PrintMay 3, 2010
All elections - even school board races - have consequences
Our system of public education is an unmitigated disaster. Who is to blame? The teachers and their unions are the most easily identifiable villains as hardly a day goes by without a new story of incompetence, misconduct, corruption and socialist indoctrination of the children. School administrators are less visible, but equally culpable for their role in the dumbing down of America's youth. The least likely to be held accountable for the destruction of education in our nation are the school boards.
Recently the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.
The newest board member of the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, which is caught up in a financial mess over risky investments it made, is an attorney who took $11,000 from a client's account and has had her law license suspended twice.West Allis, Wisconsin has a population of over 60,000 of which some 48,000 are of voting age. When the ballots were tallied Jane Edgar won election to the school board with a total of 1,399 votes. Slightly less than 3% of potential voters cast their ballot for a woman who has misappropriated funds, misrepresented clients and has said of her conduct "I was absolutely dysfunctional in running a business."
With the financial issues facing the district.
Trusts operated by West Allis-West Milwaukee and four other Wisconsin school districts-Whitefish Bay, Waukesha, Kenosha and Kimberly-borrowed $165 million to help purchase $200 million in complex investments called collateralized debt obligations that are now believed to be virtually worthless.Jane Edgar would seem to be a curious choice, but then she did say "I'm absolutely trustworthy."
The role of public education in the dumbing down of our nation cannot be overstated. As educational standards are weakened and a far left agenda is peddled in it's place we can see the tragic consequences. So who is really to blame? We are. We elect the school board members who run our local districts. How many of us take the time to learn about our local candidates? How many of us even bother to vote? Do you? I have not voted for the school board in decades, but then I have no children so it doesn't effect me or so I thought.
As we have witnessed in a troubling number of cases, corrupt and unqualified individuals have been able to rely on voter apathy and the ignorance of the citizenry in their quest for political office. This subversion of the public trust happens at all levels from school board members to state treasurers (IL senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias comes to mind) and now to the office of President of the United States. If our schools were really educating the children and teaching them about our history and our constitution could a candidate as clearly unqualified and anti-American as Barack Obama have been elected?
Tip O'Neill said that "all politics are local" and we have come to learn that he was right.
