Three cheers for Mike Jorgenson. Jorgenson, R-Hayden, says members of the appointed board should have to answer for what its current president, Milford Terrell, admits became a "dysfunctional family."

"I''m not going to be satisfied until two or three members of the board are removed," Jorgenson says. "This is not something that should be just swept under the rug."

That might come as a surprise to those with the brooms, possibly including Gov. Butch Otter. Otter hired the former board member who was its executive director when it agreed to send more money than it had to an out-of-state testing firm run by a prominent Republican. Karen McGee of Pocatello, who resigned after five months in the job, now serves as a policy adviser for Otter.

How did a policy-making board end up in the business of administering public school testing? That was supposed to be the job of Idaho's elected state superintendent of public instruction. But when voters elected a Democrat to that post, the board took testing away from former Moscow principal Marilyn Howard. It tripled its own staff, thanks to legislators who were also eager to marginalize Howard, and then bungled the job.

The board office's three top staff positions now remain unfilled to help erase the deficit left by overspending.

As Jorgenson points out, three former board presidents - Blake Hall of Idaho Falls, Laird Stone of Twin Falls and Rod Lewis of Boise - share responsibility for what he describes as "a number of blunders." And he threatens to seek subpoenas to ensure testimony from any board members who do not appear at an Education Committee hearing later this month to investigate those blunders.

If you wonder why subpoenas would even be mentioned, consider this: Hall, Stone and Lewis all failed to return phone calls from the Associated Press seeking comment on the matter. A board that was once a model for openness and public accountability was put in the hands of people who act as if their conduct is none of the people''s business.hat characterization probably does not extend to every current board member, beginning with Terrell, who now admits, "It''s pathetic, what happened." And legislators lack authority to remove members, although Stone''s term ends March 1 and he cannot be returned to the board without Senate confirmation.

The authority rests with Otter. His spokesman Jon Hanian said Friday the governor hadn''t heard of the Senate''s concerns. Let's hope that doesn't mean Otter, whose own budget director charged the board with violating Idaho accounting standards, has no concerns of his own. It wasn't on his watch that the board became a rogue elephant. But he''s the one who now holds the whip. - J.F