If you want to know why politicians and talking heads go on and on about education reform, take a look at the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce legislative scorecard.

As such interest-group scorecards usually do, the chamber report grades legislators according to how often they vote with the chamber's position on certain key issues — 12 in the state Senate, in this case, and nine in the House. Five of those issues are about education.

Historically, the Greater Lafayette Chamber has embraced issues that go beyond the parochial interests of its membership and speak to the broader public interest. Education reform is an issue where there is no distinction between those two points of view. Every family, every business, every government entity and every social institution has something important to gain if we can make our schools better. We hope the chamber continues to hold public officials accountable for pushing public education forward.

The education-related measures on the chamber's report card were a pilot school-voucher program in big parishes to help students attend private schools with programs designed to meet their special education needs; a bill that requires education officials to develop a letter-grade system for schools in the state acceptability program; and three laws designed to change the way school boards do business.

One of those bills will create a standard review process for charter school applications, which local boards often have been reluctant to approve. Other legislation would have required local-option votes on term limits for school board members and will limit the ability of board members to micromanage personnel decisions.

Charter schools are operated by people or organizations outside the traditional school board system but are funded with public money. The schools get freedom from some bureaucratic restrictions in exchange for better academic results. The idea is to foster innovative techniques.

The school board term limits and personnel procedures are designed to fight any tendency for school board members to become political fixtures with patronage and favors to dispense.

While the grades for lawmakers were spotty — three of 22 local representatives and senators earned 100 percent scores, and three were below 65 percent — the Acadiana delegation generally supported the chamber position. The voucher, charter school and personnel measures passed. The letter grade measure, which is largely cosmetic, and the term limits for school board members, which aren't, failed.

So the chamber's record wasn't perfect. But it was a record of advocating a better future for Lafayette.