As any follower to the State School Board knows, we seem to move from one mess to the next.
Let's start at the beginning of the election.....
Do you know how the candidates are even chosen? First, interested candidates file for office, they are then interviewed by a governor appointed committee which narrows the field down to three candidates per district. The governor then selects the two that will appear on the ballot. This year three school board members seeking to retain their seats did not even make it to the ballot. (source)
Then today I read in the Salt Lake Trib that Kyle Bateman, the winner in District 13, realized that he didn't meet the residency requirement of the office. Maybe Bateman knew about Chaffetz not living in the District he now represents in Congress, and thought the same rules applied to the State School Board. But seriously, how do you run for an office and then realize you don't meet the one very basic requirement? There is a lot of suspicion as to the timing of Bateman's resignation. As to whether it was an honest mistake or not, I can't be the judge, but it does seem just plain ludicrous and irresponsible on Bateman's part. Bateman's opponent, C. Mark Openshaw, is now expected to take the seat. (source)
Why can't we just directly elect school board candidates in a nonpartisan race? Some argue that State School Board races should be partisan, but is it really a partisan office? Shouldn't the emphasis be just doing what is best for the kids and not following a party platform? Making the races partisan would help voters understand the candidates positions better, since now very few know where the school board candidates stand. But it seems to me after seeing the response on this website to the candidate's posts, that people would like to be informed but that the information is not out there for them to easily access. How about instead of partisan races, the voter information pamphlet publish biographies and links to more information for school board candidates?
The Legislature is expected to take up this issue in the coming session.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
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2 comments:
Thanks for this post! It answered some questions I had. I saw an article recently that sounded like Gov. Huntsman agrees that school board candidates should be elected by the people. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense to have the governor involved.
I have personally heard the governor say several times this past year that he supports open, direct, non-partisan elections for the State Board of Education.
In a few months we'll see what the legislature has to say about it.
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