Never mind the color of their brains, have they no red-faced shame?

“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” — Milton Friedman

Five years ago the Review-Journal reported on a silly little consulting program in which the personalities of Clark County School Board members and other district executives were color-coded — a red brain is intuitive and social, a blue one is logical, et silly cetera.

The reporter was told in April 2009 the contract cost the district $84,000, but it expired at the end that month and would not be renewed.

This is school board member’s brain on tax money

Today we learned that expired program has cost the district $350,000 during the past six years, and the superintendent even defended the expenditure.

My question in 2009 after learning about the psychobabble tests was: Do any of them think, period?

“Maybe they should take an I.Q. test. Better yet a G.I. test — gullibility index,” I suggested.

Today, the question is: Never mind the color of their brains. What is the color of their faces? Surely they are crimson red with shame.

Here is some of the quackery foisted by Emergenetics: “Our personalities emerge from our genetics and are further shaped by our ongoing life experiences.”

Who’d’ve ever guessed that we are part nature and part nurture without your exhaustive research on 300,000 suckers? I mean clinical studies.

“Emergenetics is a unique and flexible approach to personality profiling that is based on the latest brain research. It’s easy to find out more about yourself by taking our straightforward, online Emergenetics questionnaire,” the ad said.

For which you gladly paid a nominal fee, of course. In the case of our board members, $69 apiece, plus expenses and per diem and walking around money and incidentals and overhead and under the table and …

The guy they paid back in 2009 was Dale Erquiaga, who must be a pretty good salesman because he sold the governor on appointing him to head up the state Education Department this past year.

The fundamental principle of Emergenetics is: A fool and his money are soon parted. Or in the case of those with their snouts in the tax coffers, our money.

I have an idea. Let’s ask each and every one of the board members to take the high school proficiency test required for graduation and report their scores. Now, that would be revealing.

These are the people in charge of educating our youth?

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky vowed to scrutinize every dollar spent in the district to assure funds are used expressly for student achievement. He called it his “pledge of achievement.”

Emergenetics consultant Erik Kieser is paid $1,000 a day.