If nothing else, backers of an effort to overhaul the state Board of Education’s leadership structure should get high marks for efficiency.

At a House committee meeting Tuesday morning, sponsors of House Bill 823, Governance of the Dep’t of Public Instruction, announced that they had pared down the measure significantly. Before, it was thick enough to serve as a doorstop. Now, it takes up barely enough paper to doodle on.

The newly minted version calls for a constitutional amendment making a handful of changes to the highest positions of power in the North Carolina public education system. It would give Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson, a Democrat, more say in policy decisions, and the General Assembly more clout in who serves on the state Board of Education.

Right now, the governor makes all 11 appointments to the board. The changes would allow the General Assembly to make four of the appointments. Board members also would be limited to terms of six years, rather than the current tenure of eight years.

The revised bill is an abrupt change from the initial version, which concentrated more power in the superintendent’s office and weakened the Board of Education’s role.

“This is truly a compromise bill,” said Rep. Bryan Holloway, R-Stokes, the measure’s primary sponsor. “I have met every single concern that anybody has brought to me.”

Another sponsor, Republican Rep. Hugh Blackwell of Burke County, said that H.B. 823 would help the state steer clear of disputes between the superintendent and the governor. In 2009, Atkinson filed a lawsuit claiming that fellow Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue had diluted the superintendent’s role in DPI and on the state board illegally. A judge ruled that Atkinson had the constitutional authority to run the state’s schools.

On Tuesday, Democrats on the committee blasted to the bill’s provisions giving the legislature more weight in state board appointments. Another provision granting the legislature confirmation authority over the governor’s appointments also elicited Democrats’ wrath.

“To me, with the confirmation by the General Assembly and then the [appointments] by the General Assembly, we’re now saying that the General Assembly is more important than the superintendent or the governor,” said Rep. Deborah Ross, R-Wake. “That is inappropriate, solipsistic, and not necessarily in the best interests of the voting community.”

Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham, also raised an objection that Democrats have used to counter other GOP-supported bills this session — amending the constitution isn’t needed.

“You want to put it in the constitution. I don’t see why you can’t go and do what you want to do by putting it in statute,” Michaux said.

The 16-term Democrat then channeled Christian reformer Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms by saying he had to vote his conscience in opposing the bill.

“Here I stand, I can do no more,” Michaux said.

The measure eventually passed out of committee by voice vote and now goes to the full House. If approved by both chambers and signed by Perdue, the amendment would go on the ballot in May 2012 for voters’ final OK.

On a lighter note, Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford, praised Holloway for reducing the bill from 168 pages to two.

“We might want to nominate [you] for some kind of environmental award for protecting trees,” he said.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.