Published: April 1, 1996

Get Rid Of The Kid

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The new chairman of the Massachusetts state school board, Boston University President John Silber, says having a student representative on the panel is "as much nonsense as a pediatrician asking an infant what medicine is best.'' Silber would like to pare the board from 17 members down to nine, and he thinks a good place to start would be dumping its student member. Former Gov. Francis Sargent began the practice of naming a student to the board in 1971, making Massachusetts the first state to do so. (Three others have since followed suit.) In February, as Silber was criticizing the policy before the legislature's education committee, hundreds of students protested at the Statehouse. "You look at them,'' Silber told the panel. "Children eat all kinds of things that are directly contrary to their health. You might say to them, 'Don't you think you shouldn't eat that,' and they say, 'Yeah, but I like it.' ''

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