- School Board race in Davenport needs to be shaken up –
- End process of not foxes but voracious wolves “guarding” the chicken coop — teachers unions
- Those who school your children, rule the world
- Be very concerned about Marxist policies being injected into curricula in loco parentis and in defiance of state directives
- Local school boards need to govern, protect children from culture rot
- Don’t allow School districts to spend your tax dollars to employ teachers who defy state education policy to teach doctrine that goes against your values
- Potential for organized effort on behalf of write-in candidates to carry the day
First a glimpse at local municipal election prospects — not good particularly in Davenport
Looking at the Scott County Auditor candidate listing on the Election Central web portal we see less than vibrant interest again for local municipal seats. Many races are unopposed.
The city of Davenport primary Election Day is October 5th. There is only one race with interest sufficient for a primary — 7th Ward which is the vacated seat of new County Auditor Kerri Tompkins. See summary comments below.
Davenport has a non-partisan council and mayoral election, as in candidates do not run as Republican or Democrat. That is not a good government practice as candidates too often come to the process without a discernible platform or philosophy honed by useful party processes or an identification that is easily transmitted to voters who need something to go on.
Nothing prevents the candidates from advertising a party affiliation but for some naive reason few ever do. The Republican Party in lieu of an official return to partisan city elections (ended several decades ago) ought to foster candidates, proceed to vet them via precinct committee meeting and endorse those meeting appropriate criteria. Democrats are not shy about involving themselves officially, sub-rosa and through proxies and Republicans need to be aggressive in doing so. More detail and observation on the mayoral race in Davenport in another post.
They teach your children
As regards school board races there is more apparent interest (the flavor unknown without surveys to help discern) in the better performing districts Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley and North Scott. Theirs are vibrant by comparison to the Davenport Community School District (DCSD), an ongoing underperforming district.
School board interest may be a phenomenon of people voting with their feet – moving or now voting with open enrollment for higher performing school districts and due to the disastrous fall in Iowa performance, once a leader in the nation, the move to private and charter schools and home schooling. The flight from public schools and perhaps interest not so ironically aggravated by school boards that insist on unhealthy mask mandates.
Perhaps exemplifying this is Bettendorf which is not pursuing mask mandates and Davenport which has imposed them — the latter a five to two decision by the way.
There are three spots open for the Bettendorf School District and seven people running. Davenport also has three spots open but only four people running. It is the level of interest that impresses us apart from any philosophies being pursued. We wish we had a more of a read on the latter.
There is hope for Davenport Schools if people get behind a write-in effort for a slate of candidates now afoot. Given the usual turn-out for school board races a successful effort is quite possible. More on that in a coming post.
In the meantime a protest of DCSD policy will be held this evening at the DCSD building Main and Locust. We plan to attend.
