School Board Candidates Are The Worst

It seems to be happening everywhere.  We, the taxpayers, are putting up with a bunch of terrible, conflicted, special-interest-backing candidates for school boards around the State and suburbs.

And then we wonder why our property taxes are out of control?  It's because we have terrible candidates and they get elected.  Are there good school board members?  Of course there are.  But there are a lot of them that shouldn't even be running.

Would it be heresy to state that we believe that anyone who is a teacher or administrator or (gasp!) even worse.... an officer of a teacher's union in another district just flat out are terrible candidates.  And they deserve to be voted against on that fact alone.

It is happening all over.  In Kaneland schools, a principal from a neighboring district is running.  He, apparently, doesn't think being an 'empire builder' in one district is enough.  Now he wants to have his hand in driving property taxes up in 2 districts.

In Mount Prospect District 57, there's 2 teachers running.  Yep.  2 teachers.  They want to be on the school board.  Wonder which side they're going to pick when it comes to negotiations?  Their own teachers union or you...the taxpayers?

In Dundee, there's a former Superintendent running.  Empire building at it's best.  Hey!  He's done it once.  I'm sure the district he looked after raised their levy every year.  And as close to that 5% that they can do without having to ask voters.  Now he wants to be on the board to do it again.

In Park Ridge, there are three candidates who are all married to teachers in the District.  Yes.  Seriously.  So they're in line to vote between voting to give their own wife a raise or siding with the taxpayers.  Which will they pick?

In Downers, there's not one, not two, but three teachers running for the school board.  One retired.  Oh, and this is rich:  one of the candidates is the President of the Teachers Union in a neighboring district.  Wonder where his loyalties lie?  Those negotiations with the teachers are going to be tough, right?

This just *has* to be a deliberate move by the teacher's unions to install sympathetic candidates on boards, right?

Every candidate on the ballot for school board should have to note 2 things:

1.  If they're a teacher.
2.  If they have kids in the schools.

We know that here at the Truth Team we believe this to be true:  The best school board members are most likely going to come from a group of citizens that have no skin in the game other than their property values.  A mom - who wasn't a teacher - who's kids have graduated from the schools?  A dad who works in the private sector who's kids are all in college or grown up?  Look for those folks.  That's who you'll want to vote for.

Maine 207 District Race: One Fatally Flawed Candidate Running Again

Over at West Cook News, they take the local journalist from the Journal & Topics to task for claiming that some are inserting partisan politics into a supposedly 'independent' election process.  It all stems from a few candidates having their nominating petitions challenged recently including a multiple-time loser (at least four-time loser, right?) Aurora Austriaco, who is complaining about someone having the gall to see if she followed the rules.  How dare they?!?!?

We say:  How dare Aurora Austriaco run for school board.  Doesn't she get it?  The voters don't want her.  She's a loser that keeps losing elections.  And, based on all the facts that are out there regarding her history (property taxes, missing meetings, pay-to-play with Blagojevich, being Speaker Mike Madigan's stooge), we're frankly surprised that she's decided to throw her hat in the ring again.

We're certain that the voters of Maine Township need to know the record of Aurora Austriaco and why anybody else on the ballot would make a better school board member than her!

Having Guaranteed Customers Is the Problem With Schools

Over at the National Review, they've posted a cheekily-titled piece called: "How Dare Betsy DeVos Give American Families an Educational Choice" where they point out some of the things that fell out of Devos' confirmation hearing yesterday.  But it seems it all boils down to this:

School reform is a complex and multi-faceted issue, but there is at least one relatively clear divide between left and right: With few exceptions, the Left wants to improve and reform American education by doubling down on financial, moral, and intellectual support for public schools with a unionized work force; DeVos and other conservative reformers, by contrast, want to improve and reform education by introducing market competition and giving families as many viable educational options as possible.

Market competition.  That's big.  What businesses do you know that have "Guaranteed Customers"?  Meaning...customers they don't have to market-to or lure into their business?  Besides government.  And besides public schools?

There really aren't any.  And that's why schools are suffering.  They don't have to compete for students.   Maybe they will soon.  And that's a great start.

Say "No" To SB 16 And To Cuts To Suburban School Funding

State Representative Ron Sandack and the House Republicans down in Springfield have launched a petition that urges taxpayers all across Illinois to stand up and join them in fighting back against Senator Andy Manar's SB16 and the devastating cuts it would make to schools in the suburbs.

You can sign the petition here.

In May of 2014 the Illinois Senate approved a bill that would divert millions in General State Aid for Education away from hundreds of Illinois school districts and toward other districts. SB16 does not fix problems with the current funding formula for school aid; it simply redistributes money and creates a new list of “winners” and “losers.” 

We think education funding reform should be comprehensive, thoughtful, bipartisan and done with all stakeholders at the table. We also think that all Illinois children deserve an opportunity for optimal success post high school. 

If you agree, please add your name to the petition below, and take the added step of sharing it with your friends.

 Let’s get SB16 off the table and have a true and meaningful discussion for how state education dollars should be spent.

“This is what happens when adults do their jobs" - Only Public Charter School in Suburbs Succeeds Big Time

The only public charter secondary school to serve the suburbs held their graduation this week and guess what? All 71 members of the senior class are graduating.

The school - Southland College Prep Charter School - almost didn't get off the ground. Because the public school was protecting their turf.

This is a great outcome for the community and for the families involved.  From the Chicago Sun-Times:

“This is what happens when adults do their jobs,” Ronald Bean, the school’s chairman, told the audience at Saturday’s graduation ceremony at the Harris Theater at Millennium Park. “This is the result of willing students, a committed faculty, a dedicated administration and a board that understands what its job is.” 

Four years ago, Southland College Prep Charter High School was fighting to get up and running. Rich Township High School District 227, where Southland’s students come from, argued that the charter school would divert much-needed state aid and sued to shut it down. 

The districts since have put the conflict behind them and Southland’s first group of graduates, who got into the school not based on academic performance but by lottery, were offered more than $7 million in merit scholarships and are headed to prestigious colleges like Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Tufts, Penn and Columbia University.