Q&A sessions with school leaders would serve Oklahoma City district well

What percentage of students successfully transitions from eighth to ninth grade? What's the attendance rate? Why are test scores low? What's the faculty turnover rate?

Those are good questions — important ones that school board members should be asking. Board member Lyn Watson made perhaps the most telling request of the evening, at least from a policy perspective. She asked that all of the district's schools make similar presentations.

Board Chairwoman Angela Monson said such reports should be made to the board's academic performance committee, which would then report to the board. We question whether Monson's suggested approach is the best one.

This isn't a debate about charter schools versus traditional schools. They're all public schools, serving the children of Oklahoma City with taxpayer money. It's encouraging to hear school leaders delivering their results and answering questions from the people elected by our community to safeguard the education of the children and the taxpayer money allotted for that purpose. It's democracy in action.

But to the extent the practice of a public accounting is good for charter schools, wouldn't it be good for other public schools as well?

As Watson suggests, the idea of dozens of school presentations in one night isn't feasible. But over a period of time, board members might find themselves enlightened and with a better understanding of how their decision-making plays out at the school level on everything from staffing formulas to volunteer policies and of the needs of individual schools or groups of schools. Such discussions might even contribute to the public understanding.