Searching for Answers, Part 1

My ballot booklets and the media provided  enough information on the Propositions and personnel issues, so I feel confident casting those votes. The school board races are, after Secretary of State (Mark Finchem in charge of our elections?), the most consequential on the local level.  And discovering information about the candidates is disturbingly difficult.  Today, I rant about the K-12 (which now is PreK-12) decision, tomorrow, the Community College race.  It shouldn't be this hard.

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There are lots of little signs with the same font and colors and layout but for two different candidates.  This leads to many interesting questions, as I wait for the lights to change.  Are they friends?  Are they colleagues?  Was it cheaper to print them that way?  Do they share the same beliefs?  

Mona has some larger signs that put parents first, kids second, and teachers third.  That set off all kinds of alarms for me, which her website confirmed.  So much of what a school board does cannot be transparent.  Union contracts make personnel matters the property of the employee, thus restricting what the Board can reveal.  Parents do not have access to the same information, nor should they.  This is why we elect officials who trust the process.

Remember, this is the state where legislators think it's a good idea to police classroom libraries, to put cameras in the classrooms, to require the submission of lesson plans to God-alone-knows-who.  My answer is simple:  if you want to know what's going on, volunteer in the classroom.  If you have time to organize against the books, you have time to engage in a conversation with the librarian.  

I won't be voting for Mona, nor for her sign-mate, whose website was a clone, with the same dog-whistles and misguided criticisms.  I'm unaware of elementary educators indoctrinating or grooming or teaching the ins and outs of procreation in the kindergarten classroom - and I've been in and out of all kinds of classrooms for the last 11 years.  Allowing such people to inform what and how our children learn is ill-advised, at best.

Yes, reading and math scores have declined due to the Pandemic.  That's not enough reason to dismiss the work that the current Board members have done, as those pesky little signs do.  With uncertain funding and legislative disdain, our public schools are making Americans, one little human at a time.  We deserve to have thoughtful oversight of the decisions that go into making that true.

It took a little bit of digging, but I managed to collect enough information to feel okay with my vote.  I wish they had written opinion pieces or made themselves available to the local paper's Zoom candidate forum, but, as I've learned and have sung to many young people over the years (okay, Cuters, cover your ears) you can't always get what you want.