Homework is crucial to a good education, ask any experienced teacher.

So it’s obvious, when politicians and politicians-to-be start pointing fingers at what they say is an inadequate local school system, that the problem here is homework.

That became apparent Monday when the Adams County Board of Supervisors threw their support behind an idea without fully doing — or at least publicly sharing — their homework.

The board asked our local state senator to start the process of having the Natchez-Adams County School board members elected, not appointed as they currently are.

Their apparent reasoning has everything to do with money and nothing to do with education or the future of our community.

“The board’s position (is) individuals on the school board should be elected because of their ability to levy taxes,” President Darryl Grennell said Monday.

Some truth rings out in that statement. We Americans don’t believe in taxation without representation, right?

Of course. But that’s also an awfully easy rallying call for the masses that may just be uneducated on education.

It’s also an easy way out of a heap of homework for the board of supervisors.

Break down the rallying call, and you might see it a different way.

It’s the elected supervisors who appoint the school board. And, though it may not be easy or fun, it should be the elected supervisors who hold the school board accountable.

So no one is being taxed without fair representation, your representation may simply be taking the easy way out.

Accountability will require more from our elected supervisors than most of the board members have given over the years. It will mean a lot of homework, including attending the monthly school board meetings.

And even though our governmental system is set up so that politics will always be at play in some way, some of the pros the additional layer an appointed school board brings to the table are invaluable when you look at the cons of an elected board.

Electing a school board swings the political door wide open. Running our schools becomes about pleasing the don’t-tax-me masses instead of doing what is right for the children.

It also means running the schools as a popularity contest, not the important responsibility that it should be.

If elected, the qualifications to run for school board wouldn’t necessarily even include a college degree.

That means anyone — really anyone — could be elected to one of the most important seats in town just because a rainy Election Day swayed voter turnout.

It’s frightening enough that our city and county leaders can be elected with so few qualifications, let’s not add a third board to that list.

Before anyone in our county whole-heartedly supports an elected school board, we must do our homework.

Let’s talk to the Mississippi Department of Education, let’s talk to counties with elected boards and appointed boards. Let’s ask ourselves whether our system is broken or just unattended to.

Education is the most important issue facing our community, today, yesterday and tomorrow. Yet, too often our leaders — and the rest of us — simply tell the teacher that our dog ate our homework.

Let’s do our work so we can pass the test of a good community.

Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.