Ann Arbor School Board Elections

May 31 14:34 UTC 1993

There is a School Board election being held on June 14, and again
there are two distinct slates from which to choose.  One side is
calling itself Citizens for Better Education and the other, 
Quality Education Drive.  And boy do they differ in philosophy.

There are three people to be elected, three on each slate, and one
of the most immediate decisions to be decided by this Board will
be the fate of additional alternative schools in Ann Arbor.  The
CBE slate (Argersinger, Cameron, and Rigney) siting fiscal reasons
want to hold off on expanding the options while the QED slate
(Boyd, Miller, and Orlowski) find the alternatives critical to
meeting students needs and closing the achievement gap.

There is likewise major differences in how they'd handle 
questions of school safety, more autonomy at the school building
level, teacher evaluations, class size, able learners, etc.

There are a number of candidate forums being held this week.
I'll list them here if anyone is interested in attending.

But my reason for entering this was to find out if there is much
general interest in School Boards and their decisions.  For reasons
I don't quite understand I find them quite intersting and tend to
watch a good portion of their meetings on Public Abscess Television.

Do you vote in School Board elections?

response 2 of 46:

Jun 3 21:23 UTC 1993

I'm not old enough to vote but I say "Down with Mei Mei Uy!"  She tries
to ruin everything that Commie High Stands for.  Which is why I hissed 
and booed at here at 1992 Commie High Graduation.

response 4 of 46:

Jun 4 11:27 UTC 1993

I don't think she's up for election this time.

response 6 of 46:

Jun 10 14:30 UTC 1993

The CBE candidates are Cameron, Argersinger and Rigney.  The QED candidates
are Boyd, Orlowski and Miller.  (Mei Mei Uy was elected on the CBE slate
a couple of years ago.)

I have deeply mixed feelings about this and I'm still not sure how I'm
going to vote.  (Staying home and not voting is not an option.)

On the one hand, the liberals (QED) are people with overall value systems
much closer to mine.  They support the alternative schools, sex education,
free speech, etc.  Unfortunately, they also support the educational
bureaucracy and all the things which have made a mess of American
education.  (See "The Other Crisis in American Education" in the Atlantic
Monthly, about a year ago, for a good summary.)

On the other hand, the conservatives (CBE) have what I think are sensible
views on things like safety in schools, more emphasis on academics and
reading for all students, etc.  Unfortunately, they're also allied with
groups I find repugnant, such as Right-to-Life, religious groups which
promote censorship and oppose sex education, etc.

I have to say that CBE has done a far better job of distancing itself
from its extremists than QED has.  A fair number of politically liberal
people, e.g. Phil Power, are supporting CBE.  Hardly any conservatives
seem to be publicly supporting the QED slate.  I did notice a letter
to the Ann Arbor News from Robert W. Carr endorsing Bob Miller.  

I'm leaning more toward voting CBE than QED at this point.  What's more,
I expect CBE will win regardless.

response 8 of 46:

Jun 10 16:36 UTC 1993

I've read both the QED and CBE "platforms" (flyers), and they appear
indistinguishable. Therefore the differences lie in the details (where
someone said the devil resides). I would appreciate hearing more specifics
of what each slate (or individuals) would promote. Exactly what does
QED seek to do to "support the educational
 bureaucracy and all the things which have made a mess of American
 education."? Exactly what does CBE seek to do because they are "allied with
 groups I find repugnant, such as Right-to-Life, religious groups which
 promote censorship and oppose sex education, etc."?

response 10 of 46:

Jun 12 01:53 UTC 1993

I'm supporting the QED candidates.  As somebody who has dealt with the school
board a great deal over the last year on students rights issues, the thought
of a CBE win is a nightmare.  The three CBE candidates this year, from what I
have heard, seem to agree with Mei Mei Uy and Marcia Westfall on many of the
issues I have disagreed with them on, such as sex education, alternative
education, "school safety."  It is this last issue that particularly concerns
me, because making our schools safer has been the excuse for a lot of
restrictive policies, most notably the addition of expulsion ("An action 
taken by the Board of Education that excludes a student from the entire school
system on a permanent or time-limited basis without provision of an educational
program.").  Expulsion, while touted as the only way to keep our students safe
from these schools full of students carrying guns and ready to blow up the 
whole school, actually makes things far worse for a few students while not
making it any safer for the rest of the students.  Expelling a student is not
going to make the problem go away.  It will simply move the problem somewhere
else, where it is much harder to fix it.  Without a high school education,
these students, who already have problems, will have a much harder time turning
their lives around and becoming productive.  Probably if they do finish their
educations after that, it will be because they are arrested and get an 
education in prison.  I'm not saying that they should be left in the same
school, but that there should be *some* alternative for them.  As for
expulsion's value as a deterrent, when people get desperate enough to do any
of the offences that most pro-expulsion people would think are serious enough
to warrant expulsion, they are probably not thinking about the consequenses
anyway.
   Also, on the issue of alternative schools, I have to disagree with the CBE 
platform on several counts.  They claim that it would take money away from
the traditional high schools to create new alternative high schools.  This
is not true.  The money would come from other budgets.  Still, the proposed
new school would cost less per student than the traditional students, so cost
is not really a valid argument anyway.  People opposed to the new alternative
high school have also suggested putting more people into Community, saying that
with the renovations at Community, Community should be able to handle more
people.  Arguments about what more students would do to Community's climate
aside, Community already has fewer square feet per student than the "over
crowded" Pioneer and Huron.  Community's renovations were not to boost the
capacity of the school, rather to make its existing student body (324 at the
time the renovations were planned, 378 now) less overcrowded (to actually givee
teachers room to set up labs...).  Yet an other argument that they have used
is that the new alternative school would take away from the IDB at Huron,
despite assurances that it would be different teachers going to the new school.
It has been argued that any new resources for alternatives should be spent on
Huron's IDB, where it will be "availible to more than just this select group
of students."  In fact, the IDB at Huron is only availble to students in
Huron's district, half of the students.  As for making a program availible to
more students, the alternatives desperately need that.  Anybody who saw the
wait for Community (or participated in that, can testify to that).

response 12 of 46:

Jun 12 13:02 UTC 1993

The proposed alternative won't come with all the bells and whistles
that the comprehensive schools enjoy, that is why it will be cheaper.
The staff will include 4 teachers and a secretary for 100 students.
One custodian is factored into the package.  There won't be a football
team or a band or four different languages offered.  But those 100
students will get close attention to their academic needs and there
will be a connection period something like Community High's forum
where small, enduring groups gets together and talk about whatever
needs to be discussed.

I'm a huge advocate of alternative education - of choice.  I don't
believe this proposed alternative or Community High is *the* answer
for everyone but then neither is a 2000 student factory like
Huron.  Candidates Boyd, Miller, and Orlowski all support alternative
choices and will keep this project alive.  If the CBE slate wins,
it's dead.  

response 14 of 46:

Jun 14 09:49 UTC 1993

For me also, not voting is not an option - but for the first time in
a long while, I really don't know very much. Except for what I've
read here - so, even though I never reveal my votes, I'm your
captive on this one.   And I'll read this item before I head to
the polls.

response 16 of 46:

Jun 16 05:35 UTC 1993

Now I'm glad that I dont' go to AA schools                      :-)

response 18 of 46:

Jun 18 04:19 UTC 1993

They're certainly more wonderful than this new school board.

response 20 of 46:

Jul 6 02:17 UTC 1993

This Wednesday, July 7, will be the first meeting where the newly
elected School Board members will be onboard.  The recently
approved alternative school plan will probably be back for
discussion and a new vote.  

I'm not optimistic about this one.

response 22 of 46:

Jul 6 23:00 UTC 1993

Yep.  

response 24 of 46:

Jul 8 10:23 UTC 1993

How long will Community last in this climate?