THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605030184
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: IDA KAY'S PORTSMOUTH
SOURCE: IDA KAY JORDAN
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
How do you decide how to vote in Tuesday's School Board and City Council elections?
We hope you find our Election Guide, wrapped around today's issue of The Currents, helpful in that decision-making.
The Portsmouth Branch of the American Association of University Women did its own survey of the School Board candidates to help members make up their minds.
Looking at the results of that survey was enlightening.
First off, four of the 16 candidates didn't respond. Aside from North E. West, who has said he really isn't running, the others were women: N. Gaile Bishop, Mary Nelson and Carol Young. That was interesting since AAUW is an organization of women. But the reason for mentioning this is to say only 12 candidates responded to the questions.
Among those questions were queries on the teaching of creationism as an alternative to the theory of evolution and on prayer in public schools. Since the AAUW's position is that neither has a place in the public schools, these questions were stumbling blocks to scoring with the AAUW for most candidates.
Only three of the 12 responding candidates gave the AAUW's ``right answer'' on creationism and three others on prayer.
Family-life education got mixed responses with only four of 12 responding candidates favoring AAUW's stand that students should learn about both ``traditional and non-traditional families'' and about human sexuality and reproduction.
I guess I get a little concerned that people running for School Board are like people running for anything else: They try to say what they think the public wants to hear or try to avoid saying what they don't want to hear.
On hot topics like creationism, sex education and prayer, people respond in a way to keep the one-issue people off their backs.
All of them have high aims: quality education for all, more funding for the schools, seeking quality teachers and getting more money for them - things like that.
Most of us would agree with the goals, but few of us have any idea how to implement them. I think that's probably true of most of the candidates.
One thing we must remember when we hear candidates speak at forums about what they are going to do is that it takes a majority of any City Council or School Board to do anything.
People with special interests should be wary of voting for one-issue candidates or for those who promise what they probably cannot achieve.
Of course, the AAUW survey is useful. Over a period of time, voters can elect enough people with certain persuasions to change the majority vote. Members of an organization like AAUW tend to stick with a project, so conceivably they will know over a period of time what notions will prevail on the School Board.
However, most people of reason find they must modify their stances on many issues once they join a board and become privy to the facts of a matter. Because of this, some people become one-term members, losing their support when they alter their positions or when they can't deliver on extremes.
I've thought of all this as I have thought about voting for School Board members. As I see it, at least half the candidates (maybe more) are good, qualified people. Having narrowed my list to this, I now must try to decide who's the most knowledgeable, not so much about schools but about government and how it works. Portsmouth is lucky that it does have a number of candidates with special knowledge - an education professor, a former school teacher, a long-time bureaucrat now retired, a former academic dean - all sorts of expertise. Looking at qualifications makes it tough to choose.
Next I have to decide who has given the strongest indications of interest in the entire city and all its schools. We don't need board members representing any one area of the city or pushing for any particular school. Actually, I've kept this in mind as I've listened to the candidates, and I have a mental list of those I believe to be more generally oriented. With so many people running, I again have to sort out which ones sound more like I think.
It all boils down to the fact that picking the people who will receive your votes is not any easy thing. But it's worth the effort if we get elected School Board members who can function in the best interest of all.
Because sorting through all the pros and cons takes time and effort, it becomes tempting simply to vote for those we know or like - or perhaps not to vote at all.
But I consider my votes important and intend to cast them with the expectation that my choices will be able to do great things for this community! by CNB