There’s no waiting for democracy

March 28, 2006
By Billy Dennis

I recently complained about the danger of having defeated school board members continue to hold office until July.

It seems my fear was well-founded. The election was held last week, and two incumbents were defeated. But the by voting to renew its contract with Edison Schools, the old board essentially thwarted the will of the electorate. The new board almost certainly would have voted to notify Edison it was canceling.

I understand why some parents don’t want to see Edison go. They have little faith in the district to replicate the program being offered by Edison.

But Peoria School District 150 stood to save a million dollars a year by canceling its Edison contract. That’s a significant savings during a time the district is laying off teachers and closing school buildings.

It strikes me as both fiscally unsound and undemocratic to boot.

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3 Responses to “ There’s no waiting for democracy ”

  1. Tony on March 28, 2006 at 1:25 pm

    I agree with you on this one. That is a rather long wait time for such as small office. Its not like we need a transition team here. Lame duck boards often do things like this, looks like this is just more of the same.

  2. Carrie on March 30, 2006 at 8:41 pm

    I am amazed at how ignorant people continue to be about the Edison partnership in District 150. Money has never been the issue, it has always been about politics. As one board member said, even if Edison Schools, Inc. made its home in Peoria, Illinois, the union would still not be supportive. What every closed-minded person in Peoria needs to realize is that enrollment is dropping in Peoria. Parents are very discouraged with the number of real choices they have for their children. Washington Gifted is not a choice for every child, but the district still spends thousands of dollars testing children who are referred to Bradley for IQ testing. The district spends quite a bit of money for the 10 bus routes at Washington too. They also spend a huge amount of money by continuing to operate four high schools, even though our enrollment does not need four schools. Let’s talk about real waste in our district, not about what others perceive as being wasteful. I would challenge anyone to tell me that the achievment gains made in the Edison schools, particularly at Franklin-Edison, are nothing less than impressive. Education reform is so foreign in our community. When will everyone wake up and understand that the majority of our children are not getting educated as they should. If the district would have been studying the Edison schools, like they said they would so they could \

  3. Was District 150 land buy still illegal after all? » Peoria Pundit on May 24, 2006 at 11:53 pm

    [...] And I’d like to point out the obvious: School Board elections were held in mid-March, but the two new board members won’t take their seats until July. Were these board members able to take over at the beginning of May, then Peoria would probably not be in the mess that it is with this. Technorati Tags: Open Meetings Act [...]