UPDATE: Local Elections: School Board, District 5

There's a tropical storm outside so it's a good time to update the old blog.

Good news when it comes to this election... I was driving home the other day and noticed the Stuart Rowan signs all had an additional piece of paper attached to them that said something along the lines of "Endorsed by the Brevard Federation of Teachers."

According to Hannah, BFT is the largest teachers union in this area and is the local branch of the Florida Education Association (FEA). To my knowledge there are essentially two large national teachers unions in this country: The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which is a part of the ALF-CIO and the National Education Association (NEA). While at USC, Hannah was a member of NEA and she seems to trust them. She says she doesn't know as much about the AFT. We're a bit confused about the FEA because according to their web site they are affiliated with both the NEA and the AFT. Regardless of who the BFT really is, an endorsement by them is almost definitely a very good thing.

So I'm about this write this post and I'm referring back to my original post on the subject and I notice that someone has left a few comments. Guess what... It's Stuart Rowan himself!

Ben: This is the guy with the bad tie! (Sorry, I was warned!) I do not support vouchers, I am in favor or holding charters accountable for both their finances and product. I am also a firm believer in the seperation of church and state. The Science classroom should teach science and all of its corroborating theories, and our churches should teach Faith and all of its corroborating lessons. I am endorsed by the BFT (Brevard Federation of Teachers) and by BASA (Brevard Association of School Administrators.) Sorry, the tie thing is without explanation. drop me an e mail. Sturow@aol.com

I'm glad he seems to have a good sense of humor about my tie joke but more importantly, he firmly states his belief in the separation of church and state. So, I think I feel pretty good about voting for Rowan and I encourage everyone else to do so as well.

Local Elections: School Board, District 5

So from now on I'm going to attempt to post my research on local elections. Most people don't pay much attention to local issues so I figure this can add some value to the blog. To start off, we'll be looking at races in the Democratic primary for Brevard County, FL taking place August 26, 2008.

First off: the Non-Partisan office, School Board Member, District 5.

Margie Kinder

Wow, this one is a doozy. DO NOT vote for this lady... please, I'm begging you. Why? Well for starters, check out her myspace page. This is impossible to read! And what's with the babies? That's just creepy. But seriously, bad myspace formatting aside, if you keep scrolling you'll eventually see pictures of Charlie Christ (UPDATE: and Mitt Romney!) at a Young Republicans meeting and someone called the "Fair Tax Babe." Ok... yeah, this is scary. But it's the school board right... a nonpartisian position... I mean, her campaign page probably isn't that bad.

NOPE! Check out some of these "issues":

• I support charter and Magnet schools as a way to promote public school choice (Pretty good so far...) and the school voucher program (No! ahh, fail) as a way to promte competition between public and private schools.
• I oppose the adoptions of text books that include historical revisions or political correctness. (What does this mean? "Politically correct" is usually a republican code word)
• I oppose the concept of "social promotion"
• I oppose the involuntary use of teachers' union dues to support or fund candidate for politcial oice (Yes, this is copied straight from her web site) or their campaigns.
• I support the "Be there Program" for the increase of parent involvement. I DO NOT believe it takes a village to raies a child as my opponent Andy Zeigler states on his brochures and website. (Really, Zeigler says that? Wow, I might vote for him now)
  
• I oppose state income taxes. (What does this have to do with the School Board?)
  
• I support less government and bureaucracy. (Yes, clearly we spend too much on education...)

So yeah, please, don't vote for her.

Stuart Rowan

Ok, first off, I'm not sure I can vote for a guy who wears this tie:

But seriously, about all I can find on this guy is that he's an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene which is an evangelical denomination. While I find all evangelicals scary, I think this is especially scary when you're talking about a position like the school board. His campaign page is rather boring and his "issues" page are things that I think most people would agree with. He's clearly playing it safe - which is more of what I expect from someone running for a local nonpartisan office. So I'm not sure what to say about this guy - could be really bad, but he might be the best of our options because this next guy...

Andy Ziegler

is even more openly religious than the Nazarene guy because he believes "we need to share our resources, training, and opportunities with all schools including Charter schools, Religious, Pre-K and Early Intervention Programs." Yeah, sounds a little unconstitutional to me - but hey - Bush has gotten away with his faith-based thing - maybe Ziegler can do it too.

On the other hand, the rest of his campaign web site is pretty uncontroversial and guess what - he's a Software Engineer (degree from FIT). He never worked for Harris but his page does say he was awarded the coveted "Harris Preferred Supplier Award." That puts him in the same category as Jabil! Wait... is that a good thing?

Conclusion

So none of these people seem like particularly good options. I'm not sure what to recommend. Hannah thinks that Rowan is the least bad. Not sure what I think... Ziegler earns points for being a SW Engineer and the whole "it takes a village" thing that Kinder attacks him for - but his religious thing is scary and Rowan's a fucking minister. We have learned one thing though: don't vote for Kinder. Really, please.