In his blog about the results of the BOE elections ,"e=mc2" wrote today "The People have Spoken".
Truer words have never been written. Unfortunately the interpretation is wrong. I do not dispute the overwhelming victory of the "Slam" sponsored slate giving that association control for at least the next two years and probably three of the Board. In that respect those who voted have confirmed their justified dissatisfaction with the Board of the Gallon years. Let the new Board and its successor use that mandate wisely.
But in all honesty, the people have spoken by their silence. If less then 1000 votes were cast on the budget that represents maybe 11% of the Plainfield electorate. In other words approximately 80plus% of voters in Plainfield do not care about educating the city's children. This is a failure of democracy, or more precise citizenship.
School board elections are notorious for the lack of public participation either as candidates or voters. Usually people do run for a seat if they have a child in the system and they have a personal agenda with the overall concerns being ancillary. That sentence should not be interpreted as being derogatory but rather as a compliment in that there are some who are concerned about their children's education.
It is significant that in districts that have acknowledge better school systems, there were the following number of voters; Westfield (4000),Fanwood (800),Bernards(4178) ,Bridgewater-Raritan(4712). (data source the Courier). What persentage of voters in these communities is represented I do not know but i am sure that it would fall somewhere between 20 &30%. That is significant.
If the present system of elected BOE members rather than an appointed board is a failure what alternatives do we have? In Plainfield the administrations track record on appointments and filling TOE positions is one that would make the appointed board even less than an acceptable option. That is coming from one who is an advocate of the appointed Board.
There is possibly workable alternative. The farce that the School Board elections are non political is a farce as demonstrated by the number of "slates" running in the past and some of the politicians remarks about membership. One solution for greater involvement would be to combine the school board elections with the general elections in November. In a one party town like Plainfield, the Primary election would perhaps be a better choice. Lets give this some thought and pressure our legislatures to make that possible..
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What's the point...the school budget was defeated last year only to be reinstated by the Council. Agree with the notion that these elections should be moved to November -- one ballot would work for all of this. I will say that I pay my fair share of taxes and have no children in the schools and find I could get the same return throwing the money down the drain. You would think that every voter that has a school aged child would have went to the polls Tuesday...plain and simple the vast majority of parents don't care and neither do the children.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all the recreation people who are so concerned about the children? Where are they?
ReplyDeleteWe love our children - that's why we need the recreation department.
Well, the recreation department is not going to help the children get a job - and as far as I am concerned, no, we don't love our children. We love our politics.
The problem with board of education elections is that the normal turnout is very low, which incidentally, is why the elections were moved to November. There was only one county in the entire state where more than 20% of the electorate voted and it was Ocean County. As for Plainfield I agree it is time to put the needs of the students first! If the adults can agree to focus on raising our educational expectations we will get better. If not......?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.njspotlight.com/stories/11/0429/0013/>