Children are going back to school this week. First week attendance could be spotty this year. A few kids are staying home because of their parents’ fears about going to school without being innoculated with the swine flu vaccine. According to the latest reports, a vaccine is not going to be ready until October. Others, however, spent the first day at home because of their parents’ fears the President’s pep talk to the nation’s students, delivered the day after Labor Day, will permanently infect them with ideas they believe are dangerous to their minds. 

I am not worried about the kids. They will be all right. 

I am more concerned about the return of the adults, in this case, the adults elected to represent us in Congress. House members and Senators are going back to ‘school,’ that is to the Capitol, where they are planning to vote on several pieces of legislation vital to us: among them health care reform, our ongoing military commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the sputtering economy and unemployment. 

The concern about our legislators comes from listening to them expound and expand on their views about the ideas and policies they support to deal with these vital issues. The problem, like the sudden tanking of the economy, is acute. For me, it has become a fear that shouts out “Remember Sputnik!” memories. Not only are we behind in educating our children in all matters scientific. Not only does our nation continue to be in peril because of it. Our ‘nation is at risk’ (another 'America is behind' national educational panic in 1983), because many of our elected representatives in Congress lack basic knowledge and understanding about:

1.  our economy and the way it does and doesn’t work;
2.  our health care system and the way it does and doesn’t work; and 
3.  our political traditions and processes and the ways in which they may need to be seriously reformed. 

Am I surprised about their educational deficits? Yes. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt that once they are in a position of trust, they will rise to the occasion and learn as much as they can about the subject matter and requirements of their position. And that they will not rely too much on staff to do the squirrel work for them. To be sure, these are naive and idealistic beliefs. 

A fall back stance then, is that I recognize there are several members of the business world in Congress, a few health care professionals, and of course, many, many professionals, whose career has been and is politics. Knowing this, I just assume that these elected few should be experienced and informed about...the economy, health care and our political traditions and processes. 

Notably, it seems that many are not.This is not a partisan issue. Both parties are culpable. And this is no longer tenable. Something must be done. 

The reason? It is an issue with ethical consequences. We can no longer afford to just laugh and shrug it off (well...we can and do), when we hear about the stupidities and colossal failures of understanding of our politicians.

The Reps and Senators need to take some of the blame onto  themselves. They can’t just continue to blame the lack of basic understanding on the people’s ignorance and lack of knowledge.  

Their 'blame it on the people' evidence: the town hall meetings conducted in many states on the topic of health care reform. The outcomes of these meetings are now playing all over the net universe. True, they show that some among us, that is the people, are incredibly good at standing down Senators. That a few citizens think it is a wholesome idea to bring a weapon to a community debate on health care. And that even more of us use as role models for debate, not our children’s school debate teams, but the adult screaming contests that overwhelm the issues and public affairs programs on TV and across the net universe.

Okay, so some of the people came to the public forums with scripts in hand and their political agendas. They were neither remotely civil nor respectful to anyone. And in a few cases, the people brought the threat of violence into these town hall debates. Leave your weapons at home, people. 

But the Reps and Senators, with their own scripts in hand and political agendas, lacked the knowledge and smarts to deal with us, that is the people. Especially with the angry people who tend to come to such meetings. And take them over. 

Equally significant, most Reps and Senators did even less to educate us about how the bills under discussion in Congress and tell us how they will impact us if passed.  

I think that most of the people agree that in order for democracy to be at its best (when it isn’t at its worst) that our public debates and discussions about issues vital to us have to follow rules that reward cooperation and civility. And most people know there are some really uncooperative and uncivil people in our democracy, that is extremists and individuals with impulse control problems of all kinds, who attend meetings of the town hall type, because they have axes (or assault weapons) to grind and pitchforks to shake at everyone. They may be single issue people. Or they may be riled up people just once and awhile. And these people are already certain they are right. So, they don’t come to the meetings to be persuaded by arguments, whether they are reasoned or emotion-laden. 

And while I agree it would be more democratic and informative to host town hall meetings, using Professor James Fishkin’s deliberative democracy polling philosophy, featured and outlined at the Center of Deliberative Democracy, there are other ways we should consider redesigning and reforming our political processes (and maybe even our institutions) to promote democracy to be at its best.  

What is this redesign?

Let’s make sure our Reps and Senators are:

       educated themselves about the vital issues confronting us today and in the future; and that
       they know how to educate and inform the people about these vital issues.

Think about it. If every Senator is clueless about genetics or nanotechnology, then the laws and policies that will be required over the next decade to regulate advances in these fields will not only be poorly conceived, they will be harmful to the people and to the nation.  And maybe even the world. 

This harm is also an ethical harm. Because many of the vital issues our Reps and Senators must become familiar with and knowledgeable about over the next decade ARE ethics issues. Good law-making will require education in how best to create policies that include ethical dimensions. 

What we need then is new legislation that ensures training for our national legislators in these subjects. True, there already are some education programs for legislators, the most established one at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. This school sponsors an executive education program for state and local legislators. This program is voluntary. 

We need a mandated education program. In fact, we already have a model, the current No Child Left Behind Act. So, what I am proposing is that we create a groundswell for new education legislation called The No Member of Congress Left Behind Act. 

What does this political redesign and innovation entail? 

1. Victorious candidates for Congress, ans thus new Reps or Senators, are required to pass a knowledge test before they are seated in the House or in the Senate. If we can come up with basic knowledge tests that our children are required to take as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, then we should also be able to create knowledge tests for our elected representatives. 

2. The No Member of Congress Left Behind Act is intended to make elected leaders accountable for having basic knowledge about the subjects of the legislation and policies they are responsible for creating and passing in the interests of the people. Among these interests are those in policies that require learning about the ethics implications of new legislation. In other words, each legislator has to learn how to develop an ethics impact statement for the policies that are being debated in Congress.  

3. Clearly, such a test would increase incentives for cutting corners, just as in several documented incidents schools have taken to cheating in order to increase their overall grades for students in order to meet the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. 

To prevent such cheating, the legislation includes provisions that prohibit legislators from hiring private tutors, professional test-takers and Representative and Senator impersonators who might stand in and take the test for them. 

One way to monitor this type of cheating is to conduct classes all new legislators must attend. These classes are taught by experts (not just from beltway think tanks) with diverse views as well as differing political, geographic, economic, social and educational backgrounds.

Likewise, the classes integrate members of all parties. This mixing may result in at least one collateral benefit: the elected representatives may become less polarized and destructively partisan than they are now. Taking classes together, they are forced to create relationships, which in turn may promote an esprit de corps with their classmates. This may especially be the case if some of their teachers are like sport coaches who favor boot camp learning experiences intended to make their brains hurt.  

4. Financing for the creation of the test and its administration as well as for the classes, is best accomplished by a tax on fantasy sport leagues. Indeed, it might even be possible to create a publicly-run betting line business specializing in who among the new Reps and Senators will pass the test and who will not. To be sure, this introduces an unsavory element into the education process. It does, however, expand our experience in our country in funding education programs through government-run lotteries.  

Of course, the main question everyone will want to know about is this: What happens if the new Reps and Senators fail the knowledge test?

Again, we have precedents for such outcomes. We can just replicate the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act in cases where students in high numbers fail the tests. 

Perhaps then, there will be yet another collateral and unexpected benefit: our members of Congress may well come to understand, through their own experience with the No Member of Congress Left Behind Act requirements, the current problems of the nation’s education system.

And new Reps and Senators might become intimately informed and knowledgeable about at least one vital issue that we face today.