Arkansas Blog

Any word on turnout today? Both campaigns had their supporters on the street corners during the am drive.

ARK. BLOG: A lot of people are calling and going door to door (in the wrong neighborhood in the case of at least one Daugherty backer, I understand.) I wouldn't hazard a guess on turnout. I think it would be a wonderful thing if turnout overall increased 50 percent, as it did for early voting. That means some 2,700 votes in this Zone, versus around 1,800 the first time. The more democratic the choice the better, regardless of outcome. Should that happens, it means the winning candidate increased turnout over the first election by 600 votes. That would be a mighty increase for a single school board race. I just don't have a clue.

I am curioius what the daily paper might editorialize should Daugherty win. Will the district then be run by a gang of 1,400? Will it suggest all voters were dupes, incompetents, liars, opponents to progress? Kind of the soft bigotry of low expectations to conclude a group of voters can't make principled, informed decisions, isn't it?

The outcome and fallout both promise to be interesting. As I've written in a column that had to go press before the polls closed, Anna Swaim seems the better choice. But I was sympathetic to the Daugherty candidacy in many ways. Much of the abuse that has been heaped on him stems from his support of the removal of Superintendent Roy Brooks, a move I favored. Brooks was a poor leader of the district, no matter what platitudes he uttered. LR had made scant progress toward being the best urban school district in America, his lip service to the contrary, and he'd offended important constituencies. He also had served cronies, at times by backroom deals. Funny that the DOG didn't object when the backroom deals were with the publisher of the newspaper. They're objectionable only if John Walker is involved.

The difference in your so-called "cronies", Max, is that Hussman put money INto the LRSD to benefit teachers, while Walker has taken millions of dollars OUT of the LRSD (our tax dollars), effectively taking that money out of the classroom and the district's payroll. And how exactly was that self-serving for Hussman - please share how he profited from giving that money to teachers?

SMDT,
Hussman wants to break the teacher's union.

Exactly how does Hussman or any other successful business man in this town benfit from personally destroying the LRSD again?

Business men love power and with a 300 million dollar budget thats power.

I won't disagree with that but how do they benefit by bring the district down? Everyone seems to think that businesses have a hidden agenda. I own a small business that has donated products to the district. Everything I can do to help out benefits the community and my business in turn.

tiredofbs
Its great what you are doing, but I don't think its to being the dictrict down as much as control who gets the contracts. The gang of four has stopped all the good old boys wheeling and dealing behind closed doors plans.

Smdtm,

Were you paying attention when Hussman was putting his money into the LRSD? Did he approach the school board with his ideas, or did he broker a deal in the back room with Supt. Brooks?

And although the WH program did benefit some teachers, I do not cotton to any corporate interest circumventing the democratic process for any project in the public schools.

If you ask me (which, I realize nobody did), the whole pile of shit between the school board and the most recent former superintendent can be attributed greatly to that stunt.

Call me crazy, but I can't get past feeling that Hussman had an ulterior motive.

OK, just somebody tell me - what was that ulterior motive? And how did Hussman benefit?

In contrast, do you think it's better that John Walker has convinced the majority of the board to settle any lawsuit filed by any disgruntled employee - without even examining the merits of the case? THAT, my friend, is an ulterior motive!

One ulterior motive would be to bust up the LRCTA. Hussman seems to like the idea of making public education fit into a business paradigm. Public schools should not be run like a corporation.