If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Unfortunately this what we seem to be paying a great deal of our tax money for.
When we use party politics to elect those we would have make decisions about our children's education and future, most of us never seem to see the truth about political parties having other concerns than our children. We occasionally stumble over this truth, but most of us simply pick ourselves up and hurry on as if nothing happened. Or we get mad at that jerk who put that truth in our way in the first place. The race does not always go to the swiftest, nor the fight to the strongest, but that's where the smart money lays. Mothers (or grand parents) may not be the most concerned with the nurturing of our children and education for them, but that's where the smart money is bet. Politicians may not place a higher value on the "Political Parties" special interests than children and their education. BUT THAT'S WHERE THE SMART MONEY RIDES Betting against the politicians, Jim Graham, Ventura Village, a wounded veteran of the wars to educate children in Minneapolis. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, June 02, 2002 10:36 PM Subject: [Mpls] Re: What's On The Minneapolis Ballot > Katie Simon-Datych wrote: > >Blast me for these thoughts! Somehow education it is a > >different issue for me than city council, or mayor > >(nonpartisan seats). Never should school board > >elections be complicated by party endorsement. > >What do other readers think? > I think we should quit pretending that any race at > the city/county level is nonpartisan and grow up. Any time > you have a difference of opinion as to ends and means, you > are going to find political parties lining up on either side > of the question. This is why school board candidates, city > council candidates, library board candidates, etc., etc. all > can be found filling out questionnaires and showing up for > screening interviews with various political groups that have > an ax to grind, whether those groups are the teachers unions, > the Teamsters, the Republican and DFL and Green parties, > or the Monster Raving Loony Party. > It is not an inexpensive proposition to run for political > office, especially if you are running for a city office where > no public financing is available. This drives candidates into > the arms of the unions and political parties, who can bring > money and manpower to bear on behalf of the candidate. By the > same token, the parties all have different views on the > matters at hand before the candidates. In the case of school > boards, the DFL will expect candidates to not upset their > union allies by proposing radical notions such as teacher > competency testing, merit pay, and vouchers, while the RPM > will expect exactly the opposite (in most cases). The Greens, > given their bias toward local governance of schools, will have > different views from the other two parties. No party will > cross-endorse another party's candidates. In fact, most party > screening committees will ask candidates seeking endorsement > whether they'll abide by the endorsement decision of the party > and not go off the reservation and look for some other party > to endorse them. > Most voters want some idea of where their candidates > stand, but it's a rare voter (in my experience) who will > actually take the trouble to sit down and read what the various candidates have to say for themselves in the Star > Tribune, much less look at the literature produced by the > various campaigns. They would rather know if the candidate > in question has the DFL/Labor endorsement. No kidding, in my > occasional bouts of service as an election judge, I have had > voters come up and ask me for a copy of the DFL/Labor sample > ballot and be somewhat put out when I told them no, partisan > political materials weren't allowed in the polling places. > No, endorsements do not actually advance the cause of > education one bit. All they do is serve as shorthand to let > you know in a very general way what the candidate stands for. > This is all that they are meant to do, and expecting them to > do more is just plain silly. In the same light, continuing > to pretend that the elected officials we send to City Hall or > West Broadway are doing our business in a nonpartisan manner > is equally silly. There are indeed differences between the > way DFLers plow the streets and the way RPMers get it done, > and the same is true of education. Let's quit pretending > otherwise and get on with it. > > --- > Kevin Trainor > RPM Candidate HD 61A > East Phillips > > > _______________________________________ > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: > http://e-democracy.org/mpls > _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
