, 2008.07.08].

We can have a debate about the merits of laptops in the classroom. But our immediate concern should be whether the governor deliberately withheld information from the Legislature and subverted the authority of the Legislature. In some places, that kind of executive behavior is an impeachable offense. Secretary Melmer is an educated fellow; surely he isn't mystified to see citizens get a little emotional about that.