Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 3, 1995                   TAG: 9511030041
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

READY TO VOTE FOR SCHOOL BOARD?

This newspaper doesn't doubt voters' good sense, given sufficient information to make an informed choice. But we did worry about the challenge facing citizens responsible for studying the philosophy, background and positions of each of the numerous candidates seeking election to school boards.

Inundated with relentless campaign news and irritating advertising from high-profile races, how many people, we wondered, would have the time or inclination to gain as solid an understanding of candidates' priorities as would accountable members of local governing bodies charged with making school-board appointments?

That battle, however, is over. Where the issue has been put to a vote, most localities have chosen to elect school boards. Nine counties in Western Virginia will be among 75 statewide with school-board candidates on the ballot next week.

Now the challenge facing eligible voters in these localities is to educate themselves about the candidates and their attitudes toward public education.

Voters in Montgomery County should be aware, for example, that Jack LeDoux, one of three candidates for the District E seat on the School Board, is chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Coalition. His son-in-law, Bob Anderson, is one of three candidates for the District B seat.

Both talk about the need to teach basics. (Can we be so bold as to declare, on behalf of all candidates in all school board races statewide, that schools need to teach children to read, write and figure?) But LeDoux has problems with the School Board proclaiming, in its vision statement, that "all students will enter school ready to learn." Violates parental rights, he protests. Heaven forbid that elementary schoolteachers should expect children to come ready to learn!

Want Bibles on every desk and division on the School Board? Elect LeDoux and Anderson. Fortunately, they have well-qualified opponents unburdened by association with Pat Robertson's agenda to elect Christian Coalition candidates to local boards across the country.

Speaking of divisiveness: Roanoke County School Board candidate Vern Jordahl, an anti-abortion-rights activist, already has forced the board to defend itself against his accusations, some of them distortions. Jordahl says he seeks election in part to help develop an educational program for the proposed new Cave Spring High School. Sorry, that's not what school boards are for.

Another Roanoke County candidate, John Reed in the Catawba District, agrees with Gov. George Allen that millions of dollars which Virginia could have received in federal Goals 2000 money would have come at the expense of state and local control of schools. Never mind that Virginia already gets close to $400 million in federal funds, and no black helicopters have landed in any schoolyard yet.

Voters who agree with these candidates should know where they stand. Voters who disagree also should know where they stand, and that there are good alternatives in these races.

But these are just four contests in two counties. Every eligible voter in every locality where school board races are being held should know their candidates' thoughts on a range of education issues. That will take homework, but it needs to be done. Deadline: Tuesday.

Keywords:
POLITICS