The word stakeholder is a business term with a mercenary connotation. It obscures meaning. Government isn't a business. It provides public good, like hospitals, roads, sewer & water, flood protection, schools, senior care, child care, snow removal, garbage collection and other services.

Stock market terms are so ingrained in our language. Everybody is a stakeholder. We need more discussion about what citizenship means & how to get more people engaged.

In the school system, everyone should have a voice. A well educated society makes for a better society. Parents are an important part of the conversation; so are grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbours and people who have never had children. Anyone who can or can't vote has an interest in a healthy school system. It benefits all of us in the same way a healthy medical system, transportation network or any public infrastructure does. It is part of the social fabric and also part of our social contract. If I never use a road, I won't decry my taxes (government revenue) going to fix that road.

 

The National Library of Medicine and Lake Superior State University have a similar view of the word stakeholders.

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