and not just because the deadline to sign up has been extended to this Friday, July 7, at midnight.

(Sign-up is here, and more information is here.)

First, a little information:

The DCPS chancellor’s parent cabinet is an advisory body for the chancellor on a number of topics. It is forming anew for the 2017-18 school year.

As the DCPS website notes, “parents of secondary school students, male parents, East of the River parents, and parents from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds are encouraged to apply!”

Now, this is all great news.

But a cautionary note must be sounded, as our state board of education just announced its selections for a graduation requirement task force. Not only were no DC public school students selected for this, despite the board’s stated objectives of choosing a diverse body–but the list of chosen candidates includes a DC private school student.

(And no, private schools do not have to follow our state graduation requirements.)

That’s some diversity!

Now, I get that inclusion on such bodies relies in part on who applies–but how is it even believable that out of our city’s almost 90,000 students in public schools, exactly none were available, encouraged, or otherwise cajoled to help the state board figure out how to tweak graduation requirements in their own schools??

Perhaps more unbelievable is the fact that there apparently WAS a bona fide DC public school student who applied–and was not selected.

(A spreadsheet with the candidates and information on them is here.)

So, come on, DCPS, give us a lollipop here:

Can we presume that diversity on the chancellor’s cabinet means including actual stakeholders–and that the extension of the deadline for applying ensures that this will happen?

(Yeah, I know, just a silly thought after a bunch of celebrations last night to commemorate the 241-year-old idea that Americans ought to have a stake in their own governance.)