OK, remember the Tucson Unified School District governing board election is kinda around the corner (Nov. 4, 2014), but the most important detail remains that there are 10 potential candidates and if any of them are taking this business of getting into this racket they best be getting signatures for their petitions—filing period for those signatures opens July 7 and closes Aug. 6 at 5 p.m.
Evidently there’s a forum for “Democratic Party” candidates for TUSD, as well as Sunnyside governing boards brought to you by Friends of Legislative District 3. The forum is Monday, June 23, 6 p.m. in the children’s meeting room at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave., downtown.
And no, organizers warn that this isn’t a debate—so you won’t see some needed debate action between Sunnyside’s Eva Dong and Daniel Hernandez. Hopefully that will come later:
We will be hosting a forum for Democratic Party candidates for the TUSD and SUSD governing boards. The forum isn’t a debate, but rather an opportunity for them to introduce themselves and to solicit volunteers before the August 6 petition deadline. …
This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2014.
The sponsor of the forum is actually the LD3 Democratic Committee, which is why the candidates invited are Democratic Party candidates.
This is very interesting, It has been my understanding that a school board election is a nonpartisan position. I guess we should get ready for those special interest groups and board members inserting party ideologies on our kids instead of serving what’s best for the education of our children in our schools. There is a reason why a school board election was setup to be nonpartisan.
Is it helpful for education to have partisanship spead into traditional nonpartisan elections when both political parties are losing membership?
Ted Downing. Independent
Oneconcernedparent@yahoo.com and Ted, you are both absolutely correct. This is a nonpartisan election! While candidates may be registered with a particular Political Party, they should not be running in association with that Political Party, i.e. as their “Candidate”. To do so vitiates the nonpartisan character of the election. If this is the case, such Candidates should be viewed as unwilling/incapable of representing the Educational interests of all Registered Voters within TUSD.
The fact remains that both parties do this. The fact also remains that the political parties provide the most access to registered voters and GOTV. Sure the decisions are supposed to be non-partisan, but let’s get real. The elected members will have to deal with budgetary decisions which are driven by the $$ allocated by the Legislature and that is the most partisan political scene in the state, let alone in town. One political party wants to eliminate public schools as a “failed experiment,” a ludicrous statement on its face. The other political party is constantly the minority in the Leg. Access to voters is best done through political parties. Getting parents to forums for all candidates is difficult, with a showing of 50 – 100 parents considered a huge success. Anyone who hosts a forum at all is doing a valuable service to the public. I hear that League of Women Voters is not even planning to hold a forum this year for TUSD candidates, which is incredibly shocking! Anyone want to get together and host a forum? I’m in!