Make Your Voice Heard At The Polls on Tuesday
There's a clear choice in the Nov. 2 special election for the CISD school board, and that's the candidate who stands for accountability, transparency and responsibility.
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Vote for Andrew Yeager
Two weeks ago I was interviewed by a former Carroll Dragon and current out-of-state college student about the Special Election for filling the Place 7 vacancy on the CISD School District Board of Trustees. She’d apparently seen online that I had endorsed Andrew Yeager.
The questions were wide-ranging, but my main points were summed up in the answer to “Why are you supporting Andrew Yeager?”
“First, he offered to meet with me and discuss his platform; his opponent did not. But, most important, I’m supporting Yeager because he best represents my desire for accountability and transparency from CISD. For too long we’ve had the wrong butts in the wrong seats and what that gotten us is the mess we have right now: a lack of focus, a lack of accuntability, a lack of responsibiity, and a lack of transparency.
“It’s no secret that our school board meetings are a running joke on the national news multiple times each month not because of the PAC or DATS or SARC, but because the administration failed—over and over and over—to do the job they were hired to do. Instead of enforcing the Student Code of Conduct, they made it impossibly difficult to file grievances and overall failed to protect our most vulnerable kids from bullying and mistreatment. That has to stop. And now.
“There has also been little transparency and accountability with regard to finances. For example, how is it that our teachers are some of the lowest paid in DFW? What’s so much more important than retaining our best educators? We all need to know. The addition of Yeager to the board helps ensure we remain on track to become the district we expect to be.”
Polls are open Tuesday Nov. 2 from 7 am to 7 pm.
2021 Bond Election
There is a lot of misinformation on the Web—mainly Facebook, and peddled by former elected officials, but I digress. Here’s the deal: The No. 1 question we all get hit with when running for office (city council) is “What are y’all doing to protect more green space?” (A desire to have more passive green space also shows up in our Citizen’s Survey.) We make clear that landowners have a right to develop their land, which is often met with frowns. One of the best options for ensuring an area of land remains undeveloped is to purchase parcels to preserve as passive parks, which is what the bond is designed to do.
What it is not, however, is a blank check for the council to use as it sees fit.
In a nutshell, the bond is simply a tool for the city to use should the opportunity arise. What’s more, the bond is only issued if the opportunity presents itself. The council is putting control in the voters’ hands.
If you want more passive land and think the bond is a great idea, go for it; if you don’t care that we purchase more land using a bond, vote no. It’s your choice.
Quote of the Week
“Both sides have to quit taking the most extreme behavior on the other side as typical.” —Robert Wright on the The Glenn Show podcast, Non-Zero-Sum Thinking on the World Stage
I love this quote. It highlights a problem prevalent in local and national politics: We consider the worst example from our opponents’ camp as the most representative avatar of the group. It’s easy to do, but it’s very unfair and makes it even more difficult to find common ground.
Instead, I look for the most reasonable voices on the other side and then work to engage them in conversation. They can often influence all but the most extreme members of the group to tamp down the noise and look for ways to constructively work together.
However, it’s not a high yield/high ROI endeavor; It works about 15% of the time.