Column for November 2, 2006

It is almost election time again. I hope that you all are planning to get out and vote and that you are doing some research into what candidates you will support. I did so for the primary election and am redoing that for the mid-term election in less than a week. The election will cover our Congressman, School Board, County Commissioners, judges, and other local offices.

It is no less important than any other election. Actually, perhaps more important, since seldom does an action in Washington D.C. have a greater single impact on every resident of a county than what our local officials do here. It is just lower profile.

I was reading one local media outlet's endorsements for various races. I found the School Board endorsement interesting, if not disturbing. This medium said, "our nod goes to ___ because he is the parent of young children, and young children are what the school board is all about."

I decided to write an email to that candidate after reading this endorsement. I wanted to share some perspective as to why I would or would not vote for him. I am sharing this with my readers because it sums up my perspective and to encourage you to do reading and outreach about and to your candidates and elected officials. I am only editing a few statements for brevity and names.

--------------------

I read "our nod goes to ___ because he is the parent of young children, and young children are what the school board is all about." I wanted to let you know that I will not vote for you because you have young children. I will most likely vote for you because I actually looked to see who the candidates were and read their candidate profiles. You seem conservative in your approach as well as practical.

You mentioned one thing in your profile "...allow us to continue to grow without having a higher tax burden on the Johnston County families." That is something that I always look for. The views about the burden on the people who pay the bills are important, since that tells me whether a candidate will think creatively or not, and give consideration to efficiency with the millions of dollars we already send to the county schools.

"young children are what the school board is all about." No, young children are NOT what the school board is all about. EDUCATION is what the school board is all about. They are not there to be elected babysitter supervisors or Big Brother. They are there to direct the way in which the county handles its education system. If people would get that concept down rather than all things being "for the children" as an emotional pull for power, then perhaps we could gain back ground in the quality of our education system that we have lost over the years.

If parochial and charter schools can educate children for far less money that we are spending per student and give a higher standard of education at the same time, perhaps it is time to reevaluate our system. Just within the past week, I was listening to charter school administrators who were discussing how their several schools receive the same amount of public money per student as other public schools. However, they do NOT receive any money for facilities. Within the amount of money they receive, they must pay for building construction or rental. They are doing so with great success, even building $12 million dollar facilities. That tells me that our existing public system is extremely inefficient and needs to change. The figure thrown around was that only about 50% of tax dollars for education make it to the classroom. The other half is eaten up in administration. If this is true, I want someone who is elected to work to change that. When our Superintendent of Schools makes more money than the Governor of North Carolina, something needs to change.

If you are in that paradigm, then you will certainly have my vote, not because you have young children.

--------------------

I encourage you to encourage the candidates you support with your voice, your cooperation, and most importantly your informed vote.