The Local Area Watch

Keeping the Fox in the Henhouse

River City residents have given up on the Grand Rapids Public Schools, if the dismal turnout for the May 2nd school board election is any evidence.  With less than 15,000 votes between them, pro-union candidates Monica Randles and Raynard Ross won the two open seats on the Grand Rapids Board of Education.  When they join the board in July, board members endorsed by the teachers union will constitute a majority.  In addition to Randles and Ross, the pro-union bloc will include current board members Tony Baker, Wendy Falb, Jon O’Connor, and Maureen Quinn Slade.

Mind you, the old crew was hardly anti-union and certainly not pro-taxpayer.  At a public meeting last month, the outgoing board reported that they had gotten together with Paul Helder, president of the teachers union, to plot out how to organize a union-cum-social justice coalition and then draft GRPS employees, students, and parents into a campaign to hammer politicians for more tax dollars.  More tax dollars for what?  To maintain salaries and benefits for Helder’s union members.

So the fox is already in the henhouse. 

School Board Election: Voting for Undertaker

The Grand Rapids Board of Education election is next Tuesday, May 3rd. Eight candidates are running for two 4-year-term seats. Your choices run from one incumbent to a semi-polished pair picked by the teachers union to a minister, a disgruntled mother, a working stiff, a kid, and finally a missing-in-action candidate (perhaps due to an alien abduction). In other words, the usual mix offering nothing much than the hackneyed tripe about too little money, too much racism, and, of course, it’s all about the children.

What none of the candidates seem to get is that the Grand Rapids public school system is a corpse.