This raises the county’s micro-management of schools to a new level. When you think about all the places commissioners could post the Ten Commandments —

Principals may wonder about a few crucial details. Which version of the Ten Commandments would commissioners have them post, that from Exodus or Deuteronomy? Which translation of the Bible would they prefer, King James, Revised Standard, Good News? Why?

Where should the Commandments be posted? In the library? At the entrance to the cafeteria?Just where do commissioners suppose the commandments are needed the most? Maybe the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms? How about the faculty lounge?

And how will the county react if someone petitions to post something else?We don’t have to get exotic here and imagine some distant religion pressing its demands on the purportedly Christian majority. Suppose someone says, “Forget the Ten Commandments. I want Jesus’ two great commandments on the schoolhouse walls.”(“Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”) How many great postings are they willing to mandate?

Even ardent believers in the Ten Commandments have to wonder where this effort is going. It appears to be a fairly harmless attempt at giving students moral guidelines. But it could give commissioners and others the false feeling that they’ve done something significant to contribute to the moral upbringing of the county’s 20,000 public school students.

The best thing commissioners have done in that direction is increase local funding for schools to the state average and boost teacher supplements. Gone is the hypocrisy of calling for better results without funding remediation. Now they back up their talk with financial commitment, and an efficiency study, to boot. That’s good leadership by example, good stewardship.

But this Ten Commandment thing is an unnecessary diversion. Rowan officials are jumping on a bandwagon that apparently started rolling in Martin County and is aimed for Raleigh. If successful, it would mandate the posting the Commandments in public schools statewide.