What is your platform?

The question was asked of me, by a friend who takes elections seriously.  I don't. I think elections are routinely manipulated by powerful people in their own interests and I really have no expectation that they can be beat at their own game on their home field.

I am therefore, running on my own terms.

I am not going to play the politics game.  I'm not going to beg for money and favors from strangers or friends.  My objective is to get ethics, standards and accountability on the table for open and honest public discussion.

If anyone really wants to help, they need to spread the word on the school board election and the candidate forums.  Ask questions about ethics, standards and accountability in the APS.

Ask and listen to their response to the question;

Are you willing to hold yourself accountable
as a role model of student standards of conduct?
a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct

Are you willing to walk the talk?  Are you willing to show students by your personal example, what it looks like to;

 "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!"

Will you hold yourself accountable to to those standards or to any standards by due process; free of appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety, free of undue influence and, powerful enough to hold you accountable, even against your will?

It is an important question because the senior administration and school board are not now, actually, honestly accountable even to the law.  They spend millions and millions of dollars (that could be spent in classrooms instead) in courtrooms litigating settlements containing admissions of no guilt of incompetence or corruption.

And, that needs to change.

It will not end until the school board and superintendent provide for themselves, honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

That will not happen if ethics, standards and accountability are kept out of the election discourse yet again.  The cover up of corruption in the leadership of APS' publicly funded private police force, has stayed out of Journal coverage since the election in 2007.

However ends the election, so ends your influence in the hiring of the next superintendent.  A man or woman who will or, will not bring honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct, to the board, to the senior administration, to educators and to students.

There are those in this election who do not want to talk about ethics standards and accountability in the APS.  There are those who don't want to talk about the inescapable responsibilities of the very senior-most role models of student standards of conduct.

They enjoy the aid and abet of those who you'd expect to be looking into the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the APS; the establishments media; the Journal for one.  They relentlessly refuse to investigate and report on the scandal, even to report there is no scandal.

No scandal would be newsworthy too, right?

Ethics, standards and accountability need to be on the table for discussion.

I intend that they will be;
in time for the election and
long before they hire the next
superintendent; in a series of
meetings they'll be holding
in secret from stakeholders.




photo Mark Bralley