18-Year-Old School Board Candidate Slammed By Opponent As 'Child'

[This is a guest post from Dave Moss, the Director of Development and Operations for the National Youth Rights Association. --Eds]

Steven Morris, candidate for School Board in the 8th district of Prince George’s County, has a tough contest tomorrow.

His opponent, Edward Burroughs, has studied education policy at Bowie State and was twice elected to serve as a representative to the PG County School Board where he advocated for smaller class sizes, increased student perspective, better programs and more parent involvement.

On the board, he served on the Education Policy Review Committee, the Disability Issues Advisory Board, the Secondary Schools Reform Committee and the Suspension and Expulsion Reduction Taskforce. He’s worked as education liaison for State Senator C. Anthony Muse. In that role, Burroughs worked to pass a bill which would add a financial literacy course in all of Maryland’s high schools. He also worked on a net taxable income (NTI) Bill which would cause Prince George’s County Public Schools to gain $15 million in FY 2011. He has volunteered at over half a dozen schools in Prince George’s and has twelve years of experience as a student in the schools he looks to serve.

He's also 18 years old.

Morris, on the other hand, has never served on any school board. A former teacher and school administrator, he's currently retired.

When asked about his opponent by the Washington Post, Morris had this to say:

“He’s a child and I’m a professional. The issues are too complex for someone who really has no experience with life to represent the educators, administrators and children of Prince George's County.”

I don’t know how old Steven Morris is, but judging by his rhetoric and a picture I found online I’d estimate he is approximately 130. Edward Burroughs is 18 years old. He is old enough to have his legs blown off in Iraq, but not old enough to avoid patronization and condescension as he campaigns to improve the schools he recently graduated from (he’s also not old enough to buy a beer, but that’s a discussion for another time).

There are real problems with our public schools and the people who have been making the decisions that caused those problems were all “professionals.” We don’t need to replace all of them, but it might be a good idea to bring in some of what Morris would apparently, and incorrectly, call children. "Professionals" have given us World Wars, a number of economic collapses, genocides, oil spills and insurance fraud. Take a good hard look at their track records and any reasonable person will say “Give the kid a chance."