Next Week, We'll Know

By this time next week, we'll know the outcomes of the election.  I'm sure all the candidates are tired - it's quite a long haul of campaigning.  When the vote totals come up for City Council races versus Board races, check them out.  The vote total drops considerably.  Even though the Board is responsible to help make sure Seattle's children get educated and it's a considerable amount of public dollars, many citizens just don't make that vote.  It's quite an interesting thing that for School Board elections because every vote really counts. 

I can sense this desperation in the latest in Seattle Times' editorial board writer Lynne Varner's long, long series of editorials propping up the incumbents.  Honestly, at this point, there's no other way to look at these things.  And, in this one, she throws in everything but the kitchen sink.

• She mentions an editorial cartoon from the Manhas era (I remember it) and references it as a reason to have "seasoned elected officials."  Well, there were seasoned elected officials during the Manhas era.  In fact, that Board is bookended by two Boards that both had financial scandals and exited superintendents and yet that's her example of a bad Board.

• She does a funny thing - she tells people to check out websites.  She says to check out any school's website and see the innovation.  That's a fairly dangerous challenge because some schools don't even have a real website.  

• She claims that both City Hall and Olympia were threatening to take over the district.  Really?  I thought it was just the musings of Nickels and Murray.  She must have heard or seen something I missed.

• She says that these challenger "activists" could return our district to that days "when it was the laughingstock of the region."  I can't believe she actually went there.  The district's reputation now, with the general public, is worse than being a laughingstock.  How tone-deaf do you have to be to miss this?  

• She makes it sound like exiting the incumbents is all about sticking it to them (she calls it schadenfreude - her new favorite word).  That's a pretty unpleasant statement whose sentiment I have seen nowhere.   She continues on with "heads roll", "off-with-their heads", "board members' heads on a silver platter." 

• "This is no time for newbies, unless they're really, really good."  Funniest line hands down.  

• She also claims that the people who want the incumbents voted out is "small enough to fit into a Ravenna living room" (I'm not sure why she picked Ravenna.)   That's a pretty silly statement because she's knows it's not true (but would certainly like it to be).

• She also goes to the "cyberbullying" argument for anyone who disagrees with her.  I am puzzled over how tender her feelings are for the job she possesses.

• Another funny line "Interestingly, the rap againsr the School Board isn't the members qualifications.."  - Isn't it their performance - or lack thereof - in office?   Isn't that how we are supposed to vote for incumbents?

• The Times' continues to protect the MLK,Jr. bldg decision with "But the idealism behind selling the building to a local church serving the African-American community shouldn't cost them their jobs."  One, was it idealism?  Because if it was, that was a piss-poor reasoning.  I thought it had to do with Board policy about deciding who to sell to.  Lynne might want to bone up on that.  Two, decisions that elected officials make are supposed to be part of why people do or don't vote for them.  

A few of the comments from her piece:

Charlie - The greatest shame, however, is how she feels it necessary to attack the character and motives of those on the other side of this issue. This is truly the last resort of someone who has no real basis for their argument.

Sandmanxp (a parent who says their family went private largely due to the instability of the district):
This is no time for business as usual incumbents unless they are really, really good.

Cascade Flower:  How many times has the same "the incumbents are doing a helluva job" dirge wafted from the dusty, remote offices of The Times' editorial staff in the last week? At least 3 by my count. 

S Parent:  I am no cyberbully. I am a parent who is fed up with a School Board that keeps a flawed math curriculum in place that lands too many students in remedial math in college. 

Another Arnold:  
Not once has the Seattle Times informed the citizens that every Democratic Legilative District endorsed Michelle Buetow . 

Not once has the Seattle Times informed citizens that Sharon Peaslee has obtained endorsements from all Democratic Legislative Districts except one- then add on The National Woman's Political caucus and more.

Not once..have you mentioned the unfettered discresion the incumbents gave to MGJ. 

Not once did the Seattle Times publish the fact that Steve Sundquist obtained a vote of NO Confidence by the Seattle Education Association.