There’s been plenty of generalized government employee bashing lately on the national, state and local levels. Government bureaucrats, it seems, are the root of all the world’s problems.

These kind of “government is always incompetent” arguments continue to crop up in the health care reform debate. But there are currents of this distrust, even anger, running through state issues like balancing the state budget and local issues like spending money on parks and trails.

Two problems show their face through these arguments: Government hasn’t been very good at public relations despite all the good it accomplishes, and government has to come up with more creative, innovative solutions.

In short, we need entrepreneurs in government, entrepreneurs motivated by public good and taxpayer value rather than profit. That may mean doing more with less, but more important, it may mean doing something different, ignoring mandates that don’t make sense anymore.

Some units of government are considering doing things differently. Schools in Madelia and Sleepy Eye are thinking of instituting new calendars to help them maximize learning and lower costs.

Sleepy Eye is going so far as to join with other school districts to petition the Legislature to allow changes to the start of school calendars. While we’re on the subject of the Legislature, holding fast to such calendar mandates, and dozens of others put on counties, doesn’t make sense.

If the Legislature wants — and it must — to be part of the new entrepreneurial government, it must be willing to remove one-size-fits-all rules like schools being required to start after Labor Day.

-Mankato Free Press