Thursday, September 22, 2011
Interest in the Election?
The suggestion has been made to discuss the upcoming election and the interest or lack of interest generated for this election. What do you think? Have you been keeping track of who is running and how it will affect the community? How about the Board of Education? Do you intend to vote?
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I suppose that the lack of postings suggests a lack of interest in all things political.
ReplyDeleteHere's a smattering of some reasons (at least from what my neighbours and I discuss):
1. BoE meetings involve no debate-- a few members ask questions, a few members demand allegiance to the superintendent, and the public gets upset with no retort from the elected officials. These meetings aren't really dysfunctional-- they do resemble a sh'aria court- where adherence to dogma is the basis of evaluation.
2. The video of the Common Council meetings is of an immeasurably low quality. Inaudible sound quality renders attentive viewing an impossiblity.
3. The Hour has the weakest, most general editorials one could imagine. I have yet to read an editorial that couldn't have been put out by the Mayor's office. Quite distressing that the local paper refuses to engage in a healthy debate of any important issues.
4. The former education blog has not kept up-- poor control over content and sporadic thread updates must have limited readership and certainly limited responses.
5. The pack mentality of the different sides makes those of us on the sidelines uninterested in participating. Most of us don't blame the teachers union for every ill, and few of us blame the Mayor for the state's prosecution of a woman for drug dealing and city services theft. We don't believe the BET to be evil, we don't (want to) believe that the city is under seige by a criminal element not seen since prohibition in Chicago and we don't really envision that economic growth is imminent. But, such extremes dominate in what passes for political discourse. Such is the sad state of polarized political propaganda.
6. We know the bursary is limited for programmes near and dear to us. So why bother getting involved when reality tells us that there remains much belt tightenning ahead?
7. No news source ever holds any official or public commentator accountable. There appears to be a tolerance of buzz-word prattling highly reminiscent of sycophantic Freshmen parroting lecture halls echos.
Any one wish to offer a retort?
I agree with the above post. Also, to add to the mess we are in, I blame the BOE members who ran as parents, not politicians. They certainly are behaving just like politicians now. In my opinion, this BOE is not taking the lead on the superintendent's behavior. Are they afraid of a lawsuit or are they worried about the election? Or both? As for the BOE member who would agree with the superintendent no matter what is suggested, start to think for yourself. In my judgement, you are the weakest link In the whole system. BOE, don't let this superintendent walk away with three years of salary, or guilt you into bad decisions. I don't know what she is up to, but take the lead, please. She said she could handle the job, the unions, etc......
ReplyDeleteI was not happy with the old BoE. I voted for the guy who fought them many times because that's what I thought the BoE needed. I'm glad I did because I think he's made a difference.
ReplyDeleteThis year, I will be voting for another fighter-- don't know who that is in my district but I will be doing my homework.
I will be voting in the next election, as will my other two immediate family members. One thing I can say clearly, we will not vote for the person running for the BOE from District B. Our family doesn't like her, we don't trust her and there's been too many times when she made it clear she was only interested in her own "community" agenda rather than what was best for the students in her district or in the City. And shockingly enough, that statement was from a member of her own community.
ReplyDeleteIf Dr. Ruby Shaw or Marie Borges Lopez ran for the seat, I'd be doing a victory boogie. But as far as the current occupant, we'll take a pass thank you very much.